In the essay Holland uses this quote “sleep, for a cat, is a worthy occupation in itself.”(Holland). In this quote from the essay Holland describes the human as a cat. Since cats have the reputation for being aloof it show that Americans can relate to a cat at the end of the day for the reason of not having that benefit of getting a nap throughout a busy and packed
The relationship between the black cat and The Tale-tell Heart, there is definitely similarities with these short stories because both narrators claim their sanity and then contradicts themselves by acting unusual and bizarre.The Tale-Tell Heart seems to focus more on his sanity and the “Evil eye”. Both the Tell-Tale Heart and The Black Cat have the theme of insanity, most of his stories are also told in first person The Tell Tale Heart is about a man being disturbed by an eye, the eye of the old man is harmless but drives the narrator mad and the eye seems to be a problem. Then the old man’s body is hidden within the house and hidden from police and eventually the narrator claims insanity with the heart beating faster and louder.
In this story, there are two cats, Madame Phloi and Thapthim, and a fat man who hates the cats and always threatens the cats. There is no idea of revenge in the story until the fat man lures Thapthim to the edge of the window and makes him fall. While it is not said in the story, it can be inferred that this is when revenge starts. The fat man then tries to lure Madame Phloi to the edge of the window, but Madame Phloi moves away when he lunges at her and he falls to his death. In this story, revenge can be said to be used in an innocent way.
In the third one, The Black Cat, a man, who was a suffered from alcoholism, was obsessed about the cat that he killed and was unsatisfied by a new cat he got, hoping it to be a sort of a makeshift for his dead cat. All three stories bear striking similarities, as well as noteworthy differences in terms of the contributing elements. In all of the stories, the narrator had a different perspective towards the obsession which led to madness. In The Black Cat, the narrator was the one to fall under the hands of obsession and showed signs that he was aware of his descent, but was completely helpless to stop it. In The Tale-Tell Heart, the narrator was victimized by obsession, but unlike in The Black Cat, he showed no indication that he was able to understand anything other than of his own
For example the main character in “The Black Cat” said “My immediate purpose is to place before the world, plainly, succinctly, and without comment, a series of mere household events. In their consequences, these events have terrified-have tortured-have destroyed me” (3). Similarly, in “The Tell-Tale Heart” the story is said in the first-person point of view. Therefore, an example of that is “True!-nervous-very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?”(3). Both stories start from the final and they are both told by their narrator.
It seems that he almost got away with it, but the black cat appeared with what seemed as a corpse of his dead wife. Black cats are usually a symbol of good or bad luck. The character did not know that since at first he was having the best time with both cats he had. But then he felts a sudden change in his personality and believed it was all because of the cat. He felt as if he was under a curse from the black cat and was stuck under it while the cat still roamed around his house.
Unjust acts committed lead to worse living conditions in their next life. This story uses an adaptation of that belief, and that is that horrid, unjust acts, like those committed by the narrator of the story, will not go unpunished forever. With each unjust deed that the narrator commits, an action of great consequence soon follows. This is shown when he hills the cat “One morning, in cool blood, I slipped a noose about its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree; -- hung it with the tears streaming from my eyes, and with the bitterest remorse at my heart; -- hung it because I knew that it had loved me, and because I felt it had
Edgar Allan Poe 's The Black Cat and The Tell-Tale Heart are very similar in the way that they portray insanity. In The Black Cat the narrator was an introvert that becomes an alcoholic and becomes “insane” when he starts to not feel any emotions when he does anything, cruel or not. In The Black Cat the narrator did things that many would consider insane, such as taking a cats’ eye out or hanging the cat because you love it. The narrator, despite being an alcoholic, did things that even if you were intoxicated would make you insane to be ok with. The narrator, in a drunken stupor, took the black cats’ eye out, then afterwards, after feeling some remorse at least, decided to hang the cat because he loved it.