Edgar Allan Poe's Short Story
Oleh :
PATRIA SUPRIYOSO
NIM A1A 150.200
UNIVERSITAS AL GHIFARI
BANDUNG
2016
Introduction
Poe’s "The Black Cat" (1843), the corpus
of our study, is a worthy symbolic Short story in which symbolism invades all
its components. A story of a man who had a particular love for animals and had
a lot of pets one of them is a black cat named Pluto. The man’s attitude became
progressively bad and drinking alcohol made it worse. One night, drunk, he took
out one of the cat’s eyes with a pen and hangs the cat from a tree the day
after. Then a fire took place and the man’s house and his possessions were
lost. Then he gets another cat to replace the first cat yet the latter reminded
him with his bad deed and made him feel guilty so he decides to kill the cat
but his wife stops his arm. In a rage, he strikes his wife in the head with an
axe and kills her. Through this story, Edgar Allan Poe uses symbols to express
social and spiritual status at that time of his work.One of the most skillful
ways in which Poe develops his type of romanticism in his story "The Black
Cat" (1843).
In literature, symbolism basically carries the
meaning of the literary device that writers use to convey their messages
indirectly by using symbols, whether for the sake of decorating the work in
order to give it an artistic beauty and aesthetic taste or for any other
purposes such as criticizing society behind those symbols to avoid troubles and
problems that may fall upon (Fadaee, E. 2011)
The analysis of any literary work requires the
examination of the writer’s vocabulary, his style of writing and his language.
Poe’s"The Black cat" (1843) is full of figures of speech, especially
symbolism. The goal of this essay is to make learners aware of the meaning of
the symbolism, and make them mindful of the way recognizing and interpretations
of symbols in any literary work. Thus, our study attempts to deal with the
investigation of black cat as a symbol in Edgar Allan Poe’s work.
Definition of Symbolism
Symbolism is a literary device regarded
as the most aesthetic device that the American writers focused on in their
writings; it gives them freedom to add double levels of meanings to their work:
a literal one that is self-evident and the symbolic one whose meaning is far
more profound than the literal one. The symbolism, therefore, gives
universality to the characters and the themes of a piece of literature.
Symbolism in literature evokes interest in readers as they find an opportunity
to get an insight of the writer’s mind on how he views the world and how they
think of common objects and actions, having broader implications (Todorov, T.,
1982)
A symbol is a literary device that contains several
layers of meaning, often concealed at first sight, and is representative of
several other aspects/ concepts/ traits than those that are visible in the
literal translation alone. A symbol is a person, object or event that suggests more
than its literal meaning. In other words, it is something that has two levels
of meaning. Determining the meaning of a symbol (or if something is a symbol at
all) is often a matter of close reading and interpretation--the reader must
pick up on the contextual clues supplied by the writer.
Symbols do shift their meanings depending on the
context they are used in. “A chain”, for example, may stand for “union” as well
as “imprisonment”. Thus, symbolic meanings of an object or an action are
understood by when, where and how they are used. It also depends on who reads
them. (Whitehead, A. N., 1927)
Freud (2003) said that the symbolism is the
difference between the two, which is the broader term, what activity may
properly be as "symbolic". But this picture of disorder should not
lead us to agree too readily that there can be no general theory of symbolism.
Instead, by considering the definitions of symbolism from two different
perspectives in turn, the first an overview both of the scope of the subject
matter and of the extent of the disorder, the second allowing a convergence on
the real centre of controversy.
Interpretation of the Symbol “The Black
Cat”
1.
The title
Symbolism is always an integral part of any Poe
stories. There is more than one major symbol in the story; the most obvious of
symbolic reference in this story is the title itself, “The Black Cat” since
onyx cats have long connoted bad luck and misfortune.http://www.poedecoder.com/essays/blackcat/
The title prepares the reader to be on the lookout
for the black cat – it suggests that the cat is important to the story. This
might sound obvious, but what if the story was called "A Woman
Murdered," or "An Unhappy Home," or "Why I Stopped
Drinking"? The first would focus attention on the narrator's nameless
wife, the second on the idea of "home," and the third on the issue of
the narrator's drinking. All these are important aspects of the story and all
are connected to the cat. But, the title of this short story “the black cat
“would still take center stage of this tale.
The
title only references one black cat. Does this mean that there is only one cat
in the story? or is it possible that Pluto did not really die? In this last
scenario Pluto somehow survives the hanging and escapes the plaster cast/wall
art (in which we last saw him). Then, either on purpose or by coincidence, the
cat meets the man at the place where he's drinking.
2. The
character of the story
The
story is large open for various interpretations. That might be why "The
Black Cat"still accepted, over a 160 years after its publication. The
title is simple, and easy, but we canstill use it to open up this scary story.
2.1
The cat (Pluto)
The
first cat’s name is Pluto. This seems to be a too uncommon name to hold
nomeaning or symbolism at all. Poe rarely named characters in his stories,
which might havebeen to make the tales universal. However, when he did give
them names this was of great19 importance. “Like many other writers, Poe was
keenly aware of significant underlyingimplications in names, so he sometimes
used place names that extend beyond face value”.In Greek Mythology Pluto is a
euphemism for Hades who was the god of the dead andthe underworld. The links to
hell and the dominion of the dead are something that is pointedto numerous
times in the story.
When
also Pluto becomes a victim of the violence, he is deprived of one of his eyes
byhis drunken owner. Eyes were a commonly used symbol in Poe’s literature. By
blinding Pluto the narrator seems not only to want to punish him; he also aims
toblind his closest and dearest pet, whom to he does not want to reveal his
deterioration andchange in disposition. At the same time one might interpret
the mutilation of Pluto as asolution for the narrator to get rid of a mirror in
the cat’s eye. In his once beloved and closefriend he sees the disappointment
and confusion for the change and violence that the catexperiences. The deed had
not such an effect as he had wished for and by blinding Pluto hesets in motion
the cause and effect that leads him to his own death, his
self-destruction.Karma is the law of cause and effect; something that the
narrator is reluctant to admit as beingthe reason for his circumstances: “I am
above the weakness of seeking to establish a sequenceof cause and effect,
between the disaster and the atrocity”. Yet there seems to be a fear ofgetting
in return what he had given to others, and as it happens Pluto’s demise
evidentlybecomes the narrator’s fate.
Pluto’s
one-eyed appearance refers to another one-eyed person. In Norse mythologyOdin,
also called the terrible one, was once a god of the dead, the ones who died in
battlereached Valhalla over which Odin was the leader. He was a very wise god.
He could see all that took place on earth and in heaven, with the help of his
two ravens. Odin wanted to gain the wisdom of the depths as well and sacrificed
one of his eyes to the well of wisdom which was guarded by the giant Mimer.
Through his sacrifice he became the god of foresight. However, Odin’s quest for
wisdom did not end there. He still wanted to gain the wisdom ofthe occult,
which only was possessed by those who were dead. To gain that knowledge, Odin
hanged himself in Yggdrasill, an ash tree which surrounded the whole world,
speared his side and hanged for nine days before he was resurrected with the
knowledge in his possession.
The
similarities between Pluto and Odin are the loss of one eye, the hanging
andResurrection. Even though the twice might only be a fantasy, he is the exact
image of Plutoand can therefore be interpreted as have been brought back from
the dead. The scaffold isrecurrent through the story. Pluto’s double has a
white mark on his chest which grows withtime into the shape of a gallows and in
addition, the only thing which remains of thenarrator’s house after the fire is
an imprint of a gallows. These recurrent images of thegallows add a red thread
to the story. It becomes Pluto’s fate as well as the narrator’s. Thislinked to
Odin’s sacrifice for the knowledge of the dead offers yet a dimension of
theunderworld. Pluto is killed to gain the knowledge of the dead and come back
to force thenarrator to experience the torments of hell. The narrator cannot
escape from his deeds as thereare constant reminders which appear to torture
him with guilt. Like Odin, Pluto might havegained inner sight and the ability
to read the narrator’s mind by the forced sacrifice of his eye,at least in the
mind of the narrator. The cat already owns the knowledge of his
owner’sdisposition. The transformation is apparent to all who meets him. It is
only the narrator whobelieves his own concealment of his alteration. One might
even bring it so far as to interpretthe narrator, at times, to be blind towards
his own self.
When
the personality of Pluto’s owner is altered, he tries to avoid the narrator in
fearof violence. Their changed relationship infuriates the narrator who
punishes Pluto by cuttingout an eye. The narrator is tossed back and forward in
his steady decline of his mind. Heseems to have surrendered to the supernatural
powers that possesses him and drives him intomadness. As he hangs Pluto in the
tree, his eyes cry for the action he is committing and hisheart ache for the
knowledge that there was no reason that instigated the deed. Here his soulseems
to penetrate his hardening surface and his eyes cannot lie. He knows he is
committing a sin and he seeks punishment for his thoughts and actions; for the damnation
and alienationfrom repentance.
2.2
The Other Cat
Second
black cat is some kind of supernatural version of Pluto. How, we might
ask,could the second black cat be missing an eye, if he isn't Pluto undead?
There is a possibilitythat Pluto never died. But, the narrator tells us that
Pluto was not only hanged, but l hangingall day and night, and then somehow
embedded in the plaster wall thereafter. It'spretty doubtful Pluto survived. So
what about the missing eye? Well, if you think about it, inPoe's time there
were probably plenty of stray cats with missing eyes. (http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/describe-characters-black-cat-by-edgar-allan-poe-473277)
The
second cat couldhave been abused by a previous owner. Or he could have lost it
in a fight with another cat, orsome other kind of accident .we do not deny the
possibility of the supernatural – we willdiscuss this next – but to focus too
heaven it distracts us from the narrator's abuse of thecreature. Interestingly,
the man's own account the cat seems to work against a supernaturalpossibility.
This is the man's description of the cat voice coming from inside the tomb:[It
was]at first muffled and broken, like the sobbing of a child, and then quickly
swelling into one long, loud, and continuous scream, half of horror and half of
triumph, such as might have arisen only out of hell…If the cat was such a
cunning monster, why would he 1) wait so long before crying out, and 2) cry
like a baby when he did cry? If you were a poor animal, on the verge of release
from being buried alive, wouldn't you be both horrified and triumphant? This
terrible moment is effective in making us think of the cat as an innocent victim.
2.3
Pluto as a Child
The
cat might also be an allegory for a child. We have notice that the man and his
wife do not have any children. This story is concerned with the idea of home
and family, and children, like animals, are at the mercy of the adults in
charge of them. Poe himself did not have children, and children seem mostly
absent from his work. In paragraph 31, the narrator even likens the second
black cat's cry to "the sobbing of a child".
But may God
shield and deliver me from the fangs of
the Arch-Fiend!
No sooner had the reverberation of my
blows sunk into
silence, than I was answered by a voice from
within the
tomb!—by a cry, at first muffled and broken,
like the sobbing
of a child, and then quickly swelling into
one long, loud,
and continuous scream, utterly anomalous
and inhuman –a
howl- a wailing shriek, half of horrorand
half of triumph,
such as might have arisen only outof
hell, conjointly
from the throats of the dammed in theiragony
and of the
demons that exult in the damnation (Poe 1843).
Conclusion
we
have attempted to analyze Poe’s short story and interpret the symbol of Black
Cat in his work, as title and character. It should be stated that in this story
every detail is indicated on purpose. Edgar Allan Poe makes use of such symbols
in the story as Black Cat to transmit his massage.
Referencies
Fadaee, E. (2011). Symbols, Metaphors and Simile in Literature. In English
andLiterature. Page 19 - 27
Sigmund,F. 2010. Dream Psychology.
http://www.gutenberg.org.and Art. USA: New American Library.
Todorov, T.,
1982, Symbolism and Interpretation,
New York: Cornell University press.
Whitehead, A. N., 1927,
Symbolism its Meaning and Effect,
Combridge: Bentley House, University Press.
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