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Perverseness In 'The Black Cat' By Edgar Allan Poe

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Perverseness In 'The Black Cat' By Edgar Allan Poe
“The Perverseness that got it’s own way”
“I do not expect or ask anyone to believe the wild, yet ordinary story I am about to write. I would be mad indeed to expect it. Even I cannot believe what happened. Yet I am not mad-and I know I am not dreaming. But tomorrow I die, and today I hope to unburden my soul.” In the story “The Black Cat”, Edgar Allan Poe conveys the message that all people can experience the state of perverseness. Poe begins the story with the narrator in a jail cell, where he has been thrown in jail for killing his wife. Prior to present time, the narrator use to be a kind man, until being consumed and controlled by his alcoholic drinking. Poe uses symbolism, hyperbole, and oxymoron to show that everyone carries perverseness …show more content…
Hyperbole is used to exaggerate for effect or to not meant to be taken literally. Poe uses Hyperbole to add effect or to exaggerate to explain what he means. In paragraph twenty Pluto slowly recovered from losing his eye by his owner. It’s empty socket look frightening but on the bright side Pluto seemed that it was no longer in pain. The quote of this paragraph is “He went about the house as usual, but, as might expected, he fled in terror when I came near.”(20) This means that Pluto goes and does what he does everyday around the house. When it sees its owner it runs away from its owner with terror. For it may be getting a vision of when it’s owner had cut out it’s eye from the socket without regret. Poe also uses hyperbole to things that do not mean to be taken literally. In paragraph eighty two the narrator decided to not say nothing for what had happened. Instead with no thinking he rushes to the other side of the wall. Every one that was with him had froze in fear to later taking down the wall. “It is foolish to speak of my own thoughts. Feeling faint, I staggered to the wall on the other side of the room. For an instant the group on the stairs stood frozen in fear.”(p82) What this means is that the narrator did not want to say anything for it may make the situation worse than it is. Without thinking of a plan to leave he rushes to a wall hoping that maybe he can get away. For the people on the stairs they rush to the wall to take it apart to reveal what it has been hiding this whole time. Poe uses hyperbole in his story to make the reader think twice of what the message of the story actually means. So far Poe had used two literary devices but there is one more and it is
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