Honors English 9 Literature: "The Black Cat"
What happens to the speaker's temperament? Why? How does this change affect the pets?
He becomes moody and irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others. Why, because of alcohol. His love for pets turns to rage. He begins to neglect his animals, even Pluto He becomes an alcoholic and his love for the pets turns to rage.
How does the speaker feel about having hurt the cat the first time?
He felt half horror and half remorse for what he did. He's ashamed. He said it was an equivocal (undecided) feeling.
Where does the speaker decide to hide the body?
He hides the body of his wife in the wall of the cellar and covers the wall back up with bricks to make it look like nothing had happened
How does the speaker feel about the absence of the cat?
He is overjoyed that the cat is gone. He sleeps well and does not miss the cat at all. Moreover, he is not at all shaken by the fact that he has murdered his wife.
What is the narrator's immediate purpose in writing his "most wild yet most homely narrative"?
He was going to die the next day and he wanted to provide the world a concise series of the mere household events
Why does the speaker develop a hatred for all things?
His guilt drowns him and he sinks into nightmarish thoughts. The moodiness he felt before has increased to hatred of all things. He is tormented by his mind; his evil thoughts consume him
What happens when the speaker tries to hit the cat with an ax?
His wife grabs his arm to stop him, and he buried the ax in her brain. She died.
How does the speaker begin to feel about the cat? What strange characteristics of the cat intensifies these feelings?
The cat follows him home and he was fine with it at first but then he started to dislike it after he noticed it only had one eye. He begins to dislike the cat because its fondness annoys him.
What happens to the speaker the night after the abuse of the cat? What is the speaker's mindset after this event?
The narrator's house burns down the night after the abuse of the cat. He is distraught.
Climax
he kills his wife
Exposition
he likes all animals especially cats; Pluto, the black cat, is his favorite; he says he's going to die the next day
Rising Action (initial incident)
-Alcoholic -gouging Pluto's eye out+hanging Pluto -house fire -gets new cat to replace Pluto -white spot on new cat in the shape of a gallow
Who becomes' the speaker's favorite pet?
-His black cat named Pluto 🐱 Pluto is a clever kitty. The name represents the Roman god of the underworld
What makes the speaker "the jest of his companions"? How is the speaker indulged by his parents? How does he spend most of his time?
-Jest: a joke. Maybe they laughed at his sensitivity. Always directing a kindness towards his animals, probably not the type like a rough, stereotypical boy. -He was indulged with animals that his mother gave him. -He spent most of his time with his pets
What distinguishes the new cat from Pluto? How does this distinguishing feature change shape? What does this feature finally look like?
-The new cat has a large white spot -The shape on his chest morphs into a gallows which reminds him of the crime he has committed. -It's foreshadowing that this will be the way that he dies after he is found out that he was the one that murdered his wife.
Who comes to the speaker's house? What do they do? What is the speaker's reaction?
-The police come and search the house hoping to find the missing wife -They search the entire house 3 of 4 times and then went down to the cellar to cover every inch of his house -The speaker is very calm. As calm as an innocent person. His heart beats regularly, he doesn't twitch a muscle. He acts as if he does nothing
Falling Action
-he buries his wife in the wall of his basement -he sleeps peacefully after murdering his wife -the cat disappears -police investigate the house and he's calm and overconfident that he won't get caught
Conclusion
-the cat in the wall screams while the police are there and they tear into the wall to find the cat and the body of the wife -he's arrested and hung
What figure does the speaker see? What is on the figure?
After the fire, he sees the figure of a cat on the only surviving wall. Later, he sees a cat remarkably looking like Pluto but this cat has a white patch on his chest.
Why does the speaker hang the cat?
Because he knew it had loved him. Because he knew he was committing a sin. Pluto began avoiding the narrator.
What feature do Pluto and the black cat have in common
They are both missing an eye
