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chaska
chaska
Student
High School - 11th Grade

What is the significance of the fire in Edgar Allan Poe's story "The Black Cat"? There's a symbolic phenomenon that I don't seem to understand.

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Posted by chaska on Wednesday October 28, 2009 at 1:01 PM and tagged with edgar allan poe, the black cat.

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  1. scarletpimpernel Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    The fire itself in "The Black Cat" is not immensely significant, but its effect is.  On the very night that the narrator hangs his once-beloved cat Pluto, his house catches on fire.  The entire house with the exception of one wall is destroyed.  When the narrator approaches a crowd gathered around the remaining wall, he notices that a figure on the wall, almost as if an artist had created it, is drawing their attention.  He states that it is

    "the figure of a gigantic cat. The impression was given with an accuracy truly marvellous. There was a rope about the animal's neck."

    The strange phenomenon is simply that one wall remains which bears a striking, supernaturally created image of a hanging cat.  The narrator sees this incident as his dead cat pointing him out from the grave, and it causes him to slide further into his insanity.

    As a side note, the fire adds to Poe's hell motif in this story.  His first cat bears the name of the god of the underworld, and the fire creates a sense of certain damnation for the narrator's actions.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/black-cat/
    http://www.enotes.com/black-cat/summary

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    Posted by scarletpimpernel on Wednesday October 28, 2009 at 1:39 PM

  2. vampiric
    vampiric

    Doesnt the fire cast a shadow of the Cat causeing it to seem bigger?

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    Posted by vampiric on Wednesday October 28, 2009 at 2:18 PM