Student Question
How do "The Black Cat" by Poe and "The Lottery" by Jackson use the Gothic genre to reveal human perversity?
Quick answer:
Both "The Black Cat" and "The Lottery" use the Gothic genre to illustrate the perversity of mankind. The two stories are both very similar in that they build suspense, use omens and portents, show intense emotions, and contain tyrannical males threatening helpless females. However, Poe's story is definitely more Gothic than Jackson's because it maintains a single focus on one man; Jackson's story uses an entire society to illustrate the theme. Jackson’s “The Lottery” shows how a town can be controlled by an unknown force. In this short story Shirley Jackson uses an ancient tradition called “the lottery” to show how a community can be controlled by a few people. Mrs.
Of the two stories, "The Black Cat" is definitely more Gothic, but "The Lottery" also uses elements of the Gothic genre. Both stories point to the perverse nature of humanity, but Poe's story does so by examining a single person while Jackson's story focuses on a perverse society.
The primary Gothic elements in "The Black Cat" are an atmosphere of mystery and suspense; omens or portents; intense emotion; a tyrannical male who threatens a helpless woman; and the suggestion of the supernatural. All these work together to expose the "perverseness" of the narrator. The suspense builds from the beginning when the reader knows the man is awaiting his hanging but must keep listening to the man's admittedly unreliable tale to find out what his crime was. The black cats themselves serve as omens or portents, especially since the man notes that his wife believed every black cat...
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was a witch. The fact that the second cat resembles the first, even having an injured eye, and that the form of a gallows grows upon its chest are Gothic-style omens or portents of the coming evil as well as reminders of the man's past crime. The emotion includes the narrator's sociopathic lack of emotion where he knows he should feel remorse but cannot seem to achieve it; fierce, murderous rage at the cats and then at his wife; and his glee at having literally covered up the brutal murder he committed. Obviously the man's attacking his wife with an axe when she had done nothing to provoke him is the height of the tyranny he has displayed toward her throughout the story. Whether the black cats are witches and whether the second cat is the reincarnation of the first are ways the story hints at a supernatural curse that punishes the man's perverseness.
In "The Lottery," the primary Gothic elements are an atmosphere of mystery and suspense; something like an ancient prophecy; omens and portents; intense emotions; and a woman threatened by a tyrannical male. The mystery builds as the reader wonders what the "lottery" is about, understanding that it is some type of ancient ritual that people have forgotten the purpose of but that still controls their lives. This aspect of allowing themselves to be controlled by an unknown force points to the perverseness of their society. Both the piles of stones and the old black box serve as portents of the evil that is to come. Mrs. Hutchinson is threatened not only by Mr. Summers but by all the males who take part in the murderous ritual without standing against it. Her intense emotions when her family name is drawn and then her own put the perversity of the society on display when no one will come to her aid or admit that their lottery is barbarous.
Both "The Black Cat" and "The Lottery" use elements of the Gothic to point to the perversity of mankind, using either a single man or an entire society to illustrate the concept.
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