大學英語專業(yè)畢業(yè)論文————埃德加愛倫坡————黑貓1

1、On the Role of the Black Cat in the Black Cat Abstract Edgar Allen Poe is an important American novelist, poet and critic in the nineteenth century. His large number of poems and short stories have been widely read and spread, especially his gothic stories with mystery and horror. In one of his clas

2、sics, the black cat, poe is skilled at mobilizing various elements in the fiction, using a variety of creative devices, to create a strong artistic effect. One of the most sophisticated ways in it is his employment of the selection of the image of the black cat, which is of significance for the stud

3、y of the symbolism, offering an valuable opportunity to appreciate the horror effect, also contributing to a good understanding of the theme of the story. My essay aims at exploring these roles of the black cat and finding out how does it come into developing.Key Words: Edgar Allen Poe, symbol, horr

4、or effect, theme Introduction It is truly proper to say that Edgar Allen Poe(1809-1849) was the most controversial and most misunderstood genius in American literary history. Nowadays, he is considered as one of the first modern literary theorists of America and praised as a genius for his brilliant

5、 works. However, at his times his works and himself were not fairly and objectively accepted and treated, criticized and despised by the temporary men of letters because of his eccentric literary style.Allen poe died young, but he suffered a lot from the deaths of his beloved ones and malicious atta

6、cks. Maybe, it is just his life tragedy that contributes to his unique aesthetic experience and writing principles, with which he wrote a large number of poems and short stories about death and horror. Among the short stories, it will be convenient to divide them into the broad types: horror tales,

7、tales of ratiocination,and tales of satire. The horror tales are the majority of all his short stories, also on which his reputation relies. His horror tales are of a special texture, not because he took advantage of the sophisticated elements from the European Gothic tradition, such as subterranean

8、 danger, burial alive, ghosts, and the curse from the past, but because he has fashioned these elements into the remarkable investigation of an abnormal psychological state and obsessional behaviour. In his preface to the original edition of Tales of Grotesque and Arabesque(1840), Poe hinted that th

9、e terror he was writing about comes not from Germany, but from the soul(Carlson 127). Indeed, it is the spirit in which Poes stories should be read.The Black Cat is one of his classics of horror, in which poe told a terrible story between a black cat and his master. At the beginning of the story the

10、 hero was a kind and docile animal-lover. After marriage with a congenial wife, they raised several animals, among which Pluto, the black cat, was his favor. After a few years of indulgence the protagonist caught drinking habits, temperament greatly changed, and began to reproach his wife, abuse the

11、 animal. Once drunken, he cut one eye of Pluto. Although the protagonist bred a deep stream of guilt and regret the PERVERSENESS ( p 10 ) of crime, he hanged the cat in his garden. Then he confronted another black cat looking like Pluto except for a piece of white mark on his neck. As time went, the

12、 protagonist found that his hatred for the second cat growing out of his control again; besides, the white mark became a clear shape of gallows. He wanted to kill the cat but manslaughtered his wife. In order to cover his crime he built the body into the wall, but the waillings of the cat revealed h

13、is crime and consigned him to the hangman. As is seen in the story, the black cat is endowed with many roles: the vehicle of symbols, the cause for the horror and the informer of the motif of the stories. Hence, it is not exaggerating to say that the image of the black cat plays an vital part in und

14、erstanding and appreciating the gist and the beauty of horror in the story. All the above functions of the black cat constitute the main body of my essay.As for he unique characteristics of the horror tale, there are quite a few researchers at home and broad. Since the Black Cat belongs to the genre

15、 of the Gothic fiction, some researchers have put it into the frame work of the Gotic literature(Merton, 1995). In their opinions, the black cat, Pluto serving as a mirror to reveal the nature of human, has remained consistent through hundreds of years. As to the traditional literary criticism, a fe

16、w researcher use such literary theories, as romanticism, formalism, symbolism, etc to analyse the black cat in Poes work(Damsry,1983; Jernigan, 1994). Some researchers try to use the psychological method to analyse the enrooted horror in the heros spiritual world(Werner,1999). In China, the Black Ca

17、t is also the focus of study. For example, Li Xuehua, has written the Usage of Symbols in the Black Cat(2007); Ma Xiaomin, the Analysis of the Theme of the Black Cat(2009) and several graduate thesis from Yang Bo and Chen Qiang.These critics do offer good suggestions on the grasp of the functions of the b