The Black Cat

The black cat was written in 1943. The poem follows an unnamed character, a wife and a cat Pluto. Throughout the poem, we see how the theme of substance abuse and self-deception leads the narrator into a sea of guilt, depression, anger and violence.

Question: What unconscious motive might be operating in the main character?

I think there could be a few internal motives that could have led the narrator to their ‘psychological outburst’. Like self-frustration, jealousy of the things around them and feeling undeserving of a good life. Overall a major theme portrayed in the poem is the struggle with substance abuse because it was very clear that the narrator of the poem was struggling with alcoholism. “My life changed, I became a heavy drinker and my need for alcohol tuned into a terrible disease”. Which in this quote is shows the where the struggle began and how alcohol was used to numb the pain of their inner issues. But then the addition only started to grow, and it was even referred it to as a disease. They stated, “My disease grew worst”. So no longer was it numbing the pain, but that when they started to lose control and grew angry and violent. Which could explain why the persona did everything they did. The frustration started within because of the lack of control and knowing that it would only get worst. Which made the start to resent people who loved and adored them, by shouting, hitting and lashing out at everyone around them. Just because they were jealous that everyone was so happy, while they were mad for not being able to overcome the problems and learning how to control it. Which led to feeling undeserving of a good happy life because the persona was so messed up inside, they just excepted that they weren't going to get better. So, lashing out and harming everyone around is almost the way of giving up to the problem of alcohol. But when the narrator goes to kill the cat and the wife stands up to and then ends up killing her instead. The exact quote from the poem is “But my wife caught my arm to stop me, and then anger exploded in my mind. I turned and drove the axe deep into her head.” Which is the perfect example of thinking they are not deserving to live happy because by her stand up for the cat could potentially be her confronting the drinking problem. So, killing her could allow them to finally give in to the problem and guilt. 

Annabel Lee

Little about the poem

This was the last poem Edgar Allen Poe’s wrote before he passed away. It was originally published October 9^th, 1849. The poem also portrays the theme of the death of a beautiful woman. The overall idea of the poem is the narrator, falls in love with a young woman named Annabel Lee. Throughout the poem, he gains an obsession and his love grew so strong, that when she died he didn’t see the point in living without her. While morning the love of Annabel Lee he blames the angles for being envious of their perfect relationship, so they took her away from him. 

Adaptation of Annabel Lee 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBvfLiI5uY8

I chose this adaptation of his poem because of the music, live acting and the ending of the short story. Firstly, I think the music really built to the tension of the poem because the music is very calm, and it allows the voice over to be the focal point. But also, the music changes every time the tone and situation changes. Like at the beginning when they are happy the music is very slow and happy. But when she gets sick, the ‘angels’ appear, and when she dies the music starts to get faster and more intense. Basically, it helps distinguish the shift in the different mood and tones.

Additionally, I like having a short story version of the poem because of the choice of setting and how they interpreted the words of the poem into actions. I liked how they really showed the relationship between the narrator and Annabel Lee. This is because it helped me understand how much have loved her and how he couldn’t live without her. Plus, also having the whole video set at the side of the sea because it goes perfectly with the imagery you imagine when reading the poem. They successfully help to gain the better understanding that their relationship was that perfect it was dreamlike. Which ties in with the unreliable narrative because the whole short story seems almost too perfect and could show the use of alcohol and drugs.

Finally, I like how they ended the short story because it played with the idea that the poem was written as a suicide note. This is because in class we discussed that he thought she was his life, which they included in the short story when he kept visiting the grave. This helps the audience see that he had nothing else to do than visited her grave and that over the years he saw no point in living without her. Then I confirmed at the end that the only way he was going to be happy was when he would die and be reunited with her. Which makes me think that the poem was a suicide note and he was depressed and empty without Virginia Clemm his wife that died 2 years before this poem was written. Which could represent how he was feeling inside and that maybe dying and reunited with her in heaven is the only way he could live happily ever after.

Edgar Allen Poe

Edgar Allen Poe was a very successful American writer, editor, and critic. He was born on January 19th, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts and died on October 6th, 1849 in church home and hospital, Baltimore, Maryland. He is primarily recognized for his poetry and short stories. He belonged in the gothic fiction genre, as he was obsessed with death and is known for writing dark, grim tales of misfortune and mystery. With the more texts we read, we start to understand and recognized that most of his content is based on his own life. So, he was an incredible writer, but his life was filled with depression, disappointments and misfortunes.

He was adopted at the age of age 3 and by the age of 17, he was excepted to the University of Virginia. However, he early gained a gambling addiction and gambled all his scholarship money, which began his habit of alcohol abuse. He struggled with alcohol all his life, he found it hard to control his physical and emotional weakness. Which is why he turned to alcohol as an aesthetic to try and take the pain away. He even got as far as to drink a mixture of absinthe and brandy, which is very dangerous. He repeatedly tried to stop drinking and made promises that he would stop but his addiction only grew bigger and bigger over the years. Another important part of his life was the use of drugs. So, he started off using drugs for medical benefits with prescriptions from doctors. Opium was the specific drug that he was addicted to. Opium was used to help him get into a ‘dreamy’ state, which was mainly used to help him stray away from alcohol. However, with the medical use of the drug it got him addicted because in the process of trying to stop abusing alcohol he took a large amount of opium to compensate. There are serval possible outcomes that could’ve caused his death. But a lot of people believe that most likely the addiction to alcohol and drugs were the major reasons that he died at 40, so early.

Therefore, substance abuse played a major role in Poe’s life because it took major part and possibly ended his life. But also, were the theme of substance abuse influenced his writing through the narratives of his poem. Almost like he was hallucinating while writing his best work. But he had a tragic life, but it differentiated his writing style and made his characters so unique, from all the other writers. 

About Me...!

Hi, my name is Emily Fish. I guess this is my first blog post and I think I'm just going to tell you a little about myself.  I am from Scotland but I have lived in Abu Dhabi for 10 years.

I'm very passionate about dancing, I find its something fun and distracting to fill my time with. I think I've been dance since I was young... maybe like since I was 5 years old. I find it helps bring up my mood when I'm sad, annoyed or stressed from school because you're the ability to get lost in the music and it helps you forget about all the homework and assessments you have due. Plus its fun expressing yourself through movement opposed to words and how you can communicate your thoughts, feelings, and stories through a dance routine.  I want to say one of my interests is traveling the world but the truth is I haven't been to many places outside of an airport. My family is the type that travels home every summer to visit family instead of going to new places. But I feel like when I get older it's something I really want to do. 

Studying literature is very important for many reasons because it opens our eyes to different cultures and beliefs and also helps us understand different perspectives about the world. Which is very important because we are living in a time where most people are starting to realize that most things don't have just one answer to them. But also literature helps us with important skills as well, like critical thinking and simply writing and analyzing things. Which will be very helpful in all walks of life because I will be able to look at things differently and be able to think outside of the box to understand all possible perspectives.

My favourite type of literature would just be a classic novel or fantasy novel because just like dancing I like getting lost in a book and going through an adventure with all the characters. Plus I love relating to characters personalities and personal situations they get into that are similar to things that have happened to me. I really only read novels and maybe some poems sometimes. But I'm hoping over the next two years, I might find a new love for some other type of literature I haven't thought about reading before.