Socratic questions- "The Black Cat"- Edgar Allen Poe

 
 "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allen Poe - Socratic Questions


     
    1. Who does the Man kill with the ax in the basement?
      
       * The Man kills his wife in the basement by intentionally putting the ax in her head. The story describes this by saying, "this blow was arrested by the hand of my wife. Goaded by the interference into a rage more than demonical, I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the ax in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot without a groan." This quote is saying that the Man killed his wife with the ax intentionally because he tried to kill the cat with the ax, but she stopped him and he got angry and killed her.


    2. Why does the Man start abusing his animals and wife and treating them badly?


       * The Man starts to abuse and hurt his animals because he starts to have a growing dislike inside of him that was making him moody, and irritable. He began to lose feelings for others, including his wife and animals. This is when he starts to neglect his animals. He also starts to ignore his wife. He not only ignored his wife, but he also starts to abuse her with foul language and with personal violence. He does all of this because of a horrible, feeling and dislike growing inside of him. He doesn't abuse Pluto at first, but eventually when he comes home one night drunk, he takes out one of Pluto's eyes with a knife. The Man is going crazy and he doesn't mind it at all, but reading it makes it sound to the reader like the Man is enjoying this. In the story, it says, "I grew day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others. I suffered myself to use intemperate language to my wife. At length, I even offered her personal violence. My pets, of course, were made to feel the change in my disposition. I not only neglected them, but ill used them." This quote describes to the reader that this man is changing and he is turning into a fiend or a monster who takes his anger out on everyone and everything around him. This is again, because of the growing hatred inside of him.


    3. Today in the world, why would someone commit a crime like the Man in this story did?


       * In today's world, people have a couple of reasons of committing the same crime that this man did in Poe's story. A man could kill his wife for her money, he could kill her out of greed. This is a common crime that happens often today. Another reason why a man would commit this crime is because he might be drunk and not know what he is doing. He might do it on accident, but it is still a crime if he did it intentionally or accidently. A man might also commit this crime because he abuses the woman, and the woman tries to resist him and he doesn't want her to do that, so to fix it, he might think the only solution is to kill her and hide her so he won't have to deal with her anymore. These are common reasons why a man would commit the same crime that the Man committed in Poe's story. The only exception would be that these men wouldn't accidently hide a living cat with the corpse, and the men wouldn't risk their chances of getting caught by showing them the spot of where they hid the corpse.


    4. How do internal conflicts affect the character?


       * Internal conflicts are what cause the character in this story to go insane. The growing hatred inside of the Man is his internal conflict. The way that this is shown in the story is when he takes out his anger on the animals and his wife. he couldn't keep the feelings inside of him, he had to find out a way to vent and to let them out and the only way he could think of is abusing his wife and animals. This internal conflict is a theme in the story because it is what makes the story. He also gets a feeling of guilt that haunts him from killing his first cat, Pluto. He tries to forget about Pluto, because he really loved him and he hung him, but he can't forget because the guilt adds onto the internal conflict that he has within himself. The internal conflict leads him to extreme insanity and he ends up killing his wife.


    5. How does the diction affect the feeling or the mood the reader gets from reading the story?


       * The story, "The Black Cat" has a painful, nightmarish, haunting mood. It is also an excellent example of Gothic romanticism. The diction has a great affect on setting the mood to the reader. The diction brings extremely good detail, that in some parts is a little gruesome. But it still has an excellent choice of words that bring life to the story and makes it seem real. An example of the diction that Poe uses for detail is, "I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the ax in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot without a groan." This is an excellent example of the diction that Poe uses. Poe uses the detail "buried the ax in her brain" instead of using something else that doesn't sound so gruesome like, "cutting her head open with the ax." Also, he says, "She fell dead upon the spot without a groan", he uses this sentence describing what his wife's corpse did instead of saying something like, "she fell to the ground." Poe uses the diction in his story to make it interesting and entertaining.