Today I am going to give you some Socratic questions, and then answer them as per your instruction, and we all know how much I just love staying on topic don't we? They are about the short story called "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allen Poe . Since you gave us a link on your blog to a website about Socratic questions and that website listed 5 different types of Socratic questions I am going to make a logical leap, and hazard a guess that I am supposed to write, and answer a question of each kind. So here it goes. Have fun trying not to fall asleep while you read my stunning, and shockingly "deep" questions.
Close-ended question
What was the image on the narrators second cat?
When the narrator found a second cat the only difference between the two was that the second had a splotch of white on it, but later the narrator whether by supernatural or coincidental natural events actually occurring or by his own conscience weighing so heavily on him that he began to see things, or perhaps because he had lead piping, he saw the white splotch transform into an image of the gallows.
Open-ended question
How did the image on the second cat reflect on the first?
The image on the second cat became an image of the gallows. The second cat was meant to replace the first cat, and so it is natural that there might be a deep correlation with the first cat in the narrators mind. The reason he got a second cat is because for some unknown reason he turned absolutely mean, crazy, and nasty, and decided to hang the first cat with a rope from a tree. Can anyone say animal cruelty? You hang people on the gallows, and he saw this image as a symbol of his damnation, and turned even crueler, and even though he recorded how sweet, and well meaning the cat was he still began to abhor it, and thought of it as the evil one.
World-connection question
How does the treatment of the narrators wife differ from the treatment of spouses in the 21rst century?
well I feel that it goes without saying that it is not common practice to bury an ax in our spouses skulls any longer, but for some odd reason I don't believe that will fetch me an appropriate grade. In the beginning of the story he mentions hardly anything of his wife but that he married her and was happy to find her of disposition not uncongenial with his own, as though he didn't even know of her disposition before he married her, and he may well not have, and though he says he found regret at the loss of his first cat he mentioned no remorse in the senseless murder of his wife. Though this is most definitely, because he had finally reached the eye of his crazy hurricane. The combination of this careless mentioning as if it mattered very little, and in truth it may very well not have, and the uncaring attitude throughout the story lead us to the conclusion that he did not marry her for love. Which goes against modern practice, as a general rule. Because for the most part we are SUPPOSED to marry for love at least, and we are SUPPOSED to treat our spouses with respect and courtesy. At which he failed utterly. I mean, he was awful to her before he was mean to the cat, guys. She is less important than a cat. And then, you know, later he buried an ax in her brain.
Universal theme/ core question
How has the black cat superstition changed over time?
The black cat superstition has now become a silly joke hidden in it's musty and dusty box, and released upon the world for approximately a week as Halloween hangs in the air, but in the time period of this short story many people took it as seriously as the grave. The black cat stands more as a symbol for the dark repercussions of senseless acts of madness and violence in this story. Especially because in the beginning he talks about how ridiculous it is, but it was often perceived as a dark, and deadly omen. Now they're just super cute.
Literary Analysis question
How does the authors tone throughout the story reflect the narrator's internal progression to murder?
the narrator begins this story with a pleading tone that left the reader with the idea of some perceived regret which the narrator feels, especially when he makes allusions to the events which he is about to record as events that "destroyed" him, but throughout the story he slowly goes from a calm narrative tone to a wild and frenzied voice when describing his acts of horror and his current feelings towards them, and then back to a calm measured tone after the fake climax of killing his wife, and after that it is a sort of cool sort of hysteria. In the beginning he described his childhood, and early years of marriage. He begins to go a little around the bend when he starts with his frenzied tone which gets louder, and more freaked out as he gets crazier and crazier until finally it ends after he gets to the murder of his wife, and then he is full on crazy-mode like that sort of quiet creepy that made "The Woman in Black" such a terrifying movie. Well now that he's "unburdened his soul" I guess that's that.
Thank you and goodnight, and I have one last question for you to answer dear teacher, why is it that Poe is always holing up dead bodies in his fictitious houses? Did he have a dirty little secret, or something?
this is just delicious! i have enjoyed the slightly irreverent humor, all those black cats, and, of course tom cruise.
ReplyDeleteANSWER:
as you probably read in the notes i have gave, poe, like any good author, has motifs that he regularly goes to in his stories. is it because he had a dirty secret? maybe. he did, after all, marry his cousin. was it because he was crazy? maybe, maybe not...i like to think he was just a man ahead of his time. he created the first detective novel (eat your heart out conan doyle!) and showed us what i was like to actually look at our ids (think Freud). he's pre-King and because of that maybe a scooch more terrifying. writing stories like this is just one, of many ways, he kept his many gators fed, man.