Essay About Edgar Allan Poe And Readers Suspension Of Disbelief

Edgar Allan Poe
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What Goes Around Comes Around
In his story “The Black Cat,” Edgar Allan Poe dramatizes his experience with madness,
and challenges the readers suspension of disbelief by using imagery in describing the plot
and
characters. Poe uses foreshadowing to describe the scenes of sanity versus insanity. He
writes “for
the most wild yet homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor illicit
belief. Yet
mad I am not- and surely do I not dream,” alerts the reader about a forthcoming story that
will test
the boundaries of reality and fiction. The author asserts his belief of the activities
described in the
story when he states “to-morrow I die, and to-day I would unburden my soul”(80).
Poe describes his affectionate temperament of his character when he writes “my
tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make me the jest of my
companions”(80). He
also characterizes his animal friends as “unselfish” and their love as “self-sacrificing”
illustrating
to the readers his devotion to them for their companionship. The author uses
foreshadowing in the
statement “we had birds, goldfish, a fine dog, a rabbit, a small monkey, and a cat”(80).
The use
of italics hints to the reader of upcoming events about the cat that peaks interest and
anticipation.
Poe also describes a touch foreshadowing and suspension of disbelief when he illustrates
his
wives response to the cat when he writes “all black cats are witches in disguise, not that
she was
ever serious upon this point-and I mention the matter at all for no better reason than it
happened,
just now, to be remembered”(80).
Poe expresses his early attachment to the cat and dramatizes the character changes he
experiences when he writes “our friendship lasted, in this manner, for several years,
during which
my general temperament and character-through instrumentality of the Fiend
Intemperance-had (I
blush to confess it) experienced a radical alteration for the worse”(81). He warns the
reader of
new events in a cynical tone and implies the beginning of the madness he denies. Poe first
illustrates this madness when he uses imagery to describe the brutal scene with the cat
when he
writes “I took from my waistcoat-pocket a pen knife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by
the
throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket!”
The author describes his emotional and physical state of being during the unthinkable act
as “I blush, I burn, I shudder, while I pen the damnable atrocity”(81). He describes the
morning
aftereffect of his actions when he states “when reason returned with the morning-when I
had slept
off the fumes of the nights debauch-I experienced a sentiment half of horror, half of
remorse, for
the crime of which I had been guilty; but it was, at best, a feeble and equivocable feeling,
and the
soul remained untouched”(81). Now Poe implies to the readers that he has truly crossed
over into
madness by brutally attacking the animal and feeling little or no remorse.
Next Poe dramatizes his change in character even further when he writes “and then came,
as if to my final and irrevocable overthrow, the spirit of PERVERSENESS,”(81) which once
again alerts the reader of new events so shocking that reading forward becomes an
essentiality.
The author illustrates a scene so outrageous that the reader has to go beyond the
suspension of
disbelief they have agreed to participate in. He writes “One morning, in cold blood, I