Enderson Filpo

Midterm Essay, English 2001

Oct 26, 2020

ENG 2001 O525

The Black Cat and The Yellow Wallpaper

            To Begin with, what do one expect when they read a gothic story? Irony. Without Irony the word gothic would not mean a thing within the story. Gothic stories can relate to the real world as death and mysteries are bound to occur. The stories, “The Black Cat” by Edgar Ellen Poe and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman demonstrates gothic and relate to one another as the characters can be compared and contrasted, both stories expresses mysteries and terror. In “The Black Cat” the narrator is known for loving his cat and wife but resulted in a denouement ending. The story reflects to Poe’s word perverse in which “makes people do things they know will be bad for themselves”, the narrator was an alcoholic who murdered his cat who he thought was avoiding him this falls under self-destruction as being an alcoholic causes mood swings even if their friendship was good. The narrator’s childhood must have been devastating. Was it possible for the narrator to get some sort of help at some point? Or did the alcohol has already taken advantage of him which it did as it resulted for him to go from this lovely and caring person to a killer. This can be compared to “The Yellow Wallpaper” which falls under the Spirit of perverseness as well dealing with terror. The narrator is a woman diagnoses with mental illness which is going under treatment for depression. Her sanity is lost as she refuses to get treated as she keeps her journal hidden from her husband. This reflects to self-destruction as her mental illness has already gotten worst by being obsessed with the wallpaper in her room as she sees a woman trapped behind bars. This resulted in her starting to feel the wallpaper and kept it all to herself instead of informing her husband, which then led to her loss of sanity as it was too late. Afterall, I will be discussing the story, “The Black Cat” gothic emotions and compare/contrast it to the story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”.

            In the story, “The Black Cat”, the narrator is an alcoholic. The narrator’s alcoholism led to his mood swings though he truly loved his wife and animals (cats). As he decides to abuse his body with alcohol and is addicted to it, he does not realize the amount of harm he is doing to himself and his surroundings (his wife and cat). He kills his cat for thinking that Pluto (his cat) was avoiding him. According to the story, “The Black Cat” Poe states, “I slipped a noose about its neck and hung it to the limp of a tree hung it with the tears streaming from my eyes, and with bitterest remorse at my heart hung it because I knew it had had loved me”.  (6) He regretted killing his cat which then led to more madness as it led towards the house burning. The narrator was following a pattern in which his alcoholism was not stopping him whatsoever, it is like he is an addict to murdering now. This can relate to the story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Gilman which also shows gothic emotions as in terror and fear. The narrator mental illness has taken over life as her imagination has gotten worst. According to the story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” Gilman states, “It used to disturb me at first. I thought seriously of burning the house—to reach the smell. But now I am used to it. The only thing I can think of that it is like is the color of the paper—a yellow smell!” (143) The narrator feels trapped as she can barely do anything but stay obsessed with the yellow wallpaper as she is able to smell it. So, addiction and obsession are linked to each other therefore both narrators have something in common.

            Furthermore, there are differences within both stories. In the story, “The Black Cat” by Edgar Ellen Poe, the narrator went insane when a cat that looked just like pluto (his cat in which he murdered) was following him to his old house where him and his wife moved into. So as the wife tries to prevent him from killing the cat, he kills the wife instead. According to the story, “The Black Cat” states, “Goaded by the interference into a rage more than demoniacal, I withdrew my arm from her grasp n and buried the axe in her brain.” (11) His addiction has gotten worst leading him to murder his own wife. The audience expected the wife to change his life around but was not able to. Being an alcoholic possessed the narrator as he knew his addiction would only get worse and keep on making him do horrifying things. The ending was denouement as I least expected the wife to die and did not expect the police to find the cat on top of her head making it so puzzling. Now this can be differed to the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Gilman as the narrator didn’t let her husband know what was going on at all which led a denouement ending as well as the husband was expecting her to be in good condition but wasn’t. According to the story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” Gilman states, “he said—very quietly indeed, “Open the door, my darling!” “I can’t,” said I. “The key is down by the front door, under a plantain leaf!” And then I said it again, several times, very gently and slowly, and said it so often that he had to go and see, and he got it, of course, and came in. He stopped short by the door. “What is the matter?” he cried. “For God’s sake, what are you doing?” I kept on creeping just the same, but I looked at him over my shoulder.” (146-147) The ending on this story is different from the “The Black Cat” as there is no actual terror going on just the loss of sanity in which didn’t led to any death unlike the narrator in “The Black Cat” where the narrator used his alcoholism and was unaware of what was going on therefore killed.

            To conclude, both stories, “The Black Cat” by Edger Ellen Poe and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman conveyed gothic emotions such as terror and fear which led to self-destruction or worst-case scenario death. In “The Black Cat”, the narrator was an alcoholic with a terrible childhood which resulted in the deaths of his wife and cat. In the story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” the narrator suffers from mental illness and is obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in her room which caused the loss of her sanity. Her obsession keeps her from telling her husband what is going on which eventually he found out and fainted. I compared and differed both stories in which are linked to “The Spirit of perverseness” which refers to people doing things they know will be bad for themselves.