Summary of the work

"I" have been kind-hearted since I was a child, and I especially like raising small animals. After getting married, my wife and I got along well with each other and raised many small animals at home. Among them was a black cat named Pluto, who had a good relationship with "me". However, the long-term habit of drinking alcohol caused "my" temperament to change drastically. One night "I" came home drunk and gouged out one of Pluto's eyes. After that, "I" cruelly hanged it to death. An inexplicable fire left "I" with nothing. Later, "I" was horrified to find a relief statue of a black cat left on the wall at the fire scene. In order to calm down the complicated emotions in my heart, "I" raised another black cat that looked very similar to Pluto. "I" gradually discovered that it looked more and more like Pluto. Not only had its eyes been gouged out, but the marks on its neck also looked more and more like a gallows. Unable to bear it, "I" decided to kill the cat, but was blocked by my wife. In anger, "I" hacked my wife to death with an axe. Then, "I" racked my brains and came up with an idea that I thought was perfect, and built my wife's body into the cellar wall. From then on, "I" never saw the black cat again, and lived a seemingly peaceful life. After escaping from the police's search several times, "I" got carried away and tapped the wall where the body was buried with my fingers. A terrifying sound came from inside. The police finally discovered the body and the animal buried inside. black cat.

Selected Works

The story I am about to tell is extremely absurd and extremely ordinary. I do not ask you to believe it. Even I do not believe these personal experiences in my heart. Wouldn't it be crazy to expect others to believe it? But I'm not crazy right now, and I'm certainly not dreaming. But my death is imminent tomorrow, and I want to tell this today so that my soul can rest in peace. I am eager to publish these purely daily trivial matters to the world in a concise and clear manner without comment. As a result of these events, I suffered panic, torture, and ultimately ruined my life. But I don't want to explain in detail. To me, these things are only terrifying; but to most people, they are nothing more than strange stories and have nothing to fear. Perhaps some knowledgeable people in future generations will regard my nonsense as a trivial matter. Some wise people are calmer and more organized than me, and don't panic when things happen like me. The things I described in such detail with such sincerity and fear must seem to them to be just a series of ordinary things that have their causes and consequences.

I have been known as a kind-hearted and gentle person since I was a child. I was so soft-hearted that I became the laughing stock of the children. I particularly like animals, and my parents indulged me in every possible way and gave me all kinds of little animals to play with. I spent most of my time playing with these little animals, and I felt extremely happy whenever I fed and petted them. As I grew older, this habit developed with me, and it remained my main pleasure into adulthood. There are people who love loyal and smart dogs. For them, there is no need to explain the endless fun in it. If you have often tasted the unfeeling and unkindness of human beings, then you will definitely feel unforgettable about the selfless and selfless love of beasts.

I got married very early. Fortunately, my wife and I share the same temperament. She saw that I prefer raising livestock and would never let go of the opportunity to find a favorite plaything. We raised birds, goldfish, well-bred dogs, rabbits, a monkey and a cat.

This cat is very big, very good-looking, black all over, and extremely smart. My wife is very superstitious by nature. When she talks about the cat's spirituality, she often mentions ancient legends, believing that all black cats are transformed by witches. I'm not saying that my wife takes this seriously; I mention it here just in passing.

This cat’s name is Pluto, and he was my beloved thing and playmate. I feed it myself, and it follows me wherever I go in the house. Even when I go to the street, it will follow me, and I can't drive it away even if I try my best.

My relationship with cats has lasted for several years. In the past few years, I'm sorry to say that because I was addicted to drinking, my temper and habits completely deteriorated.

There was a dense crowd of people gathered in front of the wall, and it seemed that many people were looking at the wall very carefully and attentively. I heard everyone shouting "What a strange thing" and other words like that. I couldn't help but feel curious, so I walked closer and took a look. I saw a bas-relief on the white wall. It turned out to be a huge cat. This cat is carved vividly and accurately. There is also a noose around the cat's neck.

When I saw this monster, I thought I had seen a ghost, and I couldn't help but be terrified. But after thinking about it, I finally felt relieved. I remember that this cat was obviously hanging in the garden next to the house. At the sound of the fire alarm, the garden was crowded with people, and one of them must have let the cat down from the tree and threw it into my bedroom through the open window. He probably did this to wake me up. Several other walls fell down, and the cat that I mutilated and died happened to be pressed against the newly painted plaster wall; the lime between the walls, the fire and the ammonia from the corpses all played a certain role. Only then will the relief statue I just saw appear.

Regarding the thrilling fact just mentioned in detail, even if it cannot be justified in conscience, it is commonplace in theory, but it always leaves a deep impression in my heart. . For several months I was haunted by the vision of the cat. At this time, a vague emotion that was called regret but not regret arose in my heart. I even regretted killing the cat, so I searched for a black cat with a more or less similar appearance to fill in the low-class places I frequented.

One night, I was sitting drunkenly in a tavern. Suddenly I noticed a large barrel containing gin or rum. This was the main thing in the room. Household items, there is something dark on the barrel. I had just been staring at the big wine barrel for a while, and the strange thing was that I didn't see the thing on it earlier. I walked up to it and touched it with my hands. It turned out to be a black cat, very large, exactly the same in size as Pluto, and very similar in every way except one. Pluto didn't have a single white hair on his body; this cat had a white patch covering almost its entire chest, but it was just a blur.

As soon as I touched it, it immediately jumped up, purred, and rubbed its body against my hand, showing that it was very happy to receive my attention. This cat is exactly what I've been dreaming of. I negotiated with the store owner on the spot and asked to buy it. Unexpectedly, the store owner didn't know the origin of the cat and had never seen it before, so he didn't offer a price.

I continued to stroke the cat and was about to leave for home, but the cat seemed to want to follow me. I let it follow me, often leaning down to touch it as I walked. This cat became very well-behaved as soon as it arrived at my house, and it immediately won my wife's favor.

As for me, I soon became disgusted with the cat. This was beyond my expectation, and I didn’t know what was going on or why. Its attachment to me was so obvious that I felt disgusted and angry when I saw it. Gradually, these emotions turned into deep hatred. I tried to avoid the cat as much as possible. It was because of the shame in my heart and the recollection of the cruelty I had committed earlier that I did not dare to bully it. I went several weeks without spanking or manhandling it. But as time went by, I gradually became indescribably disgusted with this cat. As soon as I saw its ugly appearance, I slipped away quietly like the plague.

Needless to say, what made me hate this beast even more was that the morning after I brought it home, I saw that it looked exactly like Pluto, with one eyeball also cut out. . However, when my wife saw this, she liked it very much. As I said above, my wife is a compassionate person. I once possessed this excellent virtue, which gave me pure pleasure.

Even though I hate this cat so much, it becomes more and more affectionate to me. It is never far away from me, and it is really difficult for readers to understand this twist. As soon as I sit down, it will squat at the foot of my chair, or jump on my lap, acting like a baby all over my body, which is really annoying. As soon as I stood up and walked, it tangled around my feet and almost tripped me; if it didn't, it hooked its long and sharp claws on my clothes and crawled up my chest.

Although I wanted to beat it to death with one punch, I still didn't dare to do it at this time. Partly because I remembered the crimes I had committed earlier, and the main reason was - let me put it plainly - I felt so sorry for the beast. Terrified.

This level of fear is not a fear of physical pain, but it is difficult to explain clearly. I am almost ashamed to admit—well, even now on death row, I am almost ashamed to admit—that the fear this cat aroused in me was heightened by the sheer hallucination imaginable. My wife has more than once asked me to look at this white patch of fur, which, as I mentioned above, is the only obvious difference between this strange cat and the one I killed. I believe you all still remember that I said that although the mark was large, it was very vague at first; but gradually and unknowingly it became obvious, and finally a clear outline appeared. For a long time my mind refused to admit it, trying to dismiss it as an illusion. At this time, the spot mark turned into something, and I couldn't help but feel hairy all over when I mentioned the name of this thing. Because of this, I am particularly disgusted and afraid of this monster. If I had the courage, I would kill it long ago. I say, it turned out that this thing was a frightening vision, a vision of something terrible - a gallows! Oh, what a pathetic thing this is, what a terrible instrument of torture! This is a terrifying instrument of torture, a torture instrument of the law! This is a torture instrument that makes people suffer, a torture instrument that brings death!

At this time, I really fell into the position of being as unlucky as possible. I killed an irrational beast as if nothing had happened. Its kind, an irrational beast, has brought so many unbearable disasters to me, a human being created in the image of God! oops! No matter day or night, I can never have peace again! During the day, this beast never left me alone for a moment; at night, I woke up from nightmares that were indescribably terrible. I always saw this thing spraying hot air on my face. This thing is always weighing heavily on my heart, and I can't get rid of this specific nightmare at all!

I suffered from such pain, and the remaining good nature in my heart was lost. Evil thoughts have become my only inner activity, and they are all extremely despicable and dirty evil thoughts. I have always been moody, but now I hate everything and everyone. I blindly let myself go, often getting angry suddenly and unable to control myself. oops! I often suffer misfortunes, but the only one who tolerates them is my wife, who has no complaints.

Because our family was poor, we had to live in an old house. One day, for some housework, she accompanied me to the cellar of this old house. The cat also followed me down the steep steps, nearly causing me to fall over and driving me crazy with rage. I swung the axe, forgetting my childish fear of the cat in my rage, and struck it with the axe. If I had struck it as I wished, it goes without saying that the cat would have been killed on the spot. Unexpectedly, my wife reached out and grabbed me. I was in the middle of the fire, and when she stopped her, I became extremely furious. I took advantage of the situation to break free of my arm and hit her head with an axe. Unfortunately, she died on the spot without even making a sound.

After I finished this outrageous murder, I just started to think carefully about hiding the body. I knew that no matter whether it was day or night, if I had to move the body out, the neighbors would inevitably encounter it, so I thought of many plans in my mind. After a while, I wanted to chop the body into small pieces and burn it to destroy all traces of the body. After a while I decided to dig a grave in the cellar and bury it. After a while I planned to throw the body into the well in the yard. They also planned to pack the body as cargo and hire a porter to move it out as usual. Finally, I suddenly came up with a perfect strategy that I thought of. I made up my mind to build the body into the cellar wall, as legend has it that medieval monks built martyrs in this way.

This cellar pie could not be more suitable for this purpose. The walls were of a very loose structure, and had recently been plastered throughout, which had not yet dried, owing to the dampness in the cellar. And a section of the wall, where a false fireplace stood, had been filled in and made exactly like the rest of the cellar.

He tried his best to reflect the horror effect with the fear and confession of the characters' hearts. One is to reasonably show the slow process of the protagonist's temperament change. The protagonist of the novel has a kind nature, loves animals very much, and has a good relationship with his wife. But he used incredibly cruel methods to kill two black cats and even his wife. On the surface, there is no motive for killing cats and wives, but in fact there is a reason. That is, he fell into the bad habit of drinking. Alcoholism led him to abuse animals, gouging out Pluto's eyes and hanging him from a tree branch. Second, the protagonist's capricious, contradictory and twisted psychology is well grasped. The bad habit of alcoholism caused his soul to struggle painfully between good thoughts and evil thoughts, wandering between reason and madness, and committed a series of crimes consciously or unconsciously. When he is rational, good thoughts occupy his entire spiritual world, making him regretful and ashamed of his evil deeds. When he was crazy, evil thoughts occupied his soul, entangled him like a devil, causing him to lose his conscience and continue to do evil. Sometimes, the two coexist without clear boundaries.

From this point of view, the fear of "I" in "Black Cat" comes not only from the black cat's terrifying appearance and strange behavior, but also from "my" heart. The evil thoughts that really make it difficult for him to resist and force him to continue committing crimes stem from the innate primitive impulses of human beings. This evil spirit is the root of all "my" evil deeds. Knowing that doing bad things is illegal, but still ignoring the consequences of the crime and taking the law into consideration is a perverse psychology deeply buried in human subconsciousness. This is the unique charm of Edgar Allan Poe's horror novels. It is precisely because this "evil spirit" and "surly psychology" come from the most primitive and secret place in the human heart that readers will deeply experience the protagonist's mental torture and pain while experiencing horrific events with the protagonist ***. , so that the soul of the reader and the soul of the protagonist are beaten and impacted together. This "evil spirit" and "surly psychology" inspire and expose the most private and ugly desires of human beings, touching the darkest corners of the human heart. As the protagonist fails to rebuke his conscience again and again and ends with spiritual repentance, the reader's nerves finally become unbearable and his soul begins to tremble.

"Black Cat" shows the true inner world of the characters. It not only does not avoid exposing the dark and ugly side, but also consciously explores it in depth. It can be said that the horror felt by readers is not only created by the author Edgar Allan Poe, but also experienced by readers "in their hearts". This is probably why Edgar Allan Poe's horror novels are so controversial. Some people think that his horror novels are emotionally decadent and negative, even morbid, while others call them works of genius. The former obviously ignores the exploration of human subconsciousness in his horror novels. This exploration will inevitably not exclude facing the ugliest side of people's hearts, and will inevitably expose the original desires and impulses that humans cannot accept. And those who criticize his horror novels usually fail to face the ugliness and terrible desires of the human heart. There is no doubt that Edgar Allan Poe's character traits and the era in which he lived were important factors in forming his writing style of horror novels. To a certain extent, his horror novels do have a tendency to escape reality and distance themselves from life, but why they have persisted in the world and received the attention and praise of many people cannot help but arouse our thinking. Despite the changes of the times and the passage of time, human beings' exploration of the inner world is never-ending. This exploration and feeling are powerfully reflected in Edgar Allan Poe's horror novels. Therefore, his horror novels can transcend the times and bring readers a unique experience.

(Gu Wen)