The Black Cat(A Comparison Between The Movie

The Black Cat

There are major differences between the film we saw in class and The Black Cat by

Edgar Allen Poe. The film had added effects to get the viewer’s attention. The film also

let out important parts that were in the short story. The short story gave the reader a

better background for character analysis. Although the story was much more enticing

because the reader knew the main character better.

In the short story the man(abusive husband) is described as a loving and caring

husband, who is very fond of animals. He describes to the reader how his obsession with

alcohol is like a disease. He gets more irritable everyday because his cravings for alcohol

become greater and greater. He was often physically abusive to his wife. One night the

man came home very drunk and violent so Pluto(the black cat) scratched him out of fear.

then the man lost his temper and cut out the cat’s eye with his penknife. One morning the

man hanged the cat from a tree limb with a noose around its neck. That night his house

burnt to the ground. In the morning he found a petrified white cat with a rope around its

neck in the charred remains. A few days later the man saw a black cat with a white chest

and he liked it so much he let the cat follow him home. The cat made itself at home but

the man avoided it because of a sense of shame for his former deed. The next day the man

noticed that the cat was missing an eye just as Pluto. His wife pointed out that the white

spot on its chest resembled the Gallows! The cat made the man trip in his basement one

day. So he picked up an ax to kill the cat, and his wife stepped in the way and he put the

ax through her brains. The man decided to hide the body and the cat behind a bricked up

wall in the basement. The police came and looked at everything. Just before they left,

they heard a noise from the basement wall. So they tore the bricks down. Thus they

discovered the body and the black cat.

The film hints that the man was once a loving and caring husband. The wife told

her husband he was not the same man she married. The film shows how the alcohol made

the man abuse his wife for more drinking money. There is no hint of affection for animals

shown. The man’s wife is having an affair because she doesn’t love her husband anymore.

When the man finds out what his wife is doing he poisons his wife and her boyfriend.

Then he bricks them up behind a wall in the basement along with the black cat he hated.

Based on this information the critic can see these two story plots are completely

different. They even describe the man differently. There is one similarity between the two

plots. “A guilty conscious never feels secure.” The man experiences the truth of this

statement because he basically gives the murder away when the cat is heard. Although the

two story plots were different, Poe’s unique style of writing can entice anyone.