The Black Cat

The Black Cat

The man tells us that he and his wife have many pets, including a large black cat named Pluto. This cat is especially fond of the man and the man is fond of the cat. Their friendship lasts for several years, until the man becomes an alcoholic. One night, after coming home drunk, he believes the cat is avoiding him. When he tries to seize it, the panicked cat bites the man, and in a fit of rage, he seizes the animal, pulls a pen-knife from his pocket, and deliberately gouges out the cat's eye.

From that moment onward, the cat flees in terror at the mans approach. At first, the man is remorseful and regrets his cruelty. But this feeling soon gave place to irritation. And then came, as if to my final and irrevocable overthrow, the spirit of PERVERSENESS. He takes the cat out in the garden one morning and hangs it from a tree, using a nose where it dies. That very night, his house mysteriously catches on fire forcing the man, his wife, and their servant to flee.

The next day, the man returns to the ruins of his home to find, imprinted on the single wall that survived the fire, the figure of a gigantic cat, hanging by its neck from a rope. (Foreshadowing?)

At first, this image terrifies the man, but gradually he determines a logical explanation for it, and begins to miss Pluto. Some time later, he finds a similar cat in a bar. It is the same size and color as the original and is even missing an eye. The only difference is a large white patch on the animal's Brest. The narrator takes it home, but soon begins to hate, even fear the creature. After a time, the white patch of fur begins to take shape and, through the man eyes, forms the shape of the gallows.

Then, one day when the man and his wife are visiting the cellar in their new home, the cat gets under its master's feet and nearly trips him down the stairs. In a fury, the man grabs an axe and tries to kill the cat but is stopped by his wife. Enraged, he buries the axe in her skull instead. To conceal her body he removes bricks from a part in the wall, places her body there, and repairs the hole. When the police came to investigate, they find nothing and the narrator goes free. The cat, which he intended to kill as well, has gone missing.

Then police come and try to find out who murdered his wife. They search for many days until, on the last day of the investigation; the man accompanies the police into the cellar. There, completely confident in his own safety, the man comments on the sturdiness of the building and raps upon the wall he had built around his wife's body. A wailing sound fills the room. The alarmed police tear down the wall and find the wife's corpse, and on her head, to the horror of the man, is the screeching black cat. As he words it: "I had walled the monster up within the tomb!"

Setting:

The narrator’s house

Themes:

Alcoholism/ drunkenness

Guilt (the end of the story is like the tell tale heart.)

Symbols:

The pen knife

The eye

The nose/gallows

The black cat (superstition?)

The In-Class Essay

In class essay revised:

In the two novels Bifocal and the gospel according to Larry there is a common theme. That theme is VIOLENCE. Violence is used willingly, and unwillingly, verbally, and emotionally between the two novels.

In the novel Bifocal, Violence is used in many different ways: The first type is by verbal abuse. Verbal violence is used in this novel, when Kevin and Zana were trash talking each other about how they dressed. This was verbal violence (racism). Even if Zana was unwilling to do what she had done, that wouldn’t change the fact that she still got caught up in violence (Kevin sure meant to do that) (pg 190-192). Another example of this was when Steve, Kevin, and Jay were in the Wall-Mart parking lot, and there were two Muslims in their car blocking the way. Kevin went up to them and made extremely racial slurs, just because he’s intolerant about other cultures (and waiting time). This point was probably just as much of an emotional aspect as well as a verbal one.

The other way that there was violence in this Novel, was emotional violence. This is when you say or do something and it hurts another person a lot. You may do this because some one already hurt you, you may do this because you don’t like them for many different purposes, What ever the case it’s wrong and we should know that by now, and here are some examples of it in Bifocal. This is shown in many different ways such as vandalism, to Haroon’s house, and the way people treated Hati (protected under freedom of speech). In the example of vandalizing Haroon’s house, you have to think of how his family must’ve felt when they came back to a trashed house, smashed window, and spray painted house with racial slurs (pg 232-235). Also it is almost a hate crime, to beat or try to beat some one because of their ethnic group or what their believes are, this is for the example with Hati. Most of these actions were not meant to happen, and every one regretted them later (except for Kevin). Kevin’s actions were meant to inflict pain, and suffering. The reality of violence is: repetitive.

The second novel, The Gospel According to Larry, also demonstrates the theme of violence though emotional, verbal abuse while inflicting it with meaning it and not. There are many examples of this. Firstly, verbal and emotional violence is caused by a willingly personality (most of the time). An example of this was when Betagold found Larry, she ruined him, and his family’s ethnics. She ruined his family’s income as well. She didn’t even say sorry, she doesn’t even regret, and says she’ll do it again. All of this happened just because she wanted the quick buck. In two years no one would even remember who she was but she had to ruin a family first. She caused him violence by giving Larry suffering to the point of him faking his own suicide (parts 4-6). This is abuse because she uses Larry for her own means, who knows if this was willingly or unwillingly (she may have not even thought it through). The other form of violence demonstrated in this book was emotional violence. Examples of this were when Josh denies the endorsement with coke, the rejection of Beth, and Josh’s mother mocking him. The first example was the endorsement with coke, offering him $2 million and letting Peter’s company advertise it. The hurt peter because even though Josh destroyed Peter he wouldn’t help him. The main reason why Josh didn’t to this was mainly because people would view him as a hypocrite. The other example is Beth rejecting Josh. She didn’t mean to do this because she though that Josh didn’t like her.

The common theme between the two novels Bifocal, and The Gospel According to Larry is Violence. The theme violence is used willingly, unwillingly, verbally, and emotionally between the two novels.

The Raven

The Raven:

The opening lines identify the speaker as someone who feels tired and weak but is still awake in the middle of the night. He passes the time by reading a strange book of ancient knowledge.

The speaker tells of becoming more tired and beginning to doze but being wakened by a sound that he assumes is a quiet knock. Internal rhymes of "napping," "tapping," and "rapping" along with repetition of these last two words, create a musical effect. This effect is also produced by alliteration...

Near the end of this poem, when the fear of the poem's speaker has reached a level of near insanity, he shouts "Leave my loneliness unbroken!" In one sense, this could just be an emotional outburst, like the lines that lead up to it, but the interesting thing about this particular line is that the speaker, in his terror, is for once reflecting upon himself. This, and the line's location at the climax of the poem, indicates to us that "my loneliness" is not just another expression that he shrieks: it is the key, the secret that he has been trying to guard all along. Throughout the poem, we see the speaker being drawn out of his isolation by the raven and the one word that it speaks. Once the bird enters..... Then the bird quickly angers the man. Then the raven only says one word; Nevermore.

Setting:

The man’s chamber

Theme:

Sadness

Lose

Loneliness

Insanity

The Raven comparison:

The differences are that, first the Simpsons is a cartoon, while the Original poem is a written piece. The other differences are that Homer gets angrier faster in the Simpsons. Other than that everything is basically the same. The words, the dialougue. Also the costume isn't specified in the poem but is shown in the Simpsons.

The Masque of the Red Death

This story is by Edgar Allan Poe: The Masque of the Red Death

The story takes place at the castellated abbey of the "happy and dauntless and sagacious" Prince Prospero. Prospero and one thousand other nobles are hiding in a walled abbey to escape the Red Death, a terrible plague that has been sweeping the land. The symptoms of the Red Death are awful: the victim is swept by conclusive agony and sweats blood instead of water. The plague is said to kill within half an hour. Prospero and his court are presented as being indifferent to the sufferings of the population at large, intending to await the ending of the plague in luxury and safety behind the walls of their secure abbey.

One night, Prospero holds a masquerade ballto entertain his guests in seven colored rooms of the abbey. Six of the rooms are each decorated and illuminated in a specific color: blue, purple, green, orange, white, and violet. The last room is decorated in black and is illuminated by a blood-red light and velvet curtains; because of this chilling pair of colors, few guests are brave enough to venture into the seventh room. Also there is a old clock that when chimes every one goes quite, and stops what they are doing. Late into the night, Prospero notices one figure in a blood-spattered, dark robe resembling a funeral shroud, with a skull-like mask depicting a victim of the Red Death, which all at the ball have been desperate to escape. Gravely insulted, Prospero demands to know the identity of the mysterious guest so that they can hang him, and when no-one obeys, pursues him with a drawn dagger through the seven rooms until the mysterious figure is cornered in the seventh room, the black room where the windows are tinted scarlet. When the figure turns to face him, the Prince falls dead at a glance. Enraged, the revelers surge into the black room and remove the mask, only to find both it and the costume empty. To the horror of all, the figure reveals itself as the personification of the Red Death itself, and all the guests suddenly contract and succumb to the disease. The final line of the story ends with: "And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all."

Themes:

Security

Death

Tragedy

Suspense

Fearfulness

Symbols:

The Black room

The Red Death (first image of grim reaper?)

The Abbey

Setting:

The abbey

The Green room

The Blue room

The Orange room

The White room

The Violet

The Black room

The Purple room ( I don’t see much of a difference between the purple and violet)

Most likely on the exam the order of the rooms:

The most eastern room was Blue: it was a vividly blue near the windows

The second chamber was Purple: It had purple tapestries, ornaments, and panes

The third room was Green: Everything was green even the casements

The fourth room was furnished with a light orange

The fifth room was a white colour.

The sixth room was violet

The last and seventh room was Black: It was shrouded in velvet tapestries. Only in this did the carpets not correspond with the windows. The windows were scarlet in a deep red blood colour. In this room there was the old clock that made every one silent.

A Scandel in Bohemia: Arthur Doyle

This one is written by:

Arthur Conan Doyle Called A Scandal in Bohemia:

Holmes is visited by a masked gentleman introducing himself as Count Von Kramm, an agent for a wealthy client, but Holmes quickly deduces that he is in fact Wilhelm Gottsreich Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, the hereditary King of Bohemia. The King admits this, tearing off his mask.

Holmes, Watson and the king of Bohemia.

It transpires that the King is engaged to Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, a young Scandinavian princess, but the King's in-laws-to-be would have a very low opinion of him if any evidence of his former liaison with an opera singer named Irene Alder, originally fromNew Jersey , were ever revealed to them. Unfortunately, that is what the lady herself is threatening to do, apparently not, though, for monetary gain, for the King's agents have already tried to buy the evidence. They have also broken into Miss Adler's house to find it.

It is a Photograph described to Holmes as a "cabinet", and therefore too bulky for a lady to carry upon her person, showing both the King, then the Crown Princess , and Irene Adler. The King gives Holmes $1,000 to cover any expenses. Holmes asks Dr. Watson to join him at 221 B Baker street at 3 o'clock the following afternoon.

The next morning, Holmes goes out to Miss Adler's house dressed as an out-of-work groom and manages to elicit useful information from the other stable workers. Irene Adler has a gentleman friend Godfrey Norton, a lawyer, who calls at least once a day. On this particular day, Norton comes to visit Miss Adler, and soon afterwards, takes a cab to the Church of St. Monica in Edgware Road Minutes later, the lady herself gets in her landau bound for the same place. Holmes follows in a cab and, arriving, finds himself dragged into the church to be a witness to Godfrey Norton's and Irene Adler's wedding. Curiously, they go their separate ways after the ceremony.

Holmes decides to make his move that evening, with Watson's help. Disguising himself as a simple-minded clergyman, he arrives at Irene Adler's house and, with his agents' help, causes a commotion in which he falls down with his face bloodied, just as Miss Adler, or Mrs. Norton, arrives home. She has the clergyman conveyed into the house where she tends to him. Watson, having been instructed to keep near the sitting room window, waits for Holmes to raise his hand. At this signal, Watson throws a plumber's rocket through the window and yells that there is a Fire, as do the assorted other characters in the street, all hired by Holmes with the money from the King. Holmes observes Mrs. Norton rushing to a panel in the sitting room, opening it, and beginning to take something out. Having thus discovered where the photograph is, he calls out that it is a false alarm, and contrives to leave the house and to meet Watson at the corner as prearranged.

Upon arriving back at Baker Street, however, something odd happens: they hear a voice say "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes". Holmes recognizes the voice but cannot place it. If he could, he would deduce what the episode meant.

Holmes, Watson, and the King go to Irene Adler's house early the next morning to see about achieving what Holmes did not have the opportunity to do the night before, namely stealing the photograph. However, they find that she and her husband have left England never to return. The picture is gone, and in its stead, another has been left, showing only her.

She has also left a letter for Holmes, making it plain that she knew who he was—her suspicions were aroused by the "fire"—and that he was likely to be hired by the King. She declares that she loves and is loved by Godfrey Norton and no longer feels the need to mire her former lover in scandal, and also that the King need never worry now about the photograph—unless he is foolish enough to take any threatening action against her. She has, of course, kept it. She also reveals that she followed him home after the fire and she was the one that said "goodnight" to him.

Themes:

Violence

Cunning

Intelligence

Awareness

Setting:

Sherlock Holmes house

Irene Alder’s house

Baker Street

The church that that the wedding took place in

Symbols:

The Photograph

The Mask

Setting:

Irene Alders House

The chruch

Baker street

Sherlock Holmes house

The Cask of Amontillado

The Cask of Amontillado:

For quick reference read: http://www.poestories.com/summaries.php

Montresor (owner of a vinery and nobleman) tells the story of the night that he took his revenge on Fortunato, a fellow nobleman (and another owner of a vinery). Angry over some unspecified insult, he plots to murder his friend during Carnival when the man is drunk, dizzy, and wearing a jester's motley.

He baits Fortunato by telling him he has obtained, out of season, what he believes to be a pipe of Amontillado (about 130 gallons), and a particularly rare and valuable sherry wine. He isn't sure, however, and wants his friend's expert opinion on the subject. Fortunato goes with Montresor to the wine cellars of the latter's palazzo, where they wander deep underground in the catacombs. Montresor gives Fortunato more to drink.

Montresor repeatedly warns Fortunato, who has a bad cough, of the damp, and suggests they go back; Fortunato insists on continuing, claiming that "he shall not die of a cough." During their walk, Montresor mentions his family coat of arms - a golden foot crushing a snake whose fangs are embedded in the foot's heel - with the motto Nemo me impune lacessit (No one strikes me with impunity). When they come to a niche (a dome), Montresor tells his victim that the Amontillado is within. Fortunato enters and, drunk and unsuspecting, does not resist as Montresor quickly chains him to the wall. Montresor then declares that, since Fortunato won't go back, he must "positively leave him."

Montresor then remorselessly walls up the niche, entombing his friend alive. At first, Fortunato, who recovers from his drunken state faster than Montresor anticipated he would, shakes the chains furiously, trying to escape. Fortunato then screams for help, but Montresor just listens to his cries, knowing nobody can hear them. Later, Fortunato laughs weakly and tries to pretend that he is the subject of a joke and that people will be waiting for him .As the murderer finishes the topmost row of stones, Fortunato wails despairingly "For the love of God, Montresor!" Montresor replies, apparently calmly, "Yes, for the love of God!" He listens for a reply but hears only the jester's bells ringing as he places the last stone. He claims that he feels sick at heart, but dismisses this reaction as an effect of the dampness of the catacombs.

In the last few sentences, Montresor reveals that it has been fifty years since the murder, he has never been caught, and Fortunato's body still hangs from its chains in the niche where he left it. The murderer, seemingly unrepentant, ends the story by remarking: In pace requiescat (may he rest in peace).

Foreshadowing:

When Fortunato said that he won’t die of a cough it was foreshadowing that he will die in the story. Also the cask (a grave or tomb) of Amontillado says that some one will die. The cough specifies it.

Symbols:

chains

The skulls

The bricks

The wine

setting:

The carnival

The catacombs

Themes:

Hate

Death

Drunkenness

Carelessness

Careful Planning

Despair

Insane

Annabel Lee

Annabel Lee:

This is a short poem constructed by Edgar Allen Poe and it’s about the narrator saying how beautiful this maiden is by the name of Annabel Lee. Her kingdom is by the sea and she looks like an angel and she should belong in heaven because she is so beautiful.

This probably was referring to a girlfriend that Edgar had, or maybe to his mother saying how much he loved her (suicide note?)