eventually venture into the basement where both the cat and his wife are walled
in. In an attempt to mock the authorities in their fruitless search, the main
character knocks on the wall commenting on the well-constructed house.
"That the cat embodies this very image of paradoxical perverseness is
suggested by the narrator describes the sound it makes when he raps on the wall:
"a howl – a wailing shriek, half of horror, half of triumph, such as might
have risen only out of hell, conjointly from the throats of the
damnation"(3:859)"(May 75). The black cat, which he overlooked and
buried with his wife, has yet again comeback to haunt him. The black cat’s cry
alerts the police that Shrout 11 there is something behind the fake wall, and
upon investigation the body of his murdered wife is discovered: In the next, a
dozen stout arms were toiling at the wall. It fell bodily. The corpse, already
greatly decayed and clotted with gore, stood erect before the eyes of the
spectators. Upon its head with red extended mouth and solitary eye of fire, sat
the hideous beast whose craft had seduced me into murder, and whose informing
voice had consigned me to hangman. I had walled the monster up within the tomb
(Poe, Tales of Mystery and Imagination 349) After analyzing the three aspects of
Poe’s writing, style, theme and use of irony, we as readers have a better
understanding of not only how to read Poe’s tales, but also the meaning that
goes much deeper then the surface of the story. The unique perception that that
Poe’s gives his stories enables the reader to identify with the main characters’
thoughts, actions and feeling. Also, the themes he uses, although at times are
grotesque, are original, and entice the reader, showing the darker side of the
human soul. Lastly, the use of heavy irony gives Poe’s stories an unpredictable
edge that keeps the reader coming back again and again to read his Gothic tales.
These three aspects of Poe’s ingenious writing make them the literary classics
that they are today.
May, Charles E. Edgar Allen Poe: "A Study of the Short Fiction."
New York: Twayne Publishers, 1981. 78-81. Poe, Edgar A. Tales of Edgar Allen
Poe. New York: Books of Wonder, 1991. 51-59. Poe, Edgar A. Tales of Mystery and
Imagination. New Jersey: Castle Book Sales Inc. 339-349. Saliba, David R. A
Psychology of Fear: " The Nightmare Formula of Edgar Allen Poe." New
York: UP of America, 1980. 69,70,79. Thompson, G.R. Poe’s Fiction: "
Romantic Irony in Gothic Tales." Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin
Press, 1973. 13,14, 99-103, 109,172-174.