Pre 1900 prose stories : Analysis of “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe and “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W.Jacobs

In this assignment I am going to analyse “The Black Cat” written by Edger Allen Poe, and, “The Monkeys Paw” written by W.W. Jacobs. These two short stories are superb examples of Victorian short horror stories. I am going to compare the narratives with the horror genre from the Victorian period and from at the present time and take note on changes of attitudes in generations.

My past experiences of horror films and stories are when I have being told them at sleepovers and around campfires. Also I have read them books and at the cinemas to watch a horror film. Both horror films and stories create an atmosphere of jeopardy, peril and fear that captures the tension intended. The director in films achieves this tension by using spine chilling music and setting it in cold, gloomy and eerie surroundings. Features that are common in horror stories are dilapidated, out of the way run down old houses, which have a reputation for being haunted, and subnormal things have being known to go on in between the walls. Also another feature in a horror stories is that the main character is always alone in the house. Some times at the beginning of horror stories and films you hear about a murderer on the loose or a ghost spotted near by, this adds to the tension and builds up to the climax. Another way of writing the stories is to keep the reader in the dark and keep them guessing until right at the end. This tactic is useful because it keeps the reader engrossed and interested through out the story and holds the tension until climax is achieved.

Horror stories nowadays are tamed from the Victorian period these days they are used more to entertain the audiences and don’t focus on morals. Horror stories have being created to subvert the normal order; this makes them popular with audiences and readers because people have an obsession and fascination with the supernatural, metaphysical goings on. The stories take you deep into the inner workings of the human mind. They really make you think and bring out the darker side of your personality in the stories. The stories are mystifying and fear provoking and leave you with a lump in you’re thought and butterflies in your stomach. The stories have mixed emotions, which make you want to laugh, and cry all at the same time, which makes them, even more gripping because it gives them a unpredictable twist. They leave you walking away with a chill down the spine, and a deep sense that there are some things in life, however imagined, that are simply terrifying. The stories are hard to predict what will happen next and it contains strong irony. The stories establish the kind of humour in which Poe did engage. It also offers us the opportunity to look at ways in which we can feel certain that he was trying to be humorous and that we can examine the extent and nature of his humour.

While today's horror stories are meant more as entertainment, horror themes were used in the Victorian Age and earlier to teach children etiquette, restraint and responsibility by showing terrifying examples of the price of misbehaving. Horror stories in the Victorian era had more of a moral to them, where as nowadays Horror is mainly used to shock people and aimed at an adult audience. Part of the violence in children's stories can be attributed to the time period in which they were written. Horror stories meant to educate children gradually died out in the mid-19th century, with the advent of new technology, progressive social movements and a change in attitude towards their children. Another factor was a change in literature -- for example, Edgar Allen Poe's use of stories of terror as entertainment.

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The stories “The Black cat” and “The Monkeys paw” are linked because they are both horror stories. “The black cat” is set on a dark, dismal and tempestuous night in the winter months. This is a large contrast to the snug, homely inviting parlour of the laburnum villa. In the house the fire is burning brightly and the family are sat in the parlour relaxed and enjoying each other’s company. This is creating an atmosphere of serenity and a secure stress-free environment where the family are all relaxed and at ease with each other. This type of atmosphere is distinctive of the foundation of a horror story because as the anxiety builds in the story u can see the atmosphere change more dramatically. This leaves the main plot of the story more of a shock and gives the story more of a twist, which grips the reader further.

In “The Monkeys paw” the atmosphere changes when the sergeant major come on the scene. This is because he is a stranger to them and they are unfamiliar to him, he leaves them apprehensive and cautious. Before the sergeant comes on the scene the writer uses words such as “Placidly”, “Soothingly”, “Hospitable” and “Condoling” to describe the mood in the house. After the sergeant has arrived the mood contrasts with the writer using powerful and effective words such as: “Pulsating”, “oppressive” and “Hoarsely.”

The writer uses climax and anti-climax in “The Monkeys Paw” when the family make their wish until it reaches its peak when the son is mysteriously killed whether by coincidence or magic. When the mother and father use their second wish to try and wish their son alive again the effects that make this scene so intense and terrifying is the candle in the room that “Throws pulsating shadows on the ceiling” this is effective because the colour of the flame brings hell and the devil to mind which links what is going to happen with evil. Also when the candle expires this brings a kind of climax, which leaves the room black, which gives it a spooky atmosphere for what follows.

My opinion of the Sergeant Major is that he is mysteriously odd character. He appears to be a shady character because he came all the way out to their house in traitorous conditions to a house that is in the middle of nowhere for any apparent reason but for a cosy chat with the white family. I think that the sergeant had some sort of motive with the monkeys paw because he would not of shown the family the paw if he didn’t want them to be involved with it. But also he did act unwillingly because he warned them of disastrous coincidences. The writer describes the sergeant as “Tall, burley, beady of eye and rubicund of visage.”

I don’t think that the sergeant major inflicted the monkey’s paw on the white family intentionally because he tried to throw it in the fire, but it was a bit mysterious that he had waited till that night to do that. This could of meant that he had evil motive and knew that the family where naïve and foolish enough to take it of the fire. Also the white family appear to be very susceptible because earlier on in the night they had being discussing the run down road to the house and the inconvenience of the positioning of the house. This makes them easy targets because with the wishes from the “Monkeys Paw” that the sergeant has promised they would be able to have what ever they wanted. The white family are typical characters because they are in the house on a stormy night in a perfect setting for horror stories. Also they are characteristic are familiar because they are stuck in the house because of the weather so they are a bit bored so they might as well wish because there is nothing better to do.

The recurring images that the writer uses are the reference to magic .The writer uses this because he wants the reader to believe that what is happening is not down to coin incidence. The writer describes the paw to be “Just an ordinary little paw, dried to a mummy” I think that it has being describe in this way to make the white family think that it is no big deal so that they will stop asking about it. Also it is described that the paw had a spell put on it by an old fakir to show that fate ruled people’s lives. Then the sergeant told them about the man who had the paw before him that he didn’t know what the first two wishes where but the third was for death. I think this was said in an attempt to scare them off.

The ending to “The Monkeys Paw” is very intense because the story is left on a kind of cliffhanger just after the climax. This technique is used in many soaps so that it keeps the audience watching so that they find out the rest of the story. But in the story the cliffhanger method is used to spark the imagination of the reader. And leave the readers imagination to run wild. This is typical of a horror stories because an imagination is far more vivid and complex than a director could make a movie so the readers can make the ending up themselves.

As the story of the “Black Cat” begins, the narrator is in jail awaiting his execution, which will occur on the following day, for the brutal murder of his wife. At that point, the rest of the story is told in flashback, as the narrator writes the most wild, yet homely narrative whose events have terrified--have tortured--have destroyed him.

Although several characters are mentioned in this story, the true focus lies upon the nameless narrator, who is known for his docility and humanity of ...disposition. His tenderness of heart...[made him] the jest of [his] companions. He was especially fond of animals, and he was pleased to find a similar fondness for pets in his wife. They had many pets including "...birds, gold fish, a fine dog, rabbits, a small monkey, and a cat." The cat was a large, beautiful animal that was entirely black. Pluto, as he was called, was the narrator's favourite pet. He alone fed him, and Pluto followed the narrator wherever he went. Occasionally, his wife would refer to an old superstitious belief that "...all black cats [were] witches in disguise. Not that she was ever serious upon this point...."

Poe writes this story from the perspective of the narrator, a man whose temperament and character are transformed through fiend intemperance. The story is told from the first person point of view this intensifies the effect of moral shock and horror because it is being told from the person who committed the crime, which makes it more horrifying because you know it is what actually happened.

'The Black Cat' is one of the most powerful of Poe's stories. Poe constructed this story in such a way that the events remain ambiguous. As the narrator begins to recount the occurrences that "...have terrified--have tortured--have destroyed [him]," he says that maybe "...some intellect more calm, more logical, and far less excitable than own," will perceive "...nothing more than an ordinary succession of very natural causes and effects." I think that he is saying this because he is embarrassed about his actions, and what’s to push the blame on some thing out of his hands.

As the narrator begins to tell his story (flashback), We then discover that the man's personality had undergone a drastic transformation, which he attributes to his abuse of alcohol and the perverse side of his nature, which the alcohol seemed to suggest. We also discover with Pluto in the story that the narrator is superstitious, as he recounts that his wife made "...frequent suggestion to the early popular notion, that all black cats are witches in disguise. The narrator tries to deny that things going on are down to superstition but this common because he isn’t going to admit that he believes in nonsense such as superstition. The superstition progresses through out the story as the narrator tries to push his alcoholic problems aside and blame his was on things out of his control.

Superstition has it that Satan and witches assume the form of black cats. For those who believe, they are symbols of bad luck, death, sorcery, witchcraft, and the spirits of the dead. Appropriately, the narrator calls his cat, Pluto, who in Greek and Roman mythology was the god of the dead and the ruler of the underworld.

The narrator of "The Black Cat" first becomes annoyed when Pluto "inflicted a slight wound upon his hand with his teeth. In think this enrages the narrator because he sees the cat as being ungrateful because he does every thing for him and in return the cat hurts him. " After the cat bites him the narrator “Plucks” out the cats eye, this is meant as a punishment to the cat to remind it that he is its master and has control of him.

Poe's use of foreshadowing leads us from one event to the next ("one night," "one morning," "on the night of the day," etc.). Within the first few paragraphs of the story, the narrator says that he will violently harm his wife. However, the events of the story, are based upon "...an ordinary succession of very natural causes and effect," or are they caused by the supernatural? By using, three main events in this story (the apparition of the first cat upon the burned wall, the appearance of the gallows like pattern upon the chest of the second cat, and the discovery of the second cat behind the cellar wall), a convincing case can be offered for both sides. The burning of the house can also be linked with evil and hell, because supposedly in hell there is fire and the house is burnt and the cats print is left there. This is another explanation for the goings on to be put down to superstition.

An explanation for a case for the logical as well as the supernatural, we must remember the state of mind of the narrator. An alcoholic who has a distorted view of reality describes all events for the reader. The narrator goes to great lengths to logically explain the vision of the cat in the wall; however, the chain of events that he re-creates in his mind are so highly coincidental that an explanation relying on the supernatural may be easier to accept than the one he believes.

It makes me wonder if the narrator's perceptions can be believed as he describes the gallows like pattern upon the chest of the second cat. Maybe what he sees is just a hallucination of an anguished mind. The markings of an adult cat surely would not change that much, unless maybe the pattern was not part of the animal's fur, but only a substance on its surface which, with time, could wear off and disappear (a substance such as plaster?). After all, the second cat is also missing an eye. Poe is very careful to avoid stating if it is the same eye of which Pluto was deprived. Are there really two cats in this story, or did Pluto survive, and return for retribution.

Of all the incidents, the discovery of the cat (first or second) behind the cellar wall is the easiest to believe. The cat was frightened by the man, and logically, sought shelter. What is somewhat strange is the fact that the police searched the cellar several times, and not one time did the cat make a sound. It was not until the narrator rapped heavily with a cane upon the wall, that the cat responded. Was it a series of natural causes and effects, or was it what the narrator described? "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 the hangman. I had walled the monster up within the tomb."

This story does not deal with intentional murder. We are told that the narrator appears to be a happily married man, who has always been very kind and gentle. He blames his downfall to the "Fiend Intemperance" and "the spirit of perverseness." Perverseness, he believes, is "...one of the primitive impulses of the human heart." "Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a stupid action for no other reason than because he knows he should not?" Perverseness provides the rationale for otherwise unjustifiable acts, such as killing the first cat or rapping with his cane upon the plastered-up wall behind which stood his wife's corpse "...already greatly decayed and clotted with gore."

We might argue that what the narrator calls "perverseness" is actually conscience. Guilt about his alcoholism seems to the narrator the "perverseness" which causes him to maim and kill the first cat. Guilt about those actions indirectly leads to the murder of his wife who had shown him the gallows on the second cat's breast. The disclosure of the crime, as in "The Tell-Tale Heart," is caused by a warped sense of triumph and the conscience of the murderer. The sudden appearance of the second cat from nowhere, the slow growth of the white marking, and the murder of the wife after the animal brushed against the protagonist on the stairs are touches of the supernatural

What makes this story different is that Poe has added a new element to aid in evoking the dark side of the narrator, and that is the supernatural. The story has an added twist which builds tension as the narrator hopes that the reader, like himself, will be convinced that these events were not "...an ordinary succession of very natural causes and effects."

In “The Black Cat” there is no real climax, The climaxes in the story appear though out the story which make it more gripping the whole way though but this makes the story not as gripping as “The Monkeys Paw” because it doesn’t allow the story to collect as much tension for the final climax at the end. I think that “The black Cat” is a more gripping story because it is written in the form of a journal and makes the story seem more believable. Also what makes it more intense is that the narrator is shortly going to be executed so we know that he is not holding back from any of his actions because he is going to die anyway so it is his last chance to confess his sins and to hope to be forgiven.