Comparing Black Cat And The Cask Of Amontillado By Edgar Allan Poe

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The escape from alcohol is more destructive than what they are escaping from. Both stories “The Black Cat,” and “The Cask of Amontillado” are written by the famous poet, Edgar Allan Poe. “The Black Cat” is about an alcoholic man who recounts his descent into madness. The man had a cat named Pluto, however, the cat upset him and thus he gouged his eye out and hung him. Later on, another black cat appears in his life. This cat too upsets him and leads to the murder of his wife with an axe and the police arresting him for his actions. “The Cask of Amontillado” is about a man named Montresor who enacts a heavily thought-out plan of revenge and then tells his story fifty years later. Montressor, who was berated with insults, vowed revenge against the person who insulted him. …show more content…

By using his victim, Fortunato’s love for wine, Montresor lures him to catacombs to kill him. In "The Black Cat" and "The Cask of Amontillado," Poe intricately weaves symbolism, irony, and foreshadowing to delve into the destructive effects of alcohol addiction, portraying the gradual deterioration and ruin of lives entangled in the grip of substance abuse, offering a poignant exploration of the detrimental impact of addiction on individuals within the narratives. With the use of symbolism, Poe, in “The Black Cat”, illustrates the destructive effects that occur within people who struggle with alcohol addiction. Poe wrote, “I made no scruple of maltreating the rabbits, the monkey, or even the dog, when by accident, or through affection, they came in my way. But my disease grew upon me—for what disease is like alcohol” (138). Alcohol, as said by the narrator of the story himself, is a disease, moreover, it affected him