The definition of “chaos” is complete disorder and confusion. It is a main factor in Edgar Allan Poe’s stories, and it is his strategic use of chaos that makes his stories so unique. Two of his stories that best represent chaos are “The Black Cat” and “The Telltale Heart”, which both involve their respective narrator’s descent into madness. First, in “The Black Cat”, the narrator is introduced as a good man who loves animals, especially his black cat named “Pluto”. But he starts drinking too much and slowly becomes insane. Blinded by insanity, he tortures and kills Pluto by cutting its eye out and eventually hanging it. Soon after, his house burns down which is likely an act of vengeance from Pluto since black cats are a sign of misfortune. He then finds another cat that looks eerily like Pluto and brings it home. He then proceeds to slash at the new cat and kill his wife. When the police come, he hides his wife’s body in the wall and he loses the cat, but then the cat screams from inside the wall and the police find the body of his wife. Chaos is present in this story in the form of torture, murder, and the narrator’s descent into madness …show more content…
This scares him and he decides to “kill the eye”. For many nights, the narrator quietly breaks into the old man’s house and watches him while he sleeps. One night, he finally decides to kill him and strangles him in his sleep and then he proceeds to cut up the old man’s body and bury his body parts under the floorboards. When the police arrive, he gets overconfident and invites them in. Then, in his madness, he starts hearing the dead man’s heart beat louder and louder from under the floorboards, which terrifies him into confessing his crime to the police and showing them the body. Similarly, to “The Black Cat”, chaos is present here in the form of murder, fear, and the narrator’s