The Black Cat Shame Quotes

In Poe’s story The Black Cat, the protagonist commits several deplorable acts. Oddly enough, he feels immense shame in his actions, and displays this throughout the story. Through the narrator/protagonist, Poe establishes a tone of shame that is evident throughout the entire story; this is done mainly through the shame that the protagonist himself demonstrates in varying ways. One way Poe establishes an underlying feeling of shame, is through the shame the narrator, or protagonist himself displays in his “transformation.” The protagonists states how he was “noted for the docility and humanity” in his youth; he then details his transition into an alcoholic. In doing so, the narrator explains in great shame how his “temperament and character… experienced a radical alteration for the worse.” He even manifests this shame by claiming he “blushed” in admitting his transformation. The sentiment put forth by the protagonist establishes the tone of shame early in the story.

This does not last and in a night of drunken stupor the protagonist maims Pluto, cutting one of his eyes out. In recounting the deed, the narrator himself states, “I blush, I burn, I shudder, while I pen the damnable atrocity.” The narrators following descriptions of “the poor beast,” contain within them a tone of shame, and in turn illustrate a man ravaged by