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The Influence Of Alcohol In Edgar Allen Poe's The Black Cat

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In the story, The Black Cat by Edgar Allen Poe, Poe is a mysterious, ill-mannered husband who kills his wife accidentally when he attempts to kill their second cat Pluto, who his wife adores. When he suspects that his neighbors may have noticed his wife is absent he takes to their cellar to hide her dead body behind the plaster walls. Soon, the police demand a search, discover nothing and are about to leave when they hear a cat whine behind the cellar wall that Poe is standing near. Poe is taken to jail and writes his story from his cell, where he tells us he is going to be immediately executed. Poe is guilty and even though he was sane when he killed her he feels very distraught. He was influenced by alcohol and was extremely jealous of her love for Pluto, the cat. …show more content…

Poe realizes as he is drinking he becomes more attached to the bottle and cannot take control. He loses his life and who he is. His mind becomes fragile and lost. Poe becomes ill-tempered and uncontrollably disrespectful. “Our friendship lasted, in this manner, for several years, during which my general temperament and character—through the instrumentality of the Fiend Intemperance—had (I blush to confess it) experienced a radical alteration for the worse.” Alcohol drives him to a state of being irrational and paranoid making him believe others are monstrous and evil. Since Poe has a fiend intemperance, he is driven to evil and despair because of his uncontrolled drinking. As Poe drinks more often his fiend becomes vividly present. This affects his sanity and since he chose the wrong path, he is at fault. Even though alcohol is not the center of the story, it is very relevant because it plays a significant role in Poe’s detrimental

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This online article reviewed the many theories that surround the death of Edgar Allen Poe to date. The articled emphasized that the alcohol theory is the most commonly accepted cause of death recognized by majority of people. Even Poe’s good friend J.E. Snodgrass felt binge drinking caused his death. Other critics argued Poe was a victim of cooping, a practice that entailed bribing him with alcohol, thus forcing him to vote repeatedly in polling booths for a particular candidate, as Balitmore’s elections were notorious for political uproar and extortion. This would explain the conditions under which Poe was foundOthers suggested Poe died of other medical ailments ranging from brain tumors, heart disease, tuberculosis, rabies, epilepsy,

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Poe’s uncle by marriage, Henry Herring, was described by Kenneth Silverman as saying: “On former occasions, when drunk, Poe had been abusive and ungrateful” (Silverman, 185). This shows that Poe had abused alcohol before, and he might have done it again. Edgar Allan Poe also had a difficult life, another reason why he might have drunk himself into delirium. His wife, Virginia, died of tuberculosis, critics constantly attacked his

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Poe was given all he needed in order to survive but splurged his money on alcohol drinks and had to give up his college career from being in debt. His father saw this as a chance for him to join the army and took advantage of

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All these prove that with all the symptoms it is alcohol that caused Poe’s death because of so many clear alcohol symptoms it would be untrue to say that something else caused his death so with all this proof you could say Poe died of Alcohol. In “Rabies Death Theory” R. Michael Benitez says, “I was saddened to hear the fate of Caterina, Poe’s cat, yet nowhere have I suggested that Poe contracted rabies from her.” This also explains that a medical professional didn’t think he contracted Rabies from his cat which leads you to think where else would he get it because the most likely way Poe could’ve got rabies was his cat but that's out of the question so it really wouldn’t make sense for Poe to have

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Poetic Drunkness Edgar Allen Poe was a very troubled man who had a very terrible life. He had numerous family members and friends die from Tuberculosis. This could have made him depressed and caused many drinking binges. He was never a very wealthy man and this could have angered him, also causing drinking binges. Even though Poe’s death is debatable he most likely died of alcoholism.

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[His] pets, of course, were made to feel the change in [his] disposition. [He] not only neglected, but ill-used them” (Poe 1). This demonstrates that alcohol causes bad temper, which leads to many kinds of relationship problems, but in this case animal and spouse

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Approaching the final of his days, Poe began to fall into depression and craziness because of Virginia passing away. He drank more and more frequently and heavily. The stories that he published in the last years of his life often had an alcoholic character. In Particular, “The Black Cat” which was published in 1845, 4 years before Poe died in 1849. In the story, the narrator gets aggressive and hurts his cat while he is extremely intoxicated.

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Poe’s year of abusing alcohol also played a part in his demise. Last, I feel he was a victim of cooping. I come to this conclusion based on eye-witness accounts and medical documentation provided by many of Poe’s associates. They all commented on Poe’s strange behavior before his disappearance. One individual reported he came across a

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Later on, when he tries to kill his cat Pluto his wife gets in the way and he still kills it. This shows Poe’s unreliability by his usual style of death in his short stories. After that, he found stray cat a few days after. This stray cat resembled Pluto and the narrator takes the cat home. This cat then begins to irritate him and he hangs the cat from the tree.

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