Wieland - Pleyel’s Accusation of Clara

            In our discussions on Charles Brockton Brown’s work Wieland, we discussed some themes of the book. Among these are social conventions, love, sexuality, trust, betrayal and reason. I think all of these themes are depicted very well in the scene where Pleyel accuses Clara of being with Carwin.

            Pleyel’s character is portrayed to be more of an empiricist, a man who relies on the powers of reason. On page 23, of Wieland, Clara describes Pleyel as ‘the champion of intellectual liberty… (one that) rejected all guidance but that of his reason.’ Clara’s depiction of Pleyel painted a portrait of a smart, intellectually savvy and stable man that relied on judgments and reasons. The scene where Pleyel accuses Clara, however, paints a much different portrait of his character.

            Pleyel accuses Clara of being with Carwin in a manner that is much different than what we had been reading and known about him thus far. The words he uses on page 96, ‘atrocious’, ‘wretch’ and ‘thief’ to associate her with thieves and prostitutes. The punctuation that Brown uses helps the reader depict the tone and emotions that Pleyel is expressing. He pauses, “…of they act—what end can it” (96) and uses exclamation points, “insupportable disgrace!”(96) and “profligate of women!”(96), to express Pleyel’s emotions towards the subject matter.

            An important note in this scene is that Pleyel never asks for her reasons or for her side of the story. We spoke a lot about the social conventions at this time and for women, how important your credibility was. Credibility of women was judged, in part, by their sexual well being. Clara betrayed Pleyel, in his mind at least. Because of her presumed sexuality her reputation has been discredited. He doesn’t ask for her side because whatever she was to say doesn’t mean anything and wouldn’t be believed if it did.

            This scene is also very important in the sense that Pleyel doesn’t accuse her in a manner that is rational, like his character should. He lets his emotions over take him, almost as if he is acting out ‘in the heat of the moment.’ The punctuation used by Brown and the lack of letting Clara explain herself, completely contradict the image of Pleyel that Clara had originally painted in the beginning of the story. The themes are greatly depicted here: the social conventions of the time, the impacts of love, trust and betrayal, what a woman’s sexuality meant, and what reason is and how it can be manipulate my the mind.

Human Integrity in Poe's work

“The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen  Poe

           

            I wanted to take a different route than what we have been discussing in class and share my thoughts on Poe’s style of writing and uses of symbols to really question human integrity. “The Black Cat” is a story of mystery and suspense. The narrator confesses his tale of murder of his cat with each detail being more spine thrilling than the last. The tale is both a confession and a defense as the narrator makes the point “But to-morrow I die, and to-day I unburthen my soul”(230) but throughout his confession he finds ways to defend himself. He blames his acts of cruelty on alcohol, the cat and the spirit of perverseness.

            There is a lot going on in the tale.  As discussed in class Poe’s work uses different symbols as a way to question human integrity. In the case of “The Black Cat” Poe uses the black cats as his symbol. A black cat is thought to be superstitious, ‘a witch is disguise.’(231), and in the case of this tale, serves as a constant reminder of the narrator’s guilty conscience.

            After the narrator hangs the first cat he misses him, and wishes to replace him. “I went so far as to regret the loss of the animal, and to look about me, among the vile haunts which I now habitually frequented, for another pet of the same species, and of somewhat similar appearance, with which to supply its place.”(233) There is the saying in life that you want what you can’t have, and I think it relates a lot to the narrator. He is regretting his actions and wants to fill a void. Is the best way to forget about something that was lost to replace it with the same thing? I think that the second black cat is really a symbol for narrator’s conscience and mind. The wanting of the second cat is the narrator’s way to ‘replace’ the first one, and therefore also ‘replace’ the memory associated with it.

            The next point where Poe touches on the ability of the human mind to rationalize and the integrity of people is in the paragraph on perverseness. The narrator begins his tale by describing his love for his animals and then his’ fiend intemperance’ that causes him to abuse them. He then goes on to say ‘perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart… have we not a perpetual inclination, to violate that which is law, merely because we understand it to be such?’ (232) The desire to do wrong simply because we know it to be wrong is not a good justification for murder nor really for anything. But so often we see acts of crime being committed for this very reason, because the inclination and desire to do so was there.

             I think Poe’s point in writing this tale was not only to provide a thrilling tale but to question where our morals and ethics come in. At which point in the story was that line crossed and these acts were no longer an act of perverseness? These weren’t acts that the narrator could rationalize, yet he does so in his confession, leading the readers to believe that he is psychologically impaired and therefore no questions of human integrity arise.  

Edgar Allen Poe "The Black Cat"

                      The short story “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe is a story that brings you into the mind of a murderer who is an alcoholic’s head. The story is told from the first-person point of view. The advantage of telling this story in the first-person point of view is that the reader is able to really grasp the emotions that the narrator is feeling and see what he is seeing. If this was told from a third-person point of view the reader would only be able to see how the man looks and feels from the outside, which wouldn’t be as dramatic or exciting.

            A good example of being able to be inside the narrator’s head comes from when he returns home drunk and realizes that the cat is avoiding him. He finds the cat and picks it up, in defense the cat bites his hand and the author says, “the fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body; and a more than fiendish malevolence, ginnurtured, thrilled every fibre of my frame” (pg. 231). This quote really exemplifies and gives and in depth look at the emotions that the narrator is feeling. If this was told from the third-person point of view, the author wouldn’t be able to display these emotions so intensely, thus not giving the reader the sense of anger that the narrator is feeling.

            Not only does the reader get a better sense of the emotions of the narrator but they also get a much better image of what he is actually seeing. After his house burns down there is only one wall left standing and there is a crowd of people surrounding it. He goes to see what everyone is looking at and describes what he sees as “if graven in bas relief upon the white surface, the figure of a gigantic cat. The impression was given with an accuracy truly marvelous. There was a rope about the animal’s neck” (pg. 232). Here the reader is able to see exactly what the narrator is seeing and not what everyone crowded around the wall is seeing. The narrator immediately assumes that the crowd is seeing the same thing that he is when he hears people saying the words “strange” and “singular” (pg. 232). As far as we know, he is so paranoid that he is imagining that the shadow is there, and the other people are in awe thinking that it was “strange” that a “singular” wall was the only thing left standing after a huge fire. This makes the story more suspenseful and mysterious to the reader, which is appealing to many audiences.

            The first-person point of view allows the narrator to provide the readers with the opportunity to more closely relate to the emotions and feelings of the narrator. It can also add more excitement and suspense to the story. On the other hand, a third-person point of view can give the reader different perspectives of what is happening but will not be as in depth as a first-person point of view. 

"The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe

The Black Cat, by Edgar Allan Poe, revolved around creating an emotional effect towards the reader. Throughout the text, emotions varying from horror to shock arose in the readers’ minds. Although we debated continuously in class trying to decide whether the text was a confession or a defense, the verdict could very well go either way. Poe’s story provides textual evidence that can prove the narrator to be confessing to his wrongdoing but there is also support offered within the text that is more along the lines of a defense. I believe this story becomes more of a defense the further the situation is discussed.

The narrator continuously involves alcohol as playing a vital reason as to why he abuses his cat. He refers to “alcoholism” and being possessed as the main reasons for his actions. Whether the narrator is constantly intoxicated or not he appears to still know everything he is doing is wrong. Because of this the idea of “PERVERSENESS” becomes the bigger issue.

The ultimate human problem within this story is not the alcohol or the cat, which the narrator points the finger at, but it is rather the idea of “PERVERSENESS.” The author defines perverseness as one of the “primitive impulses of the human heart” (Poe 232). The paragraph about perverseness describes this human feeling almost as if it is an intuition that all humans contain. Humans are drawn to do that which people say they cannot do; or shouldn’t do. The idea of perverseness was described as doing something wrong simply for the sake that it’s wrong. Later the author speaks about perverseness as if it becomes self-satisfying to whoever is committing the deed: “one of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of Man” (Poe 232). He even makes the assumption that everyone does it: “Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a silly action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not?” (Poe 232) If “everyone” does it then it must be okay and it must not be a big deal. This is the message that becomes portrayed within the story and it also becomes another moment where the narrator’s story becomes a defense rather than a confession.

Although I can see where the author is coming from about doing what people say we shouldn’t do, I do not think that it’s enough justification for, in this case, the murders that were committed. Going against what is right only because it’s the law to do otherwise becomes a problem with the individual. The narrator proceeds to blame “the spirit of perverseness” for the resulting outcome he had committed. “It was this unfathomable longing of the soul to vex itself- to offer violence to its own nature- to do wrong for the wrong’s sake only- that urged me to continue and finally to consummate the injury I had inflicted upon the unoffending brute” (Poe 232). He is blaming “perverseness” for his actions. While he is admitting to his actions he does not confess to it being his fault. The word “unoffending” when speaking about the cat allows the reader to understand that he knew the cat was innocent and did not deserve to be murdered.

I believe the man was fully aware of the acts he was committing, but rather than taking full responsibility he wished to come clean while attempting to have people think he was really a good person and it was the alcohol, cat, and idea of perverseness which made him do it.

Edgar Allan Poe- "The Black Cat"

The short story “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe is a story that exemplifies confession and defense of the horrid events that led him to jail.  Poe often times commits to his crime but then again finds excuses that would make it rational for him to do the terrible crimes that he has done.   Poe states, “But to-morrow I die, and to-day I would unburthen my soul”, allowing us to conclude that he is on death row and that he would like to confess about his atrocious actions (230).  Poe admits that “these events have terrified-have tortured-have destroyed me” but yet hopes to find “some intellect” that would “reduce my phantasm” and make it “more logical” and would make it “nothing more than an ordinary succession of very natural causes and effects” (230).  The story revolves around the constant battle between Poe and the black cats, although he ends up murdering one of the black cat’s.  He states that “I was especially fond of animals and was indulged by my parents with a great variety of pets…and never was so happy as when feeding and caressing them,” and tries to make us reason with him in that he used to love animals but was just in the wrong state of mind when he killed the cat.  Poe tries to justify himself by blaming alcohol for the “…more moody, more irritable, and more regardless of the feelings of others” person he had become (231).  Poe tries to defend himself of the actions he committed by stating “The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer” (231). 

Although Poe expresses a lot of examples of defense, his choice of words also indicates a sense of confession.   For example Poe states “I took my waistcoat-pocket a pen-knife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket!”  (231). The word “deliberately” means that his actions were intentional and that the use of alcohol shouldn’t be of blame.   Poe confesses that he “hung it because I knew that it had loved me, and because I felt it had given me no reason of offence; - hung it because I knew that in so doing I was committing a sin- a deadly sin that would so jeopardize my immortal soul as to place it…” (232). This shows that he has no way to justify his actions because he knew exactly what he was doing. 

“I avoided the creature; a certain sense of shame, and the remembrance of my former deed of cruelty, preventing me from physically abusing it” stated by Poe proves that he is shameful of his act and that he wouldn’t have thought of killing the second cat if it  hadn’t been influenced upon him by alcohol (234).  Poe admits that “When I had finished, I felt satisfied that all was right” (236).  However he also states that “…the hideous beast whose craft had seduced me into murder, and whose informing voice had consigned me to the hangman,” which shows that he is trying to defend himself in saying that the cat had provoked him into murder.  Along with blaming alcohol, Poe starts to blame the cat for murdering his wife by saying “The cat followed me down the steep stairs, and, nearly throwing me headlong, exasperated me to madness” (236). 

Although Poe tries to justify his actions by accusing the cats and alcohol for influencing him, he also confesses that he was aware of his actions.  In my opinion, I think that none of his actions can be justifiable.  Poe has no right to blame alcohol for manipulating his mind due to the fact that he had chosen to consume that alcohol. 

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