1. Discuss who could be the protagonist and antagonist in The Black Cat; explain your logic and reasoning for why? Please remember to use details and specifics from the story to support your response.
2. What Gothic Literature that we've read so far is your favorite, explain why? (The Raven, The Masque of the Red Death, The Minister's Black Veil, or The Black Cat)
3. What are some similarities between all the Gothic Literature stories we've read so far? Again, be specific and use details in your response.
Grigg-
ReplyDelete1.The protagonist in The Black Cat is the narrator because the story is from his perspective. I believe the antagonist is the second black cat because this represents his repressed emotions. In the story it says, “By slow degrees, these feelings of disgust and annoyance rose into the bitterness of hatred. I avoided the creature; a certain sense of shame, and the remembrance of my former deed of cruelty…” At the end of the story the narrator states: “I had walled up the monster within the tomb!” This shows how the protagonist is referring to the second black cat as a monster and the villain.
2.I liked the Masque of the Red Death because it was interesting and descriptive. The picture that the author portrayed of the seven rooms with the seven colors was very attention-grabbing: “These windows were of stained glass whose color varied in accordance with the prevailing hue of the decorations of the chamber in which it opened.” The story then goes on the deeply describe the seven rooms and this is interesting.
3.In all of the gothic literature the villain prevails over the protagonist. Also in all the stories there is an underlining theme of death: the lost Lenore in The Raven, the plague killing thousands in The Masque of the Red Death, the funeral and the minister’s death in The Minister’s Black Veil, the killing of the old man in Tell-Tale Heart, and the killing of the black cat and the narrator’s wife in The Black Cat.
Grigg- Additional analysis
ReplyDelete1. In addition the second black cat wins over the protagonist in the end as it always does in gothic literature, further ensuring he is the antagonist.
2. I twas also fun to get to see the video version of this short story.
3. The Tell-Tale Heart and The Black Cat are very similar because they both share the same plot line. The protagonist is vexed beyond control and then murders someone. They then try to conceal the murder and are inspected by police. In both stories they are caught in the act after they thought they were safe.
Grigg- 3rd analysis
ReplyDelete1. The second black cat is what ultimately reveals and represents the repressed emotions of the protagonist as it is what vexes him past his limits. It is this cat that ultimately wins in the end.
2. No additional comments.
3. In all Gothic Literature a feeling of dread and fright is evoked, much like in all of these stories. The reader is left suprised by the outcome (not expecting the protagonist to lose) and walks away with an omninous and eerie feeling
Allegra Post 1
ReplyDelete1. The protagonist is the narrator of the story. The antagonist is the second cat, because he essentially brings out the repressed emotions of the narrator. It is the second cat and not Pluto who is the antagonist because the second cat is the one who ultimately prevails in the end.
2. So far, the Black Cat has been my favorite. I like the fact that he is sitting in jail as he writes the story, and the darkness of it. I think it is the most graphic one we have read, and I like it. However, there is not much of a deeper meaning to it unlike the other stories.
Allegra Post 2
ReplyDelete1. The protagonist is the narrator, who is trying to hide his repressed emotions and has isolated himself. The antagonist is the cat, Pluto, who shows up in two forms. He resurrects himself after being hanged and shows up as the second cat. Essentially, it is his second form that prevails over the protagonist in the end. His overly affectionate personality brings the narrator to his demise because it brings out his repressed emotions. The protagonist is trying to repress his shame, guilt, and disgust for himself and his actions. He is in denial of his wrongdoings and shows it with anger and abuse. The cat, whose eye he cut out in rage, is a symbol of the harm he causes and his failures. His feelings towards the cat are a mirror image of himself. When the cat meows in the wall and leads the police to the body, his official demise takes place.
2. The Black cat is my favorite story because of the irony and the darkness of it. There is not as many deeper meanings in this story like there are in the other ones.
3. In each gothic literature story, there are protagonists voluntarily isolated with repressed emotions. There are antagonists that ultimately prevail in the end.
Grigg- After today’s class this is a revised version of my first comment of question 1.
ReplyDelete1. I think the protagonist in The Black Cat is the narrator of the story because the story is from his perspective and he is the main character. He is also isolated in his home as a result of his alcoholism. I believe the antagonist is the second black cat because it represents the repressed emotions of the antagonist. In the story it says, “By slow degrees, these feelings of disgust and annoyance rose into the bitterness of hatred. I avoided the creature; a certain sense of shame, and the remembrance of my former deed of cruelty…” This shows how the protagonist feels guilt for his former deed and this second black cat reminds him of this shame and remorse he feels. At the end of the story the narrator states: “I had walled up the monster within the tomb!” The narrator is explicitly stating how he has walled up his repressed emotions, represented through the second black cat. The second black cat is also the character that prevails in the end, and as in all Gothic Literature the villain is the one that prevails.
Allegra Post 3
ReplyDelete2. The Black Cat is my favorite story so far because of the irony. The story is written when the protagonist is in jail for the murder of his wife about to be hanged, and his demise began from when he first hanged his cat, Pluto. The last quote of the story says, “The corpse, already greatly decayed and clotted with gore, stood erect before the eyes of the spectators. Upon its head, with red extended mouth and solitary eye of fire, sat the hideous beast whose craft had seduced me into murder, and whose informing voice had consigned me into hangman. I had walled the monster up within the tomb!” This makes me think of the expression "an eye for an eye". The narrator had cut Pluto's eye out in rage, anger, and intoxication, even though the cat showed affection for him. When the cat prevails, he is essentially getting revenge on the protagonist. The cat's name Pluto represents the god of the underworld, or hell. When Pluto's second form ultimately brings him to his demise, they are in a cellar with his wife's buried body. The setting in which the protagonist fell to his demise and left off is a symbol of hell, and that is essentially where he will end up.
Grigg- Additional Question #2
ReplyDelete2. In the Masque of the Red Death the detail was profound. All of this detail portrayed a very vivid picture in my mind of exactly what the setting was and what the story was about. The descriptiveness of this story helped me better understand the motives of the protagonist and antagonist. It is ironic that the protagonist has thrown a ball escaping the Red Death and this is what eventually strikes him down. This interesting story on such an evil time in history was my favorite.
Arianna's Response #1
ReplyDelete1. I believe that the protagonist in this story is the narrator and the antagonist is the Black Cat. The definition of an antagonist in Gothic Literature is someone who brings out the repressed emotions in the protagonist. Also the antagonist always prevails over the protagonist in all Gothic Literature. In the story The Black Cat, by Edgar Allen Poe the black cat is the thing that brings out the narrator’s repressed emotions. One day when they narrator comes home drunk attacks his cat. “. The fury of a demon possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at one, to take its flight from my body and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every fibre of my frame.” This quote shows that along with the alcohol something about this cat triggered him to feel so angry with himself that he impulsively cut his cat’s eye out. Throughout the story the missing eye and the gallows on the cat’s chest remind the narrator of the things he did to his cat Pluto and feels like this black cat is taunting him. He is very irritated by the cat and feels like it will never let him be at peace again.
2. Out of all the pieces of Gothic Literature we have read my favorite is The Masque of the Red Death. I really liked how the story was based off a real event, The Bubonic Plague. I think it was really clever how the author put a twist on this peace of history and made it creepy yet exciting. In the story Prince Prospero, our protagonist throws an extravagant ball and invites all his friends to dance to night away and believes that if he just ignores the black plague it will just go away. This ball has 7 rooms that symbolize the circle of life. The colors of the chamber go from blue to purple to green to orange then white followed by purple and lastly black and red. The blue rand purple represent birth and infancy while green represents the childhood. The orange and white which kind of represent growing up and finally breaking off from your parents and then purple I believe kind of represents adult hood. Lastly the black and red represents the death in life and is something many of these people at the ball avoid. I thought it was ironic how Prince Prospero was killed in the red and black room. I thought it was ironic how the Prince threw a masquerade kind of mocking the Red Death and in the end is killed by none other than the Red Death.
3. The most common similarity in all of these pieces of literature are the fact of the protagonist and the antagonist. All of these stories have both a protagonist and an antagonist. Usually the protagonist is isolated from society. They have a sort of repressed emotion usually having to do with fear, guilt, and sin. The antagonist, the one who prevails over all is the one who brings out the repressed emotion in the protagonist and is usually feared by the antagonist. For example in the Red Death Prince Prospero covers up his fear of the plague, but his repressed emotion is brought out by the plague when he is seconds from death. Another similarity is the setting. The setting in all the stories is very dark and gloomy. There isn’t much happiness in these stories and when there is they don’t focus on it. The settings in these stories are made to scare us and make us never want to be in the places they are in.
Grigg- revised analysis question #3
ReplyDelete3. In all of the gothic literature the villain prevails over the protagonist. Also in all these stories there is an underlining theme of death: the lost Lenore in The Raven, the plague killing thousands in The Masque of the Red Death, the funeral and the minister’s death in The Minister’s Black Veil, the killing of the old man in Tell-Tale Heart, and the killing of the black cat and the narrator’s wife in The Black Cat. A common theme is also that the protagonist in each story is met with defeat by the end of the story with the villain prevailing over all.
Black Cat Post #2
ReplyDelete1. Other details from the story that support that the protagonist is the narrator is because he is the person who is defeated in the end. He is caught for all the bad sins he has done instead of getting away with it like he thought he would. The antagonist or the black cat is the thing that brings out the narrator's repressed emotions which as i stated before is the definition of the antagonist in gothic literature. It is different from normal literature the antagonist is usually the bad guy, but in stories like The Black Cat and other pieces of gothic literature they aren't necessarily.
2. Another thing I liked about The Masque of The Red Death is play on words for Prince Prospero. It is funny how the prince thinks he is so prosperous that his wealth will almost buy him a way of defeating the plague when the truth is that he can't run for it. I feel like there is a deeper meaning in this name and the author is trying to show a point that money may be able to buy you a nice house and good clothes, but sometimes it can't buy your health.
3.Another similarity in these stories is that the protagonist always fails. He or she is always defeated in some way or another and this is true in all gothic literature. Another similarity is that in most the stories the protagonist is not neccesarily the good guy. Sometimes the antagonist is the good guy and the protagonist is the one causing the trouble. Lastly the stories have a common theme of darkness and death. In all the stories there is little happiness and the story is revolved around dark ideas and images such as murder and death hints the term Gothic Literature.
^THE POST ABOVE IS ARIANNA AMINI
ReplyDeleteArianna Amini
ReplyDeleteBlack Cat Post #3
1. I have talked a lot about the antagonist bringing out the repressed emotion in the protagonist, but I haven’t really elaborated on what it means. In the black cat our narrator is tortured with regret for what he did to his beloved cat Pluto and to his wife. He uses alcohol to cover up his repressed emotions, but ghost of his cat begins to appear and torment him of the memories he begins to think about his sins more and more. Finally when the cat leads the investigators to his wife’s body or so he thinks his emotions come out and he admits to all.
2. The Masque of The Red Death is an all and all epitomy of a piece of gothic literature. From the setting to the charectors everything is eerie and dark. The setting of the bubonic plague and the way the time period of the story is described sets the reader up for this dramatic short story. It is almost like even though the masquerade ball, which goes on throughout this story, is suppose to be happy and enjoyable the story still has a dark twist. When the man in the Masque does appear and the story is turned upside down we truly see why this story is a wonderful piece of gothic literature. From the language to the plot of the story I enjoyed it very much.
3. Another similarity in gothic liteature is the language used. Most of these stories were written in the late eighteen hundreds early nineteen hundreds so the language is a little older and mystery. The vocabulary is a little bit higher than a basic novel, but it is very powerful. It makes you feel like you are at the location and it makes you wonder what would happen if you were a character in the stories and how you would feel.