THE BLACK CAT: STUDY QUESTIONS AND VOCABULARY

E.A. POE, “THE BLACK CAT”

QUESTIONS

What does the narrator do to the cat before he kills him?

What causes the narrator's change in behavior?

What does Pluto die from?

What happens the night that Pluto dies?

What image does the narrator see on the wall behind his bed?

Why do the police come to search the narrator's house?

How do the police find the wife's body?

What is the narrator's fate?

1. In the first few paragraphs, the narrator gives us some background information about himself. What does he most stress?

2. Who was Pluto?

3. Describe the relationship between Pluto and the narrator.

4. What was the first violent act the narrator did to Pluto?

5. What second act (the narrator describes as being done in the spirit of perverseness) did he commit on Pluto?

6. On the night the narrator killed Pluto, what happened to his home?

7. Describe the second cat.

8. Describe the relationship between the second cat and the narrator.

9. What peculiar mark did the cat have?

10. Why did the narrator kill his wife?

11. How did he dispose of the body?

12. Who came on the fourth day after the murder?

13. What was the narrator's reaction to the police?

14. How did the police discover the body?

15. Where is the climax of the story?

16. Which is more important to Poe's purpose: the murders or the revealing of the narrator's mental state?

17. Why is the setting of the story vague?

18. What value does using the first person narrative add to the story?

VOCABULARY:

to pen –be indulged – paltry friendship – gossamer fidelity –  intemperate language – neglect – illuse – peevish – fiendish -  gin nurtured – debauch – deed- fleed (fled-fled) – overthrow – unfathomable –noose – jeopardize – blazing – plastering – behold (beheld-beheld) – a startling fact – I could not rid myself of – den – splotch – stoop – hatred – unutterable loathing – endear – crouch – loathsome – felon’s cell – chimeras – fanciful – shudder – ghastly – the gallows – wretched – feeble – remnant – headlong – goaded by – to wall up – a crowbar – crafty – nook – frenzy – bravado – folly – stout arms – toil – clotted with gore – consigned