Honors Edgar Allan Poe: The Black Cat Test Review

Vocabulary and literary device flashcards based on the Honors English exam for Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Black Cat'.

Protagonist

The central character of the story, represented by the unnamed narrator.

Antagonist

The opposing force in the narrative, represented by the unnamed narrator and the cat.

Foreshadowing

Literary clues suggesting future events, such as the narrator's opening statement 'I will die for my crimes' and the wife's superstition that all black cats are 'witches'.

Allusion

A reference to an outside historical, mythological, or literary source, such as naming the cat Pluto (the Roman god of the underworld) and the narrator burying his wife in a manner similar to monks.

Personification

Giving human characteristics to non-human entities, exemplified by the cat having 'complex reasoning skills' and 'crying' at the end of the story.

Gothic Horror Genre

A literary genre defined in the story by an unreliable narrator, supernatural elements, and a claustrophobic setting.

Mood

The overall emotional atmosphere of the narrative, characterized as eerie, foreboding, and claustrophobic.

Situational Irony

A contradiction between expectation and reality, seen in how the man turns out in life compared to how he was as a child, and how the police are satisfied right as the narrator's pride endangers him.

Internal Conflict

The narrator's psychological battle between his moral conscience and his self-destructive, alcohol-fueled impulses toward cruelty.

External Conflict

The physical struggle against outside forces, exemplified by 'Man vs. multiple pets'.

Setting

The physical environments of the story, specifically the narrator's prison cell and his past homes.

Docility

Gentleness and a mild, manageable disposition; a quality that was conspicuous in the narrator's character from his infancy.

Fiend Intemperance

The narrator's severe drinking habit and lack of restraint, personified as a malevolent force that radically altered his temperament for the worse.

Spirit of Perverseness

A primitive impulse of the human heart identified by the narrator as the urge to do wrong simply because it is wrong.

Primitive Impulses

Basic, fundamental inner drives of human nature, which the narrator argues include perverseness.

'Mere Household Events'

The narrator's term for the occurrences he describes, creating a contrast by connecting ordinary domestic life directly to horror.

'To-morrow I die'

A key structural statement in the opening excerpt that creates urgency before the confession begins.

'My Old Heart'

The narrator's phrase referring to the remaining trace of his former kindness that briefly grieved the cat's dislike before turning to irritation.

First-Person Point of View (Narrative Effect)

A literary perspective that traps the reader inside the narrator's unstable reasoning as he justifies his decline.

Careless Pride

The character trait displayed by the narrator when he walks calmly, folds his arms, and burns to speak a triumphant word to the police in the cellar.

Cellar

The underground room descended into by the police multiple times and the location of the narrator's concealment.