Comparing The Black Cat And The Feather Pillow

Gothic literature integrates certain elements to strengthen the already dismal or dark nature of these short stories. Poe’s “The Black Cat,” Matheson’s “Prey,” Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” and Quiroga’s “The Feather Pillow” use grotesqueness and violence in their gothic masterpieces to support their personal beliefs and portray a universal idea of good versus evil. Authors intertwine these elements to emphasize the importance of their work. One way in which authors use these elements is by depicting grotesque images to the reader. Poe, Matheson, and Faulkner’s use of grotesqueness in “The Black Cat,” “Prey,” and “A Rose for Emily” illustrate how grossness can be utilized to make the reader feel a certain way. In Edgar Allen Poe’s “The …show more content…
Poe’s “The Black Cat,” Matheson’s “Prey,” and Quiroga’s “The Feather Pillow” illustrate how pain and violence can be used in literary works to give the reader an overall feeling of mystery and death. Poe’s “The Black Cat” uses violence to reflect the poor decisions the narrator chooses to make: specifically when the narrator “grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket,” (Poe 2). The repulsive image this creates along with words like “grasped” or “deliberately” proves the narrator's lack of remorse he feels when inflicting pain upon the cat. Matheson’s “Prey” uses symbols like a knife when portraying elements like violence. When the cursed doll was chasing the narrator it attacked her and she felt “an icy slashing at her foot,” (Matheson 6). The pain the doll places upon the narrator contributes to violence the author is creating. Quiroga’s “The Feather Pillow” uses violence and blood to dramatize the death of Alicia. The unidentified pain Alicia was going through left her feeling as though “her life [was] leaving her only at night, in new waves of blood,” (Quiroga 2). The parasite that slowly killed Alicia was representative of her relationship and her desperation for attention from her husband. These authors have all commonly put to work violence within their pieces purposefully to contribute to their gothic masterpieces as a

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Comparing The Black Cat And The Feather Pillow

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