Collage and Women

I did my collage on The Black Cat solely because I like cats. I think they're neat. I like cats. Poe however, does not like cats. Don't be like Poe.

Poe had a fascination with women and their deaths. He thought that was the only way to have a perfect story. Which is why he included this motif in most of his works. Poe includes this either in the form of a man mourning his lost lover or makes his own narrators commit the unforgivable sin.

All the women in Poe's life died.

All all the women Poe truly loved were quickly snatched away by the jaws of death. This real life grief translated over to Poe's writing. the work he considered his masterpiece, Ligea , features the deaths of two very different women. There were works that were exceptions to this self imposed rule, but the ones most widely known and read stick to this rule

The Black Cat is a sad story of a man who's life deteriorates because the relationship he values most becomes the one he has with a bottle of alcohol.

From left to right, my collage includes-

• A snarling kitten. The kitten looks cute and only mildly threatening. The narrator, however would probably look at this as the cat being extremely hostile 
• A tree with a noose. The place where the narrator killed the innocent cat, the place where his troubles truly began 
• A piercing eye. The missing eye of both cats is what gets the narrator the most nervous and scared when it comes to the second cat
• A glass of alcohol takes center stage. Alcohol is the focal and pivotal point of this story. The narrator's addiction to alcohol is the source of all his problems. His drinking habit is what causes him to come across the second cat.
• "Raise a glass for Hades rides". Raising a glass is something positive. We raise glasses during celebrations. Raising a glass for the god of death is something not done and ties into the shocking nature of the story 
• A woman with a bloody face. The narrator's wife is killed my being struck with an axe. The woman looks shocked and almost erotic 
• A bloody axe. The axe used to kill the narrator's wife that was meant for the cat. The narrator does not show any remorse
• The hole in the wall. The site where the story finally ends and the narrator's hubris reveals his misdeed.

"I had walled the monster up within the tomb."