An Analysis of the Symbolic Meanings in The Black Cat ---- On the Distortion of Human Nature_英语论文

摘要

埃德加·爱伦·坡作为十九世纪美国著名的诗人、小说家和文学批评家，是现代侦探小说和科幻小说先驱之一。坡的作品《黑猫》是一本短篇小说，也是他的代表作之一。《黑猫》讲述了邪恶的主人公杀猫弑妻，并且毫无愧疚地藏匿妻子尸体，最终罪行暴露的故事。他在这部小说中运用了多种写作手法，而象征手法就是其中较为突出的一种。本文将通过分析这篇小说中黑猫、猫眼、主人公、妻子、火、墙等事物的象征意义，揭露作者所提出并质疑的扭曲的人性，以此来解读埃德加·爱伦·坡作品中对人性中善与恶毒的呈现和争辩，从而进一步理解坡的小说创作。

关键词：埃德加·爱伦·坡，《黑猫》，象征意义，人性

Abstract

Edgar Allan Poe, the-19th-century famous American poet, short story writer and literary critic, is one of the pioneers of the modern detective stories and science fiction.  Poe’s Black Cat is a short story, and it’s one of his representative works. It tells a story about an evil protagonist for killing his cats and his wife. With no guilt, he hides his wife’s corpse. Finally the crime is revealed. Poe uses several writing techniques in the short story, among which symbolism is a prominent one. This essay is to analyze the symbolic meanings of the black cats, of the characters and of the fire and the wall so as to reveal the human nature represented and questioned by the writer and thereby interpret the good and evil nature of human beings embodied in Poe’s short stories and consequently, understand Poe’ s story writing.

Key words: Edger Allan Poe, The Black Cat, symbolic meanings, human nature

Contents

1. Introduction1

2. Demonstration2 

2.1 The Symbolic Meanings of the Black Cats2 

2.1.1 The cat Pluto2

2.1.2 The Second Cat.3

2.1.3 The Cats’ Eyes 4

2.2 The Symbolic Meanings of the Characters5

2.2.1 The Protagonist.5

2.2.2 The Wife6

2.3. The Symbolic Meanings of Other Things.7

2.3.1 The Fire.7

2.3.2 The Walls.7

3. Conclusion8