"I" have a kind heart since I was a child, and I especially like raising small animals. After we got married, my wife and I were congenial and kept many small animals at home. One of the black cats named Bruto and I have a good friendship. However, the habit of drinking for a long time greatly changed my temperament. One night, I came home drunk and gouged out one of Bruto's eyes. After that, "I" hanged it cruelly. An inexplicable fire left me with nothing. Later, "I" was horrified to find that a black cat had been left on the wall at the scene of the fire. In order to calm my complicated emotions, "I" raised another black cat very similar to Bruto. "I" gradually found that it was more and more like Pluto, not only the eyes were gouged out, but also the mark on the neck was more and more like a gallows. The unbearable "I" decided to kill the cat, but my wife stopped me. In a rage, "I" hacked her to death with an axe. Then, "I" racked my brains to come up with a perfect idea, and built my wife's body on the wall of the cellar. Since then, "I" have never seen a black cat again and lived a seemingly peaceful life. After escaping from the police search three times and four times, "I" knocked on the wall where the body was buried with my finger, and a terrible voice came from there. The police finally found the body and the black cat buried inside.

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The story I want to tell is extremely absurd and ordinary. I don't expect you to believe it. Even my heart doesn't believe these personal experiences. Isn't it crazy to expect others to believe it? But I'm not crazy at the moment, and I'm really not dreaming. But tomorrow I will die, and I will say it today, so that my soul can rest in peace. I am eager to make these pure housework detailed, concise and uncritical. Because of these things, I was frightened and tortured, and finally ruined my life. But I don't want to explain in detail. These things to me, only terror; But for most people, this is just an anecdote, nothing to be afraid of. Perhaps, some people of insight in later generations will regard my nonsense as a trivial matter. Some people of insight are calmer and more organized than me, and will not panic like me. In their view, what I have described in such fear and detail must be a series of ordinary things with their causes and consequences.

I have been known for my kindness and meekness since I was a child. My heart is surprisingly soft, and I once became the laughing stock of children. I like animals very much, so my parents indulge me and give me all kinds of small animals for me to enjoy. I spend most of my time playing with these little animals. Whenever I feed and touch them, I feel very happy. When I grew up, this addiction also developed, and it remained my main pleasure until I became an adult. Some people like loyal and intelligent dogs. For them, there is no need to waste your breath explaining that it is fun. If you often taste the feeling of ingratitude, you will certainly feel the self-sacrifice and selfless love of the beast.

I got married a long time ago. Fortunately, my wife is like me. She thinks I prefer to keep livestock, and as long as I have the opportunity to find something I like, I will never let it go. We have birds, goldfish, purebred dogs, rabbits, a little monkey and a cat.

This cat is big, beautiful, black and very smart. My wife is superstitious by nature. When she talks about the spirituality of this cat, she often mentions the ancient legend that all black cats are witches. I'm not saying that my wife is serious about it. I only mentioned it here by accident.

This cat's name is Pluto, and it is my favorite thing and playmate. I feed it myself, and it follows me wherever I go in the house. Even if I walk into the street, it will follow me, and no matter how hard I try, I can't get rid of it.

My friendship with cats has been maintained for several years. In the past few years, I'm sorry to say that my temper has completely deteriorated, because I am a heavy drinker. I become more and more moody every day. I get angry easily, no matter what others can't stand. I am willful and abuse my wife. Finally, I punched and kicked her. Of course, my little animals also think that my temper is getting worse and worse. Instead of taking care of them, I abused them. Those rabbits, monkeys and even dogs, out of intimacy, or happened to come to me, I always spoil them wantonly. Only when I treat Pluto, I still have compassion, and I can't bear to do so. Unexpectedly, my illness became more and more serious-you think there is nothing worse than drinking-and then Pluto was old and stubborn, so I simply took Pluto as a punching bag.

One night, I got as drunk as a fiddler in a restaurant I frequented in the city. I thought the cat was avoiding me, so I caught it. When it saw my fierce face, it was frightened and couldn't help biting my hand and leaving teeth marks. I was suddenly possessed like a devil and flew into a rage. I got carried away for a moment. It turned out that the kind soul flew out of my body at once, and became more fierce than evil because of alcoholism. I don't know where it came from. I took a knife out of my vest pocket, opened it, grabbed the poor beast by the throat and gouged out its eyes with ulterior motives! When I wrote down this bloody atrocity, I couldn't help blushing and trembling.

I woke up with a hangover after a night's sleep. The next morning, I came to my senses and regretted having committed this crime. But at most, it's just a faint and vague feeling. My soul is still untouched. I drank too much. Once I indulged in my hometown, I forgot all my actions.

At this time, the cat's injury gradually improved, and the eyes that were gouged out were really terrible. It seems that it no longer feels pain. It walked around the house as usual, but as soon as I got close, it ran away as expected. After all, my conscience is still alive, so I am sad to see that the beast who loved me so much in the past hated me so much at first. But this sad feeling suddenly turned into anger. Then the evil thought came back, and finally I lost control. Philosophically, this evil thought has not been taken seriously. However, I am convinced that this evil idea is an impulse of human instinct, a minimum primitive function or emotion, and human character is determined by it. Who hasn't done many bad things or stupid things unintentionally? When you do it for no reason, you know you can't do it, but you must. Even though we know that this is illegal, won't we still ignore the consequences we see and have the evil idea of desperately breaking the law? Alas, it was this evil idea that finally ruined my life. It is precisely because of my unpredictable desire in my heart, eager to ask for trouble, contrary to my nature, to do evil for the sake of evil, that I actually continued to do evil to that innocent animal, and finally it was killed. One morning, I was cruel. I tied a lasso around the cat's neck and hung it on a branch. I was in tears and regretted it, so I hanged the cat. I made this decision because I knew that the cat loved me, because I didn't think that the cat offended me, because I knew it was a crime-a big crime that should go to hell, so big that my eternal soul could never be reborn. If possible, even a kind, respectable and terrible God can't forgive my sins.

On the night of this heinous activity, I suddenly heard a cry of fire in my sleep and woke up at once. The curtains on the bed are on fire. The whole house is on fire. My wife, a servant and I managed to escape from the fire. The fire burned thoroughly. All my possessions went up in smoke, and from then on, I simply lost all hope.

I'm not that weak. I'll find the causal relationship between my crime and this fire. But I will tell you the whole story in detail, and I hope I won't leave any links. The day after the fire, I went to mourn the ruins. All the walls collapsed except one. At first glance, it turned out to be a partition wall, but it was not very thick. It's right in the middle of the room, and my bedside is close to this wall. The plaster on the wall has greatly blocked the fire, which I think is the result of recent painting. Many people gathered in front of the wall. It seems that many people are looking at the wall very carefully and intently. I only hear people shouting "strange and strange" and so on. I couldn't help being curious, so I went to have a look, but I saw a bas-relief on the white wall, which turned out to be a huge cat. This cat is perfectly carved. The cat has a lasso around its neck.

As soon as I saw this monster, I thought I was a ghost. I was frightened. But on second thought, I finally felt relieved. I remember the cat hanging in the garden next to the house. The garden was crowded with people when the fire broke out. Someone must have put the cat down from the tree and threw it into my bedroom through the open window. He may have done it to wake me up. Several other walls fell down, just pressing the cat I killed on the newly painted plaster wall; Lime between the walls, fire and ammonia emitted by the remains played a certain role. The relief image I just saw appeared on the wall.

This thrilling fact that I have just explained in detail is common in theory. Even if I can't defend it with my conscience, it always leaves a deep impression on my mind. I can't get rid of the illusion of cats for months. At this time, I have a vague feeling of regret, not regret. I even regretted killing the cat, so I looked for a black cat with a similar appearance everywhere to make up for the inferior places I frequented.

One night, I was drunk and sat in an inferior wine cellar. Suddenly, I noticed a vat containing gin or rum, which was the main item in the house. There is something black on the bucket. I stared at the big barrel for a long time, but it was strange that I didn't see it earlier. I approached it and touched it with my hand. It turned out to be a black cat. It's very big, exactly the same size as Pluto. Except for one place, all other places are similar. Bruto doesn't have a white hair all over his body; The cat's chest is almost all white spots, but it is very vague.

As soon as I touched it, it jumped up and purred against my hand, which showed that it appreciated my attention and was very happy. This cat is just what I dream of. I asked the shopkeeper to buy it on the spot, but the shopkeeper didn't know the origin of the cat and had never seen it, so he didn't ask to buy it.

I continued to pet the cat and was about to go home, but the cat showed signs of going with me. I let it follow me. I often bend down to touch it when I walk. The cat was very good as soon as it arrived at my house and won my wife's heart at once.

As for me, I soon became disgusted with the cat. This is beyond my expectation. I don't know what this is about or why. Its attachment to me is so obvious that I hate and get angry when I see it. Gradually, these emotions turned into hatred. I tried to avoid the cat. It was because of my shame that I dared not bully it, because I remembered the cruelty I had committed before. I haven't hit it for weeks, and I haven't abused it rudely. But as time went by, I gradually became disgusted with this cat. When I saw its ugly face, I slipped away like a plague.

Needless to say, the reason why I hate this beast more is that when I brought it home the next morning, I saw it like Pluto, and my eyes were gouged out. However, my wife likes it even more after seeing this situation. As I said above, my wife is a compassionate person. I used to have this excellent virtue, which once made me feel pure pleasure.

Although I hate this cat, it is becoming more and more affectionate to me. It has never left me, and this turning point is difficult for readers to understand. As soon as I sit down, it will squat at the foot of my chair, or jump on my lap and coquetry everywhere on me. It's really annoying As soon as I stood up and walked, it entangled my feet and almost tripped me; If you don't, just hook my clothes with long, sharp claws and climb up my chest. Although I hope I can kill it with one punch, at this time, I still dare not do it, on the one hand, because I remember my previous sins, and the main reason is-let me put it bluntly-I am very afraid of this beast.

This layer of fear is not fear of suffering, but it is hard to say clearly. I'm ashamed to admit-well, even now I'm on death row, I'm ashamed to admit that the fear this cat has brought me is worse, because it's a pure illusion that can be imagined. My wife has drawn my attention to this white hair spot more than once. As I mentioned above, the only obvious difference between this strange cat and the cat I killed is this spot. I'm sure you will remember that although this spot is very big, it turns out to be very vague; But gradually, unconsciously, it was obvious, and finally a clear outline came out. For a long time, my reason refused to admit this and tried to regard it as an illusion. At this time, the spot has become something, and I can't help but be afraid to mention the name of this thing. Because of this, I am particularly disgusted and afraid of this monster. If I had the courage, I would kill it. I said, originally this thing is a terrible illusion, the illusion of a terrible thing-a gallows! Oh, what a sad and terrible instrument of torture! This is a terrible torture device, a real torture device! This is a painful instrument of torture, a painful instrument of torture!

At this time, I really fell to the point of bad luck. I killed an irrational animal as if nothing had happened. Its kind, an irrational beast, has brought so many unbearable disasters to me, a man created in the image of God! Oh, dear! No matter day or night, I will never be at peace again! During the day, this beast won't leave my wife alone for a moment; At night, I always wake up from nightmares. I can't tell you how terrible it is. The first thing I see is always this thing blowing hot air on my face. I always hold this terrible thing in my heart and I can't get rid of this particular nightmare!

I have suffered so much, and I have lost what little kindness I have left in my heart. Evil thoughts have become my only inner activity, and turning around is an extremely despicable and dirty evil thought. I have always been moody, but now I hate everything and people. I indulge myself blindly, and I often get angry suddenly and can't control it. Oh, dear! My wife has no complaints, but she often suffers.

As our family is poor, we have to live in an old house. One day, in order to do housework, she accompanied me to the cellar of this old house. The cat followed me down the steep steps, which almost made me fall headlong and drove me crazy. I waved an axe, and in my anger, I forgot that I still had childish fears about the cat. I aimed at the cat and cut it down. If I really cut it as I wish, it goes without saying that the cat will die on the spot. Who knows, my wife reached out and grabbed me. I was angry at that time. When I told her to stop, I flew into a rage. I took the opportunity to break free from my arm and cut an axe at her skull. Poor her. She died on the spot without a snort.

After I finished this heinous murder, I just thought about the problem of hiding the body carefully. I know that if I want to move the body out, my neighbors will inevitably bump into me, day or night. I have thought a lot of plans. Later, I wanted to chop the body into small pieces and burn it in order to destroy it. After a while, I decided to dig a grave in the cellar and bury it. I'm going to throw the body into the well in the yard later. It is also planned to box the body as cargo and hire porters to move it as usual. Finally, I suddenly thought of a thought-provoking plan. I made up my mind to build the body into the wall of the cellar. According to legend, this is how medieval monks built martyrs on the wall.

This cellar pie is really suitable for this purpose. The wall structure is very loose and has just been completely renovated with coarse plaster, because the cellar is wet and the plaster is not dry yet. In addition, a wall was built because of a fake fireplace, which has been filled up, just like other parts of the cellar. I can easily dig up the bricks in this place, stuff the body in, and completely build the wall as usual, so that no one can see the flaw.

This idea is really good. I pried the brick wall open with a crowbar at once, then carefully leaned my body against the wall inside so that it wouldn't fall down, and then built the wall as it was without any trouble. I found lime, yellow sand and pine wool and made all the preparations. I mixed a new mortar that was inseparable from the old mortar and carefully applied it to the newly built brick wall. When I finished and saw that everything was going well, I was relieved. There is no trace of soil on this wall at all. The garbage that fell to the ground was also carefully cleaned up. I looked around triumphantly and couldn't help saying to myself, "All this was not in vain!" "

Next, I will look for the curse that has brought me so many disasters; I finally made up my mind to kill the beast If I had met that cat, it would have died long ago. Unexpectedly, when I just flew into a rage, the ghost got a genial smile and slipped away Now, in front of my fire, I naturally dare not show my face. The nasty beast finally left. I finally put down the big stone that weighed on my heart. This deep joy is really indescribable and unimaginable. At night, the cat hasn't appeared yet; In this way, since the cat came to my house, at least my wife finally slept peacefully all night. Alas, despite the heavy burden of killing people, I fell asleep.

After the second and third days, the tortured cat hasn't come yet. I am breathing like a free man again. This ghost cat scared away from the house and never came back! Out of sight is clean, not to mention how much fun it is! Although I have committed a heinous crime, I have nothing to worry about. The government came to investigate several times, and I sent them away in a few words. I even came to copy my home once, but of course I couldn't find any clues. I think the future is safe.

Four days after I killed my wife, I didn't expect a group of policemen to rush into the room and search it carefully. But I thought the hiding place was hidden, and they would never think of it, so I didn't feel flustered at all. The police asked me to search with them. They never let go of any corner. After the third and fourth searches, they finally walked down the cellar. I am calm and unmoved. I have never done anything wrong in my life. I'm not surprised at knocking at the door in the middle of the night. My heart is so calm. I walked up and down the cellar. He walked around casually with his arms on his chest. The police are completely relieved and ready to leave. I am ecstatic and ecstatic. In order to show my pride, I can't wait to speak, even if I say a word, so that they can be more assured that I am innocent.

As soon as these people walked up the stairs, I finally spoke. "Gentlemen, thank you for dispelling my doubts. I am very grateful. I salute you and hope you can take care of me. By the way, gentlemen, this room is very strong. " I fainted and said some nonsense at random. I hardly know what I said. "The structure of this house can be said to be extremely good. These walls-gentlemen, do you want to go? -These walls are built very firmly. " At this point, I lost my mind for a moment, pretended to make a gesture, and even picked up a stick in my hand and banged on the brick wall where my beloved wife's body stood.

Oh, please bless me and save me from the devil's mouth! Before the echo of knocking on the wall became silent, I heard a voice in the grave! -a cry, at first, the head jar voice jar spirit, intermittent, like a child's sobbing, and then suddenly turned into a continuous loud whistling sound, abnormal and terrible-this is a cry-a wail, half like terror, half like pride, only the screams of the ghosts who fell into hell and the cheers of the demons who saw the ghosts punished by heaven can not be separated from this sound.

Said my thoughts at that time were ridiculous. I stumbled to the wall in a daze. The policeman on the steps froze with fear. After a while, I saw a dozen stout arms busy tearing down the wall. The whole wall collapsed. The body is rotting, covered with blood clots, standing straight in front of everyone. The terrible beast sat on the head of the corpse with his mouth open and one eye on fire. It tricked me into killing my wife, and now it asks the police to take me to the executioner. So I built this monster on the tomb wall!

(translated by Chen)

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Zheng Zhenduo once said: "Owen made European literary circles know American literature, while Poe made European literary circles deeply influenced by American literature." After Boccaccio created the short story style, edgar allan poe took the lead in consciously devoting himself to short story creation in the west, which provided a certain theoretical basis for short story creation. He put forward the writing principles of short stories, arguing that writers should not deliberately instill their own ideas in the plot, but should arrange the plot reasonably and effectively to achieve "a certain unified effect, a certain expected effect and a certain impressionist effect" to the maximum extent. Therefore, the setting of "every event, every detail, even every word and sentence" in the story should be carefully thought out, and the words that deviate from the expected effect should be "ruthlessly abandoned" and the length of short stories should be reasonably controlled.

The novel Black Cat embodies Poe's short story writing principle of "effect first" to some extent. The atmosphere of terror always hangs over the whole novel. At first, the reader just heard "I" telling the horror experience of "I", and then he was driven by words and couldn't breathe for a moment until even his soul trembled with "I". Finally, they will be surprised to find that this horrible feeling is not only given by the novel, but also comes from their hearts. This kind of terror does not stay on the surface, but directly points to the heart; This kind of terror comes not only from the outside, but also from the heart; This kind of terror is by no means an individual experience of "me", but a common feeling of people. In short, it is a kind of "spiritual" terror, which originates from human subconscious and can be experienced by people together. Every word, every detail and every event in Black Cat just detonated this horror.

This novel highlights the horror effect with the image of a black cat. People generally think that cats are a symbol of bad luck, mysterious and strange. In the story, they are called "catwoman", "ghost cat" and "cat demon". And black, in the eyes of westerners, is also an ominous tone. The theme of this novel is "black cat", which in itself makes it mysterious. The two black cats in the novel are more like the incarnations of witches in terms of their names, looks and behaviors. Their appearance and disappearance are accompanied by a series of strange events. These abnormal events seem to be caused by their manipulation behind the scenes. The name of the first black cat is Pluto, which is the same name as Pluto in Greek mythology. The hero looks terrible after one eye is cut off. The relief image engraved with its hanging image is even more creepy. The second black cat that looks like Pluto is even more mysterious. Not only is the identity unknown, but also one eye has disappeared for no reason. The white spot below the neck is more like a signal of revenge. Its wail seems to consciously lead the police to find the body of "my" wife, making "my" crime obvious. It can be said that no matter day or night, reality or dreams, black cats follow me, which makes my spirit and even my soul suffer greatly.

The novel also uses characters and environment to set off the horror effect. Like many other works of Poe, Black Cat tells the whole story in the first person. The characters in the story are monotonous and their living environment is closed. Two of the characters "I" and my wife are not depicted in the novel, and their ages and occupations are unknown. The time of the story is also very vague. There is no definite time for the occurrence of large and small events. When it comes to time, the author always uses the words "one day, the next day". This conforms to the creative principle advocated by Edgar Allan Poe. These general novels often try their best to describe the content described. In his view, these contents have little to do with the effect he wants to pursue, and he just wants to leave a certain impression on the readers.

As far as the above two points are concerned, the horror atmosphere in Black Cat is only superficial horror, while what Poe really pursues is "spiritual" horror. He tried his best to contrast the horror effect with the inner fear and confession of the characters. The first is to reasonably show the slow process of the protagonist's temperament change. The hero of the novel is kind in nature, loves animals very much and has a good relationship with his wife. But he killed two black cats and even his wife with incredible cruelty. On the surface, there is no motive for killing cats and wives, but there are reasons to follow. In other words, he got into the bad habit of drinking. Alcoholism led him to abuse animals, gouge out Pluto's eyes and hang them on a branch. Second, it is very appropriate to grasp the protagonist's capriciousness and ambivalence. The bad habit of drinking makes his soul struggle between good thoughts and evil thoughts, wander in reason and madness, and commit a series of crimes consciously or unconsciously. When he is rational, good thoughts occupy his whole spiritual world, making him regret and ashamed of his evil deeds. When he is crazy, evil thoughts occupy his soul, pestering him like a devil, making his conscience disappear and doing evil constantly. Sometimes, the two coexist and there is no clear boundary.

From this point of view, the fear of "I" in Black Cat comes not only from the terrible appearance and weird behavior of the black cat, but also from the heart of "I". The evil thoughts that really made him irresistible and forced him to commit crimes constantly were born out of the primitive impulse of human beings. This evil spirit is the root of all my evil deeds. Knowing that doing bad things is illegal, but still ignoring the consequences of crime is a surly psychology deeply buried in human potential consciousness. This is the unique charm of Poe's horror novels. It is precisely because this kind of "evil spirit" and "surly psychology" come from the most primitive and secret place in people's hearts that readers will deeply understand the mental torture and pain of the hero while experiencing the terrorist incident with the hero of the novel, so that the reader's soul and the hero's soul will be beaten and hit together. This "evil spirit" and "surly psychology" inspired and exposed the most intimate and ugly desires of human beings and touched the darkest corner of human mind. With the failure of the protagonist's repeated conscience condemnation and the end of spiritual repentance, the reader's nerves finally became unbearable and his soul trembled.

Black Cat shows the real inner world of the characters. It not only does not shy away from exposing the dark and ugly side, but consciously explores it in depth. It can be said that the horror felt by readers is not only created by the author Poe, but also experienced by readers themselves. This is probably why Poe's horror novels are controversial. Some people think that his horror novels are decadent, negative and even morbid, while others call them works of genius. The former obviously ignores the exploration of human subconscious in his horror novels, which inevitably faces the ugliest side of human heart and exposes the unacceptable primitive desire and impulse of human beings. And those who denigrate his horror novels are usually unable to face the ugliness and terrible desires of the people. There is no doubt that Edgar Allan Poe's personality and his time are important factors that form his horror novel writing style. To a certain extent, his horror novels do tend to escape from reality and life, but why they survive in the world and get the attention and praise of many people has to arouse our thinking. Although the times have changed and the stars have moved, human beings' exploration of the inner world is endless, which is strongly reflected in Poe's horror novels. Therefore, his horror novels can transcend the times and bring readers a unique experience.

Wen Gu