Question

Which quotation from "The Black Cat" best supports the inference that the cat represents the narrator’s sense of guilt?

Answer 1

The quotation from "The Black Cat" that best supports the inference that the cat represents the narrator's sense of guilt is:

4. "... to find the hot breath of the thing upon my face, and its vast weight - an incarnate Night-Mare that I had no power to shake off - incumbent eternally upon my heart!"

• The "Black Cat" is a short story by American author Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849).
• In this horror story, the narrator develops a strange hatred for his pet black cat. He kills it, only to find another cat, similar to it, except for a mark on its chest.
• The narrator tries to kill this second cat too. Instead, during the fight that ensues, he kills his wife.
• He walls his wife's body along with the cat, although he did not notice the cat was there. It is the cat that alerts the police with its noises, leading them to find the woman's body.
• The cat is, thus, the narrator's guilt, the feeling that ends up revealing the crime. Notice that the narrator compares the cat to the feeling of a heavy chest - guilty people often feel they are carrying a weight inside their chests.
• Guilt does not go away easily, just like the cat. Guilt comes back, rendering us powerless until we confess or someone finds out. Again, that is what the narrator says, and that is what the cat does.
• In conclusion, the fourth option is the quotation that best supports the comparison between the cat and the narrator's guilt.

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