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1. Introduction

1.1 A Brief Introduction to Edgar Allan Poe and his Literary Achievements

Edgar Allen Poe(1808-1849) was an American author, poet and literary critic, considered part of American romantic movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story, and is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre.

Born in Boston, his father abandoned the family in 1810, and his mother died the following year. Thus orphaned, the child was taken in by John and Frances Allan. Poe attended the University of Virginia for one semester but left due to lack of money. Poe enlisted in the Army in 1827. Later failing as an officer's cadet at West Point and declaring a firm wish to be a poet and writer.

He began his publishing career when he enlisted in army with an anonymous collection of poems, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), which failed to arouse at that time, credited only to "a Bostonian". On January 29, 1845, his poem The Raven appeared in the Evening Mirror and became a popular sensation. Though it made Poe a household name almost instantly, he was paid only $9 for its publication. At the age of 40, Poe passed away on October 7, 1849 leaving behind the unproduced journey named The Penn. This journal would later be entitled The Stylus.

Poe's work eventually would transcend for centuries to come and continues to receive both praise and acclaim today. He was considered as the father of horror story for The Black Cat, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Masque of the Red Death, The Tell-tale Heart and so on. These horror novels not only inherit traditional Gothic novels but also develop and innovate Gothic features. In the story of The Black Cat and The Tell-tale Heart, Poe borrowed such traditional Gothic characteristics as the unusual themes and subjects of death, terror and the gloomy atmosphere to express his philosophy of the society and human’ soul. Besides, Poe made his way of writing and pioneered psychoanalysis and symbolism to an atmosphere of stronger terror. Poe’s recognition of the readers’ responses makes his horror and grotesque stories the tinge of aestheticism. Additionally, his innovation of writing techniques greatly impacts such later modernists as Charles Baudelaire and Dostoevsky.

1.2 A Brief Introduction to The Black Cat amp; The Tell-Tale Heart

The Black Cat is remarkable for its first-person narrative using an unreliable narrator, largely consisting of the description of psychological activity of the main character. He is a condemned man at the outset of the story. The narrator tells us that he and his wife have a large, beautiful black cat named Pluto. This cat is especially fond of the narrator. After the narrator becomes an alcoholic, One night, he uses a pen-knife to gouge out one of the cat's eyes. And then things become worse. He hangs it from a tree where it dies. Some time later, he finds a similar cat. The only difference is a large white patch on the animal's chest. After a time, the white patch of fur begins to take shape and forms the shape of the gallows. This terrifies and angers him more. One day, enraged, the man grabs an ax and tries to kill the cat but is stopped by his wife- whom, out of fury, he kills instead. He removes bricks from a protrusion in the wall, places her body there to cover. A few days later, when the police show up at the house to investigate the wife's disappearance, they find nothing. However, the narrator gives himself away. The alarmed police tear down the wall and find the wife's corpse, and on rotting head, to the utter horror of the narrator, is the screeching black cat.

The Tell-tale Heart is also remarkable for its first-person narration, largely consisting of the description of psychological activity of the main character. An unnamed narrator opens the story by addressing the audience and claiming that he is nervous but not mad. He says that he killed an old man who has a clouded, pale, blue "vulture-like" eye, though the narrator states that he loves the old man. For seven nights, the narrator opens the door of the old man's room, in order to shine a sliver of light onto the "evil eye". On the eighth night, hearing the old man's heart beating loudly and dangerously fast from terror, worried that a neighbor might hear the loud thumping, he kills the old man. He then dismembers the body and hides the pieces below the floorboards in the bedroom. He is careful not to leave even a drop of blood on the floor. When policemen come to investigate, the policemen do not suspect a thing. Hearing a low thumping sound, he recognizes the low sound as the heart of the old man, pounding away beneath the floorboards. He panics, believing that the policemen must also hear the sound and know his guilt. Driven mad by the idea that they are mocking his agony with their pleasant chatter, he confesses to the crime and shrieks at the men to rip up the floorboards.

1.4 Historical and personal background of the two stories

The Black Cat amp; The Tell-Tale Heart were published in 1843. At that time, in America, the slavery system in the south was going to breakdown. The whole society was in a state of depression. Poe’s writing style was influenced by the depression school of literature that he proposed tragic and sad tone in writing.

In addition, The Black Cat amp; The Tell-Tale Heart are the influence of Gothic stories which prevailed in the 18th and 19th centuries in England. Poe’s short stories inherited some characteristics of former Gothic style, but he did not simply rely on settings and plot to achieve the horrible effect. Instead, he shortened the long and complicated Gothic stories to shorter ones, and also used symbols to achieve the settled effect.

It should be pointed out that the root of Poe’s preference in presenting the theme of horror, death, shocking insanity, and disillusion of beauty, is his tragic life experience. His parents died when he was very young and he was adopted by a rich merchant John Allan. But he never got on well with his foster father. Foster mother, the only person who cared about him, died of sickness. His marriage never worked out in the end. His heart broke a hundred times because of it. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career. On October 7, 1849, at age 40, he died in Baltimore; the cause of his death is unknown and has been variously attributed to alcohol, brain congestion, cholera, drugs, heart disease, rabies, suicide, tuberculosis, and other agents. It can be said that his short life was full of trouble, poverty, disease, and failure. Many of his works were influenced by his beloved ones’ death and the theme of death and horror permeated his works.

1.5 Purpose of study

In Poe’s short stories, he tried every means to challenge the world of sense, and marched for the unknown and unintelligible world, exploring the interfused filed of life and death, delusion and reality, sanity and insanity. He was always troubled by the insane power under human being’s conscience and devoted himself to investigating these abnormal psychology as perverseness, schizophrenia, insanity.

By analysis of criminal minds in The Black Cat amp; The Tell-Tale Heart, this essay tries to present a different point of view of Edgar Allan Poe, an extraordinary writer in American and aboard. He was not only an excellent writer who had so many famous works, but also a great thinker who exposed the dark side of human psychology to make people rethink the deepest contractions in human nature. Readers can take a close look at his view of beauty, human nature, etc. From this thesis, readers might understand Poe’s point of view of whether human is born good or evil. It hopes that after reading this essay, other people can propose more questions related to Poe and have a better understanding of Poe and his art.

1. Literature Review

Poe, has been studied by lots of critics from different perspectives, including self-identity, Gothic style, the theme of madness, guilt and death , criminal minds and extraordinary beauty.

Gothic fiction originated in the late 18th century England. In 1790s, the Gothic fiction gradually evolved into two branches. One branch is a type of Gothic horror novel, which is on this basis of sick evil people to increase the mystery and horror effect. The other branch is the type of sentimental Gothic novel, which is characterized by retention castle scene, but abandoned over the mysterious atmosphere of terror and extreme ingredients to make the story come to a logical explanation. But “Poe maintains that terror is not of German, but of soul”(20), said Wang Jianping.

Poe once said that death of a beautiful woman is undoubtedly the world's most poetic subject. ZhangPeng believed that destruction of women and beauty is Poe’s way to revolt society and is the cover of his lonely soul.(208)

He was not well received when he was live. Thousands and hundreds of people thought his works especially his Gothic fiction works a ton of rubbish which can never be appreciated in the circle of literature.

Whitman believed Poe's works was among the electric lights of imaginative literature, brilliant and bright, but with no heat.(31) What’s more, Gerald. M. Garmon considered Poe’s works “immoral and nonsense”, and when he wrote about his lifetime, he described him as “demon, rum and a disciple of the evil.”(19)

However, Poe was faithfully and sincerely respected and appreciated after his young dying. His appreciators revealed his eternal themes about death and guilt and compliment his gifted writing skills.

During his lifetime, Poe was mostly recognized as a literary critic. Fellow critic James Russell Lowell called him "the most discriminating, philosophical, and fearless critic upon imaginative works who has written in America", suggesting – rhetorically – that he occasionally used prussic acid instead of ink.(105) J. Scott Russell also said, “ Poe’ fiction creates extremely painful horror, which impresses readers a lot.”(215)

HuoYan regarded him as “a contemporary of Hawthorne, Irving and Emerson, but different from any of the major American writers of his time.”(202) Poe stood out as unique existence. She believed that his short story The Black Cat is one of the most classic horror novels and can serve as the role model for all other horror novels.(203)

Kathryne Bradesca spoke highly of imagery and figurative language in the The Tell-Tale Heart. She had a sincere comment on Poe as follows: “Edgar Allan Poe is one of America's most prolific authors. His love of the macabre and study of the dark aspects of the human psyche have earned him a place in anthologies across the nation. Throughout his short stories, Poe utilizes stark imagery and vivid figurative language to paint the picture of darkness and despair. In The Tell-Tale Heart, Poe uses imagery and figurative language to tell the story of a mad man who ultimately succumbs to the darkness.”(28)

Sohelia Battaglia considered The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe as “American Literature Themes.”(121) Generally speaking, she thought that The Tell-Tale Heart is such a commonly taught story that its plot was once used as the basis for a Simpsons episode and the story includes several universal themes, including madness, guilt, death and the dangers of being overly confident.(256)

Last but not least, Xianrong Shi once said, “Who can write really great science fiction, is Edgar Allan Poe of the United States, Jules Verne of France and H. G. Wells of the United Kingdom.”(845)

1. Analysis of the Criminal Minds in The black Cat amp; The Tell-Tale Heart

Criminal psychology is the study of the wills, thoughts, intentions and reactions of criminals, all that partakes participant in the criminal behavior. The study goes deeply into what makes someone commit crime, but also the reactions after the crime, on the run or in court. Criminal psychologists are often called up as witness in court cases to help the jury understand the mind of the criminal. In the following parts, the analysis of the criminal minds in the two mentioned stories will be carried on from four different kinds of theories including Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality, crime prototypes(covering Sisyphus prototype and Oedipus prototype), and Carl Jung’s analytic psychology. In addition, four means of artistic expression, first person narration, symbolization, repetition and scene description, will be analyzed combining with specific sentences or words to demonstrate Poe’s excellent literary accomplishments.

3.1 Crime Prototypes in these two stories

Almost every crime has their crime prototypes. They may have similar histories, have the same religions or hear the same mythologies when growing up. Each crime has their own crime prototype(s).

3.1.1 Sisyphus prototype

Sisyphus is a character in ancient Greek Mythology. He is the most witty and subtle person on the earth, the son of Aeolus. He was the founder and king of Corinth. He even kidnapped the God of death, Pluto, so there was no death in the world at that time. Finally, Sisyphus offended the gods and the gods to punish Sisyphus. He was punished for chronic deceitfulness by being compelled to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this action forever.

In The Black Cat, the plot strangely resembles the Sisyphus’ story very much. When the hero made mistakes and his evil side was seen, he was punished by the black cat. It was very coincident that when he ill-treated his favorite pets, natural disasters destroyed him by turns. Although he was not punished physically, his conscience was fatally tortured.

The image of the black cat actually can refer to a kind of mysterious power which is out of human being’s control. Poe named the black cat “Pluto”- the ruler of the underworld; it is obvious that the black cat is the symbol of death and hell. The hero’s degeneration and death is caused by the black cat, so it is also a symbol of a kind of evil lure and inescapable force.

In the context “I” Represents a human, then “the black cat” represents the destiny. The black cat follows me everywhere, just like that destiny takes control of human life. “I” revolt destiny’s control by taking out of Pluto’s eye and hanging it dead after totally intoxicate. However, “I” get ruthless punished by destiny when a fire swallows up all the wealth. Then, “I” begin to yield to destiny again by petting a almost the same black cat like Pluto. Nonetheless, the second black cat follows me everywhere too, just like that destiny constantly controls and torments human beings. Soon, “I” start to revolt again.

“The cat followed me down the steep stairs, and, nearly throwing me headlong, exasperated me to madness ... and buried the axe i her brain. She fell dead upon the spot, without a groan.”( The Black Cat 30)

“I” congeal my wife’s body in the cellar and think “I” can escape the punishment of destiny. While in the end, the cry of the second black cat causes the officers’ attention and “my” crime was found out. “I” was destroyed by destiny eventually. The whole story told us destiny is so powerful that no one can escape from its hand, no matter how hard a person fight against destiny. The result can only be a failure, or even destroyed. The story of Sisyphus appearing in the Greek mythology can be considered as the first prototype who fight against the destiny in vain.

We can say that “I” in the The Black Cat is some kind of Sisyphus. A man who disobeyed orders and struggled futilely, defeated by destiny. The reason why readers were deeply moved by the life of the hero and felt a deep terror is the fear of fate and the hopeless feeling when we faced fate.

3.1.2 Oedipus Prototype

The term Oedipus complex denotes the emotions and ideas that the mind keeps in the unconscious, via dynamic repression, that concentrates upon a child's desire to have sexual relations with the parent of the opposite sex. A child's identification with the same-sex parent is a key psychological experience that is necessary for the development of a mature sexual role and identity. Patricide is the act of killing one's father, or a person who kills his father. The word patricide derives from the Latin word pater (father) and the Latin suffix -cida (cutter or killer). Patricide is a sub-form of parricide, which is defined as an act of killing a close relative.

Because of the Christian Church has established the absolute authority in ideology, religion and other fields , at the same time it also preaches God in the human spirit, which announces the establishment of the patriarchy, and marks the prevalence of patriarchal culture. In The Tell-Tale Heart, “I love the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult.” “ And every morning, when the day broke, I went boldly into the chamber, and spoke courageously to him, calling him by name in a hearty tone, and inquiring how he has passed the night.” ( The Tell-Tale Heart 3) The old man actually acts like a father to the narrator. A father who has the ultimate power to control son and the whole family. The narrator says the he loves the old man and does not kill for money. That’s the human nature calls. In order to overthrow the governing of patriarchy, the narrator is driven by the primitive desire killed the father-like old man. It is a trial to cast down the patriarchy and fight for freedom and equality.

3.2 Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory

Psychoanalytic theory is the theory of personality organization and the dynamics of personality development that guides psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology. First laid out by Sigmund Freud in the late 19th century, psychoanalytic theory has undergone many refinements since his work. Psychoanalytic theory came to full prominence in the last third of the twentieth century as part of the flow of critical discourse regarding psychological treatments after the 1960s, long after Freud's death in 1939, and its validity is now widely disputed or rejected. Freud had ceased his analysis of the brain and his physiological studies and shifted his focus to the study of the mind and the related psychological attributes making up the mind, and on treatment using free association and the phenomena of transference.

3.2.1 Analyzing the criminals from Freud's Personality structure perspective

According to Freud, personality is composed of three elements. These three elements of personality -known as the id, the ego and the superego-work together to create complex human behaviors.

The basic level of the personality structure is the id. It is the blind pursuit of satisfaction. The middle layer is ego. It is a kind of conscience which can adjust contradiction between id and superego according to the actual condition of the surrounding environment. It can represent rational and correct judgment. The top layer is super-ego, which can carry out the self - criticism and moral control. It mainly includes two aspects: one is conscience. The other is the ideal self. The main responsibility of super-ego is to guide itself with moral conscience, and to restrain instinctive impulse of id.

3.2.1.1 Analysis of Personality structure in The Black Cat

In The Black Cat, the protagonists were kept in an unbalanced mind. Guilt, hatred, regret, sad, dislike, all these negative feelings showed that his ego cannot moralized by super-ego. So, with an unbalanced mind, the black cat can easily stimulate him to commit crime. He was unconscious of what he was doing and what consequence it would bring about. So, in The Black Cat, the protagonist did not have a normal criminal motivation, such as the desire of money, revenge, etc. He committed crime only because of the black cat. This evil desire cannot be explained by reason, and it is the result of ego winning super-ego.“ I am almost ashamed to own- yes, even in this felon’s cell, I am almost ashamed to own- that terror and horror with which the animal inspired me”( The Black Cat 2) The feeling of terror comes from the sensible component of ego. Ego is always between id and the external world, to ease the conflict between id and external world and to force ego to obey social rules. The external power which was symbolized by the image of gallows kept exerting great stress on the protagonist’s mind.

“It was now the representation of an object that I shudder to name- and for this above all, I loathed and dreaded, and would have rid myself of the monster had I dared- it was now, I say, the image of hideous- of a ghastly things-of the GALLOWS!- oh, mournful and terrible engine of Horror and of Crime- of Agony and of Death!” ( The Black Cat 35 )

At first, the external power prevailed. But as time went by, the uncontrollable impulse of id defeated the external power and the protagonist killed his wife and sent himself to gallows.

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