Throughout his life, Edgar Allan Poe suffered from the death of several of those close to him. It is very clear that this greatly affected his short stories and poems. Very early in his life, Poe's mother died of tuberculosis. Shortly after, his adoptive mother and brother also died of tuberculosis. At this point, Poe had lost most of the people he loved and he was falling into a dark period in his life. He began to gain recognition for his dark writings and he began to make a name for himself. He found love again with his young cousin, whom he soon married. They lived a happy and joyful life, but once again death overtook Poe and his wife also died of tuberculosis. His wife had been ill for five years and it was during this time that Poe's writings began to become darker. Around this time he wrote "The Black Cat", the story of a man killing his cat, and soon after his wife, because of his crazy emotions. The story represented his feelings at the time and almost symbolized his life from the beginning until his wife's death. Say no to plagiarism. Get Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get Original Essay “The Black Cat” began as a first-person narrative, the man describes himself as a happily married man who only found companionship in animals, particularly a large black cat he owned named Pluto. One unfortunate day, he came home drunk and mutilated Pluto by gouging out one of his eyes. At this point in the story, the narrator has experienced a period of near-convalescence during which he has become extremely irritated by his actions. Due to his resentment, he decided to hang Pluto because he knew that Pluto loved him very much, but he was unable to reciprocate this devotion. Later in his life, he found a cat that strongly resembled Pluto, in that it had a patch of white fur on its chest that resembled the gallows, which scared him very much. He then tried again to kill the cat with an axe, which his wife tried to stop. He then decided to kill his wife by driving the ax into her skull. He hid the corpse in the wall, and when he was finished, he couldn't find the cat. Later, when the police were searching for the body and found nothing, the narrator became arrogant and basically taunted the police as they did so. leave the house. He talked about how great his house was and knocked with his cane on the part of the wall where he had hidden his wife. This caused the cat that was hiding on his wife's corpse to meow, which immediately made the police suspicious again. The police demolished the wall and found his wife's body. The story ended with the narrator hanging. Throughout the story, it is very clear that it is similar to his life. During his life, he experienced moments of happiness, but also moments of sadness, which also happens in the story. The theme of death, particularly its repetitiveness, was evident in his story "The Black Cat" as well as in his life..