Marriage: A Comparison of Poe, Hawthorne, and Melville Anonymous College

Poe, Hawthorne, and Melville explore marriage through a significant physical object in their respective stories, “The Black Cat,” “The Minister’s Black Veil,” and “I and My Chimney”. In each of the stories, the object serves as a dividing force in the marriage, leading to separations and sometimes to death. In Poe’s “The Black Cat,” the narrator murders his wife in a blind rage while trying to kill the cat. In Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Mr. Hooper loses his wife after refusing to take off his black veil. In Melville’s “I and My Chimney,” the narrator has an unhealthy adoration of his chimney constantly bickering with his wife, ultimately winning the battle to keep the chimney, which seems to serve as the narrator’s best friend. In each of the short stories, the husband chooses a material object over the wishes of their wife, more often than not to prove a point out of pride.

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” follows the narrator’s relationship with Pluto, a black cat, speaking little of his relationship with his wife. The narrator simply describes “I married early, and was happy to find in my wife a disposition not uncongenial with my own” (3). The marriage is described as completely inconsequential to the...