Ethics and Personality Deformation in Time and Space: A Semiotic Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Black Cat

Abstract

Romantic literature rose in the 19th century, and the Gothic novel evolved into one of the special genres. Allan Poe carries out the idea of unity of effect. He uses internal and external perspective conversion in The Black Cat, reflecting the continuity of self-consciousness in different times and spaces. It realizes the interpretation of macroscopic ethics and morality connotation. The study focuses on the linguistic symbolic context. It discusses the changing process of the deformed personality of the black cat from the space-time construction implied in the narrative layer. This discussion has research significance in analyzing the signifier meaning of each language symbol and the relationship network of the ideographic system. The construction of time and space, which is full of philosophical thinking, is introduced into the interpretation of the text. At the same time, it further deepens the understanding of Ellen Poe’s moral aesthetic angle. The literature review method and text analysis method are used in this study. From the perspective of the new combination of philosophy and philology theory, it goes further into the inner world of the characters. With the outburst of the negative suggestion power of the protagonist, the deformity of the character also reaches the climax of the intensity. From an interdisciplinary perspective, literary criticism offers a new way to the Alienation of capitalist society through the involuntary flow of consciousness and the conversion of narrative layers.