- perversenessnounChapter 1 →
A built-in human impulse to do something precisely because you know it is wrong or harmful; the irrational drive to act against one's own better judgment.
- ginnounChapter 1 →
An alcoholic spirit; here used to refer to strong drink generally, representing the narrator's descent into alcoholism.
- gallowsnounChapter 1 →
A wooden frame used to execute people by hanging; the narrator references it as the fate awaiting him for his crimes.
- fancynounChapter 1 →
The imagination, or a whimsical idea produced by it; used in the older sense of imaginative perception rather than simple liking.
- rabidadjectiveChapter 1 →
Violently intense or fanatical; here describing an extreme, uncontrollable fondness for animals rather than the disease itself.
- docilitynounChapter 1 →
The quality of being easy to manage or control; calm, submissive obedience without resistance.
- brutenounChapter 1 →
A non-human animal, especially one regarded as acting on instinct alone without reason or moral sense.
- fibrenounChapter 1 →
The essential substance or innermost nature of a person's character; the deep moral or emotional core of one's being.
- execrableadjectiveChapter 1 →
Utterly detestable and horrifying; so morally reprehensible as to deserve the strongest condemnation.
- gougedverbChapter 1 →
Dug or scooped out forcibly; here referring to the violent removal of an eye from its socket.
- upbraidedverbChapter 1 →
Scolded or reproached someone sharply for a fault; to have criticized with strong disapproval.
- gin-nurturedadjectiveChapter 1 →
Fed and sustained by heavy drinking of alcohol; describing a state of mind or mood that has been cultivated through habitual drunkenness.
- phantasmnounChapter 1 →
A ghost-like illusion or terrifying mental image; something that appears to the mind as a haunting, unreal vision.
- intemperancenounChapter 1 →
Lack of self-restraint in drinking alcohol; habitual excessive consumption of liquor to a destructive degree.
- cellarnounChapter 1 →
An underground room beneath a house; here the site where the narrator conceals a body within a plastered wall.
- wainscotingnounChapter 1 →
Wooden paneling fixed to the lower part of an interior wall; here used to describe the wall material in the cellar.
- trowelnounChapter 1 →
A small flat-bladed tool used by builders to spread and smooth plaster or mortar over a surface.
- mortarnounChapter 1 →
A paste-like mixture of lime, sand, and water used in building to bond bricks or stones and fill gaps in walls.
- hideousadjectiveChapter 1 →
Extremely ugly or horrifying in a way that causes revulsion; used here to describe a sound that is shockingly dreadful.
- incarnateadjectiveChapter 1 →
Embodied in physical form; used to describe an abstract evil or vice given a living, bodily presence.
The Black CatShort story by Edgar Allan Poe