"The Black Cat" Essay The Romantic period has numerous characteristics that help to distinguish it from other literary periods. A large majority of the pieces found in this period have at least one of the distinctive elements. Edgar Allan Poe uses a few of these elements to put a time frame on his short story, "The Black Cat". Poe begins his short story by saying that "For the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief". A big characteristic of Romanticism is a willing suspension of disbelief. It is never even thought that the plot to the story would be taken as being true, but rather as a made up story to get the a