The Black Cat (short story)

"The Black Cat" is a short story by the American writer Edgar Allan Poe. It was first published in the August 19, 1843, edition of ''The Saturday Evening Post''. In the story, an unnamed narrator, who suffers with alcoholism, has a strong affection for pets, until he perversely turns to abusing them. His favorite, a pet black cat, bites him one night and the narrator punishes it by cutting its eye out. The narrator then becomes conflicted when the black cat fears him. In a drunken rage, he then hangs it from a tree. His house later burns down, but one remaining wall shows a burned outline of a cat hanging from a noose. He soon finds another black cat, similar to the first except for a white mark on its chest. But he develops a hatred for it as well, for it resembles the cat he killed in his drunken rage. He attempts to kill the cat with an axe but his wife stops him; instead, the narrator murders his wife. He conceals the body behind a brick wall in his basement. The police soon come and, after the narrator's tapping on the wall is met with a shrieking sound, they find not only the wife's corpse but also the black cat that had been accidentally walled in with the body and alerted them with its cry.

The story is a study of the psychology of guilt, often paired in analysis with Poe's " The Tell-Tale Heart". In both, a murderer carefully conceals his crime and believes himself unassailable, but eventually breaks down and reveals himself, impelled by a nagging reminder of his guilt. "The Black Cat", which also features questions of sanity versus insanity, is Poe's strongest warning against the dangers of alcoholism.

Plot

The story is presented as a first-person narrative, using an unnamed unreliable narrator who is awaiting execution. He describes his lifelong love of animals, along with the many pets that he and his wife have taken in, including a large black cat named Pluto. The narrator and Pluto become particularly fond of each other, but after several years the narrator becomes an alcoholic and begins to mistreat his pets. After a night of heavy drinking, he believes that Pluto is avoiding him and seizes the cat, only to suffer a bite on his hand. Enraged, he gouges out one of the cat's eyes.

From that moment on, Pluto flees in terror at the narrator's approach. The narrator feels remorse for his cruelty at first, but soon becomes increasingly irritated at the cat's behavior. In a sudden fit of rage, he ties a noose around Pluto's neck and hangs him from a tree, where the cat dies. The narrator's house mysteriously burns down that night. He, his wife, and their servant escape unharmed, but lose all of their possessions. The house collapses, except for one wall that displays the indented image of a gigantic cat with a noose around its neck. The narrator is initially disturbed by this phenomenon but soon constructs a plausible explanation, thinking that someone may have cut the cat's corpse down from the tree and thrown it into the bedroom to wake him during the fire, where it struck a patch of fresh plaster.

Feeling guilty for his actions, the narrator subsequently finds another black cat at a tavern and adopts it. This cat is roughly the same size as Pluto and also missing one eye, but has a large patch of white fur on its chest that Pluto lacked. Over time, the narrator begins to fear and loathe the cat, as it reminds him of his cruelty toward Pluto, and sees to his horror that the white patch is slowly taking the shape of a gallows. He tries to kill the cat with an axe, but his wife stops him. Infuriated at his wife's interference, he kills her instead and hides the corpse in a cellar wall. Upon finishing his work, he finds that the cat has disappeared and is now able to sleep freely at night.

Four days later, the police search the house but can find no trace of the narrator's missing wife. He accompanies them into the cellar, boasting of the sturdiness of its walls and striking the one he has built to conceal his wife's corpse. An unearthly howl issues from behind it, shattering the narrator's mental state completely. The police tear down the wall and find the corpse, with the cat alive and sitting atop his wife's head, having been walled in with her.

Publication history

"The Black Cat" was first published in the August 19, 1843, issue of ''The Saturday Evening Post''. At the time, the publication was using the temporary title ''United States Saturday Post''. The story was reprinted in ''The Baltimore Sun'' and ''The Pensacola Gazette'' that same year. Readers immediately responded favorably to the story, spawning parodies including Thomas Dunn English's "The Ghost of the Grey Tadpole".

Analysis

Like the narrator in Poe's " The Tell-Tale Heart", the narrator of "The Black Cat" is of questionable sanity. In the beginning of the tale, the narrator says that he would be "mad indeed" should he expect a reader to believe the story, implying that he has already been accused of madness.

The extent to which the narrator claims to have loved his animals suggests mental instability in the form of having “too much of a good thing”. His partiality for animals substitutes “the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere Man”. Since the narrator's wife shares his love of animals, he likely thinks of her as another pet, seeing as he distrusts and dislikes humans. Additionally, his failure to understand his excessive love of animals foreshadows his inability to explain his motives for his actions.Gargano, James W. "The Black Cat": Perverseness Reconsidered". ''Texas Studies in Literature and Language'' 2.2 (1960): 172–178.

One of Poe's darkest tales, "The Black Cat" includes his strongest denunciation of alcohol. The narrator's perverse actions are brought on by his alcoholism, a "disease" and "fiend" which also destroys his personality. The use of the black cat evokes various superstitions, including the idea voiced by the narrator's wife that they are all witches in disguise. Poe owned a black cat. In his "Instinct vs Reason – A Black Cat" he stated: "The writer of this article is the owner of one of the most remarkable black cats in the world – and this is saying much; for it will be remembered that black cats are all of them witches." In Scottish and Irish mythology, the Cat-sìth is described as being a black cat with a white spot on its chest, not unlike the cat the narrator finds in the tavern. The eponymous cat is named Pluto after the Roman god of the Underworld.

Although Pluto is a neutral character at the beginning of the story, he becomes antagonist

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