thesis of the black cat

A Summary and Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Black Cat’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Black Cat’ was first published in August 1843 in the Saturday Evening Post . It’s one of Poe’s shorter stories and one of his most disturbing, focusing on cruelty towards animals, murder, and guilt, and told by an unreliable narrator who’s rather difficult to like. You can read ‘The Black Cat’ here . Below we’ve offered some notes towards an analysis of this troubling but powerful tale.

First, a brief summary of the plot of ‘The Black Cat’. The narrator explains how from a young age he was noted for his tenderness and humanity, as well as his fondness for animals. When he married, he and his wife acquired a number of pets, including a black cat, named Pluto. But as the years wore on, the narrator became more irritable and prone to snap.

One night, under the influence of alcohol, he sensed the black cat was avoiding him and so chased him and picked up the animal. The animal bit him slightly on the hand, and the narrator – possessed by a sudden rage – took a pen-knife from his pocket and gouged out one of the cat’s eyes.

Although the cat seems to recover from this, the narrator finds himself growing more irritated, until eventually he takes the poor cat out into the garden and hangs it from a tree. Later that night, the narrator wakes to find his house on fire, and he, his wife, and his servant, barely escape alive. All of the narrator’s wealth is lost in the flames.

A crowd has gathered around the smouldering remains of the house. Setting foot in the ruins, the narrator finds the strange figure of a gigantic hanging cat on one of the walls, the dead cat having become embedded in the plaster (the narrator surmises that a member of the crowd had cut down the hanging cat and hurled it into the house to try to wake the narrator and his wife).

A short while after this, the narrator is befriended by a black cat he finds in a local tavern, a cat that has shown up seemingly out of nowhere, and resembles Pluto in every respect, except that this cat has some white among its black fur. The cat takes a shine to the narrator, so he and his wife take it in as their pet.

However, in time the narrator comes to loathe this cat, too, and once, when he nearly trips over the pet while walking downstairs into the cellar, he picks up an axe and aims a blow at the animal’s head. His wife intervenes and stops him – but, in a fit of rage, he buries the axe in his wife’s head, killing her instantly.

He conceals the body, but when the police call round to look into his wife’s disappearance, a sound from the place where the narrator has concealed the body exposes the hidden corpse.

When the body is revealed, the black cat is there – and it was the cat that had made the noise that gave away the location of the corpse. The narrator had walled up the animal when he had hidden his wife’s body. And with this revelation, the narrator’s story comes to an end.

The narrator piques our interest at the beginning of ‘The Black Cat’ by announcing that he dies tomorrow; it becomes clear that he is to be executed (by hanging, aptly, given the fate of his first pet cat) for the murder of his wife.

The ending of ‘The Black Cat’ suggests that a productive analysis between this story and ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ might yield a fruitful discussion. For one, both stories are narrated by murderers who conceal the dead body of their victim, only to have that body discovered at the end of the story.

It was Robert A. Heinlein, a later American author who made his name in the genre that Poe helped to create (science fiction), who remarked: ‘How we behave toward cats here below determines our place in heaven.’ What drives human beings to commit horrible deeds of pointless sadistic cruelty towards defenceless animals?

Whenever we read upsetting stories in the newspapers about people who have committed violent acts upon pets for no discernible reason, we have probably wondered this. Are they all psychopathic?

The narrator of ‘The Black Cat’ seems not to be – for he can recognise that his violent cruelty towards his cat is sadistic and vile, and even recoils in horror when his conscience is pricked and he realises that he is doing wrong. He attributes his violent behaviour towards the cat to ‘perverseness’, arguing that we all do things from time to time purely because we know they’re wrong.

Yet even in the face of his horrific treatment of Pluto – the cat’s name is shared with the Roman god of the Underworld – and his apparent desire to atone for his cruelty with the second pet cat, he ends up lapsing into his old ways and tries to kill the creature for no reason other than that he comes to be annoyed and irritated by it.

But of course, the mention of gin in the story offers a clue as to the cause of the narrator’s violence and irritation. What could cause an otherwise pleasant and humane youth, who grew up loving all animals, to turn into such a brute towards them – and, in time, towards a fellow human being? One answer suggests itself: alcohol.

‘The Black Cat’ can be analysed in light of Poe’s dislike of alcohol: he struggled with alcohol and was prone to drinking bouts which caused him to act erratically, so he knew well the dangers of over-indulging in drink until it begins to alter the drinker’s moods.

The narrator’s growing irritation towards both cats may, then, be a result of his overuse of alcohol. Shortly before his death in 1849 – possibly brought on by the effects of alcohol – Poe became a vocal supporter of temperance. It may be that ‘The Black Cat’ should be analysed as being, among other things, an earlier attempt to dramatise the dangers of drink.

Discover more from Interesting Literature

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Type your email…

10 thoughts on “A Summary and Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Black Cat’”

The discussion about cruelty to animals makes me, a vegan, raise the question: how does anyone accept the horrible cruelty perpetrated on animals by the thousands every day. I just don’t know how that is acceptable when we understand in reading this story that the mistreatment of one cat is grounds for retribution.

I KNOW RIGHT, TF IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE ANYMORE

A fair analysis, though I’m not sure it reflects how funny “The Black Cat” can be. At one point, the narrator theorises that the dead cat has been thrown through his window “probably with the view of arousing me from sleep.” A beautiful mental picture.

Also, some of the narrator’s melodramatic anguish sounds funnier when you realise that he is delivering these lines holding a cat.

Incredible analysis. It’s hard to read a poem like this when I am such an animal lover, yet the the mind of human beings who do twisted things to others always turns me into a researcher. I do seek to understand. Repelled and Fascinated at the same time!

Thank you! I know what you mean by repelled and fascinated. As a cat-lover I find it hard to read the account of what happens to the poor creature. But as you say, Poe’s tale offers us a chance to understand (not the same as justifying) his erratic and violent behaviour. A study of a troubled human mind…

Exactly. My nature is to understand first…

Poor first cat. Hangings all very well and might seem to fit the crime, but it’s not an eye for an eye, is it, so could have been more appropriate. But surely his wife’s death was accidental, she threw herself in front of the axe, so no punishment justified.

Sent from my iPad

• Pingback: A Summary and Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Cask of Amontillado’ | Interesting Literature
• Pingback: A Summary and Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘Hop-Frog’ | Interesting Literature
• Pingback: The Best Edgar Allan Poe Stories | Interesting Literature

Comments are closed.

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — The Black Cat — Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat”

Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat"

• Categories: Edgar Allan Poe The Black Cat

About this sample

Words: 672 |

Published: Sep 16, 2023

Words: 672 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

Table of contents

The unreliable narrator, the theme of guilt, the supernatural element, the psychological horror, conclusion: a descent into madness.

Cite this Essay

To export a reference to this article please select a referencing style below:

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Verified writer

• Expert in: Literature

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

2.5 pages / 1229 words

2.5 pages / 1208 words

2 pages / 1008 words

3 pages / 1264 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on The Black Cat

Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, "The Black Cat," is a profound exploration of guilt, madness, and the dark side of human nature. The narrative delves into the mind of an unreliable narrator whose descent into insanity leads to [...]

Gogol, Nikolai. 'The Nose.' Translated by Claud Field, Project Gutenberg, 2004.Poe, Edgar Allan. 'The Black Cat.' The Literature Network, Jalic Inc., 2000, www.online-literature.com/poe/24/.Mann, Susan. 'Gothic Fiction.' The [...]

Depicted in the acclaimed short story “The Black Cat” (1843) by master of macabre, Edgar Allan Poe and “The Cat From Hell” (1977) by contemporary horror brilliance, Stephen King is a composition of suspense strategies, which [...]

As described by many critics and literary writers, Edgar Allan Poe is, without a doubt, one of the most influential writers, critics, poets and editors in America history and well-known in the world of literature. With his [...]

Overwhelming obsession and guilt often lead to deadly consequences. In "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Black Cat," Edgar Allan Poe presents us with two men who each commit brutal murders motivated by overwhelming obsession. The [...]

Symbolism in 'The Black Cat' by Poe is centred around the idea of self-awareness. The narrator is aware of his descent into madness and spends the novella trying to convince himself (and the reader) that what he understands as [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

• Humanities ›
• Literature ›
• Classic Literature ›
• Study Guides ›

"The Black Cat" Study Guide

Edgar Allen Poe's dark tale of descent into madness

• Study Guides
• Authors & Texts
• Top Picks Lists
• Best Sellers
• Plays & Drama
• Shakespeare
• Short Stories
• Children's Books
• M.A., English Literature, California State University - Sacramento
• B.A., English, California State University - Sacramento

"The Black Cat," one of Edgar Allan Poe's most memorable stories, is a classic example of the gothic literature genre that debuted in the Saturday Evening Post on August 19, 1843. Written in the form of a first-person narrative, Poe employed multiple themes of insanity, superstition, and alcoholism to impart a palpable sense of horror and foreboding to this tale, while at the same time, deftly advancing his plot and building his characters. It's no surprise that "The Black Cat" is often linked with "The Tell-Tale Heart," since both of Poe's stories share several disturbing plot devices including murder and damning messages from the grave—real or imagined.

The Black Cat Summary

The nameless protagonist/narrator begins his story by letting the readers know that he was once a nice, average man. He had a pleasant home, was married to a pleasant wife, and had an abiding love for animals. All that was to change, however, when he fell under the influence of demon alcohol. The first symptom of his descent into addiction and eventual madness manifests in his escalating maltreatment of the family pets. The only creature to escape the man's initial wrath is a beloved black cat named Pluto, but one night after a serious bout of heavy drinking, Pluto angers him for some minor infraction, and in a drunken fury, the man seizes the cat, which promptly bites him. The narrator retaliates by cutting out one of Pluto's eyes.

While the cat's wound eventually heals, the relationship between the man and his pet has been destroyed. Eventually, the narrator, filled with self-loathing, comes to detest the cat as a symbol of his own weakness, and in a moment of further insanity, hangs the poor creature by the neck from a tree beside the house where it's left to perish. Shortly thereafter, the house burns down. While the narrator, his wife, and a servant escape, the only thing left standing is a single blackened interior wall—on which, to his horror, the man sees the image of a cat hanging by a noose around its neck. Thinking to assuage his guilt, the protagonist begins searching out a second black cat to replace Pluto. One night, in a tavern, he eventually finds just such a cat, which accompanies him to the house he now shares with his wife, albeit under greatly reduced circumstances.

Soon enough, the madness—abetted by gin—returns. The narrator begins not only to detest the new cat—which is always underfoot—but to fear it. What remains of his reason keeps him from harming the animal, until the day the man's wife asks him to accompany her on an errand to the cellar. The cat runs ahead, nearly tripping his master on the stairs. The man becomes enraged. He picks up an ax, meaning to murder the animal, but when his wife grabs the handle to stop him, he pivots, killing her with a blow to the head.

Rather than break down with remorse, the man hastily hides his wife's body by walling it up with bricks behind a false facade in the cellar. The cat that's been tormenting him seems to have disappeared. Relieved, he begins to think he's gotten away with his crime and all will finally be well–until the police eventually show up to search the house. They find nothing but as they're headed up the cellar stairs preparing to leave, the narrator stops them, and with false bravado, he boasts how well the house is built, tapping on the wall that's hiding the body of his dead wife. From within comes a sound of unmistakable anguish. Upon hearing the cries, the authorities demolish the false wall, only to find the wife's corpse, and on top of it, the missing cat. "I had walled the monster up within the tomb!" he wails—not realizing that he — not the cat — is the actual villain of the story.

The Black Cat Symbols

Symbols are a key component of Edgar Allen Poe 's dark tale, particularly the following ones.

• The black cat:  More than just the title character, the black cat is also an important symbol. Like the bad omen of legend, the narrator believes Pluto and his successor have led him down the path toward insanity and immorality. 
• Alcohol: While the narrator begins to view the black cat as an outward manifestation of everything the narrator views as evil and unholy, blaming the animal for all his woes, it is his addiction to drinking, more than anything else, that seems to be the true reason for the narrator's mental decline.
• House and home: " Home sweet home" is supposed to be a place of safety and security, however, in this story, it becomes a dark and tragic place of madness and murder. The narrator kills his favorite pet, tries to kill its replacement, and goes on to kill his own wife. Even the relationships that should have been the central focus of his healthy and happy home fall victim to his deteriorating mental state. 
• Prison: When the story opens, the narrator is physically in prison, however, his mind was already imprisoned by the shackles of madness, paranoia, and alcohol-induced delusions long before he was apprehended for his crimes. 
• The wife: The wife could have been a grounding force in the narrator's life. He describes her as having "that humanity of feeling." Rather than saving him, or at least escaping with her own life, she becomes a horrible example of innocence betrayed. Loyal, faithful, and kind, she never leaves her husband no matter how low he sinks into the depths of depravity. Instead, it is he who is in a sense unfaithful to his marriage vows. His mistress, however, is not another woman, but rather his obsession with drinking and the inner demons his drinking unleashes as symbolically personified by the black cat. He forsakes the woman he loves and eventually kills her because he can't break the hold of his destructive obsession.

The Black Cat Themes

Love and hate are two key themes in the story. The narrator at first loves his pets and his wife, but as madness takes hold, he comes to loathe or dismiss everything that should be of the utmost importance to him. Other major themes include:

• Justice and truth:  The narrator tries to hide the truth by walling up his wife's body but the voice of the black cat helps bring him to justice.
• Superstition:  The black cat is an omen of bad luck, a theme that runs throughout literature. 
• Murder and death:  Death is the central focus of the entire story. The question is what causes the narrator to become a killer.
• Illusion versus reality:  Does the alcohol release the narrator's inner demons, or is it merely an excuse for his horrendous acts of violence? Is the black cat merely a cat, or something embued with a greater power to bring about justice or exact revenge?
• Loyalty perverted: A pet is often seen as a loyal and faithful partner in life but the escalating hallucinations the narrator experiences propel him into murderous rages, first with Pluto and then with the cat that replaces him. The pets he once held in highest affection become the thing he most loathes. As the man's sanity unravels, his wife, whom he also purports to love, becomes someone who merely inhabits his home rather than shares his life. She ceases to be a real person, and when she does, she is expendable. When she dies, rather than feel the horror of killing someone he cares for, the man's first response is to hide the evidence of his crime.

The Black Cat Key Quotes

Poe's use of language enhances the story's chilling impact. His stark prose is the reason this and his other tales have endured. Key quotes from Poe's work echo its themes.

On reality vs. illusion:

"For the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief." 

On loyalty:

"There is something in the unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a brute, which goes directly to the heart of him who has had frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere Man." 

On superstition:

"In speaking of his intelligence, my wife, who at heart was not a little tinctured with superstition, made frequent allusion to the ancient popular notion, which regarded all black cats as witches in disguise." 

On alcoholism:

"...my disease grew upon me—for what disease is like Alcohol!—and at length even Pluto, who was now becoming old, and consequently somewhat peevish—even Pluto began to experience the effects of my ill temper." 

On transformation and descent into insanity:

"I knew myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body; and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every fiber of my frame." 

"This spirit of perverseness, I say, came to my final overthrow. It was this unfathomable longing of the soul to vex itself—to offer violence to its own nature—to do wrong for the wrong's sake only—that urged me to continue and finally to consummate the injury I had inflicted upon the unoffending brute." 

"Beneath the pressure of torments such as these, the feeble remnant of the good within me succumbed. Evil thoughts became my sole intimates—the darkest and most evil of thoughts." 

The Black Cat Study and Discussion Questions

Once students have read "The Black Cat," teachers can use the following questions to spark discussion or as the basis for an exam or written assignment:

• Why do you think Poe chose "The Black Cat" as the title for this story?
• What are the major conflicts? What types of conflict (physical, moral, intellectual, or emotional) do you see in this story?
• What does Poe do to reveal the characters in the story?
• What are The Black Cat's themes?
• How does Poe employ symbolism?
• Is the narrator consistent in his actions? Is he a fully developed character?
• Do you find the narrator likable? Would you want to meet him?
• Do you find the narrator reliable? Do you trust what he says to be true?
• How would you describe the narrator's relationship with animals? How does it differ from his relationships with people?
• Does the story end the way you expected it to?
• What is the central purpose of the story? Why is this purpose important or meaningful?
• Why is the story usually considered a work of horror literature?
• Would you consider this appropriate reading for Halloween?
• How essential is the setting to the story? Could the story have taken place anywhere else?
• What are some controversial elements of the story? Were they necessary?
• What is the role of women in the text?
• Would you recommend this story to a friend?
• If Poe had not ended the story as he did, what do you think might have happened next?
• How have views on alcoholism, superstition, and insanity changed since this story was written?
• How might a modern writer approach a similar story?
• 'The Alchemist' Quotes
• "Little Women": Questions for Study and Discussion
• How to Identify the Theme in a Literary Work
• 'Wuthering Heights' Questions for Study and Discussion
• 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' Essay and Discussion Questions
• '1984' Questions for Study and Discussion
• 'The Old Man and the Sea' Questions for Discussion
• 'Alice in Wonderland' Questions for Study and Discussion
• 'Robinson Crusoe' Questions for Study and Discussion
• 'The Jungle' Questions for Study and Discussion
• Discussion Questions for Pride and Prejudice
• 'Invisible Man' Questions for Study and Discussion
• "Of Mice and Men"
• '1984' Study Guide
• 'The Scarlet Letter' Quotes Explained
• 'Brave New World:' Questions for Study and Discussion

The Black Cat

By edgar allan poe, the black cat summary and analysis of "the black cat".

The narrator is giving his story while in jail; he is going to be put to death tomorrow. He knows his narrative will invite disbelief, but he promises he is neither lying nor dreaming. All he wants to do now is unburden his soul and lay before the reader “a series of mere household events.” To him, they seem to be nothing but horror, but perhaps someday someone can explain them away by natural causes and effects.

From childhood, the narrator was known for his docility and compassion, particularly towards animals. He never felt happier than when he was caressing an animal. When he married, it was to a woman with the same disposition as him, and they had many pets.

One of the pets was a beautiful black cat without a single white bit of fur. The narrator and his wife loved the cat, but his wife often, albeit jokingly, referenced the old adage that black cats were witches in disguise. The cat was named Pluto and he was the narrator’s favorite pet.

Over time, the narrator’s temperament changed. He became day by day “more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others.” He cursed his wife and eventually came to inflict violence upon her. He also lashed out at his pets, though for a while his love for the black cat left that animal unscathed.

Eventually, even Pluto felt the narrator’s wrath. One night, the narrator felt convicted that Pluto was avoiding him; feeling a surge of drunken rage, he picked up a knife and cut out one of the cat’s eyes.

The next morning, the narrator felt ashamed of what he’d done and swore he would be better. This resolution did not hold.

Pluto healed, but its eye was frightful. He hid from the narrator, which first saddened the narrator but then made him irritated and angry.

The narrator finally felt that the spirit of perverseness had inexorably come upon him. He saw this as “one of the primitive impulses of the human heart… Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a silly action, for no other reason than he knows he should not? ”

One day, in cold blood, the narrator slipped a noose around the animal’s neck and hung it on the limb of a tree. He cried tears of remorse because he knew the animal had loved him, he knew it had not done anything wrong, and he knew he was sinning. Regardless, he could not control himself.

On the night of the crime, the narrator and his wife were roused by screams of “fire!” Their entire house burned down that night and they barely emerged unscathed. The next day, the narrator inspected the ruins. Only one wall remained, and, surrounded by neighbors craning their necks, the narrator looked at it closely—the outline of a large black cat could be seen in it. The narrator was shocked and terrified by this illusion. He finally realized what had happened: a neighbor must have taken the hanged cat and thrown it into the window to wake the sleepers, and the body left its impression on the wall because the plaster was only recently spread.

Though the narrator had an explanation, he was still perturbed. He thought of the cat for months and came to wish that he had it back. One night at a drinking den, he found one that was like his old one, though with a splash of white fur. He offered to buy it from the landlord, but the man said he’d never seen it before.

The narrator brought the cat home and his wife fell in love with it, but it wasn’t long before the cat’s excessive attention began to bother the narrator. Furthermore, this cat was also missing an eye like Pluto. The cat followed the narrator everywhere he went and he felt extreme dread. He even began to notice that the cat’s white mark, which before had seemed insignificant, now took on the shape of a gallows.

The narrator could not forestall his nightmares or torments anymore. He slipped fully into his evilness; moody, terrible thoughts were his constant companions.

The narrator and his wife were living in an old building after the fire, and one day, the narrator’s wife accompanied him into its cellar on a household errand. The cat swiftly followed them downstairs; in a paroxysm of rage, the narrator picked up an ax. He missed the cat due to his wife’s interference, and so he decided to strike her instead.

He killed her with one blow and decided he would dispose of the body by walling it up, as he could not take it outside without been seen. The cellar walls were perfect for this, as they were loosely constructed and recently plastered. The narrator carried out his task and made sure every detail was perfect. He looked around for the cat when he was done, hoping to kill it as well, but it was nowhere to be seen.

For several days, the narrator lived blissfully, as the cat never returned. He felt no guilt, and he laughed at the fruitlessness of the investigation for his missing wife.

On the fourth day, a party of police came to look around. They inspected every square inch, but the narrator was not worried at all. When the police prepared to leave the cellar, he even cockily tapped on the walls and boasted of how excellently they were put together.

At his tap, the most terrifying, unearthly wail began from within the wall and would not stop. The police hurriedly pulled down the wall. The decaying corpse tumbled out, and inside was the black cat with his “solitary eye of fire”—the narrator had walled him up within the tomb.

The Black Cat is one of Poe’s most beguiling and disturbing tales, and it has attracted a great deal of critical analysis. There are numerous ways to approach this story, so in order to maintain a semblance of clarity, this analysis will be divided into sections relating to different themes, theories, and frameworks of analysis.

The Unreliable Narrator

One of the most salient things about the tale is the fact that readers cannot trust the narrator. He speaks before he is to be put to death, yet his tone is deceptively calm. He speaks of things that are not sane in the tone of a sane person. He admits that he does not understand the things that have happened, but he thinks that perhaps someone else can. He rationalizes all the things he does but shows no remorse or understanding of his moral degeneration. The tale he narrates shows him lapsing into evil because of his divided nature, turning against reality, rationality, and anyone outside of his own self. As Ed Piacentino notes, the narrator “would like the reader to regard him in his present state as calm and rational, a character presumably with self-control,” but he is “actually excitable and illogical.”

Regardless of the narrator’s moral issues or inclination toward perverseness, he is clearly an alcoholic, and that inability to control his drink exacerbates his thoughts and actions. Alcohol is a form of self-destruction for him, but it is a form he welcomes. As critic Magdalen Wing-chi Ki writes, “the jouissance of alcohol allows the subject to live in his own world and expel the other/Other (cat, wife, law) in the self… Poe invites his readers to see that the alcohol has allowed the drive subject to push all identifications aside and enjoy a new being.”

Perverseness

The narrator’s excuse for his behavior is the spirit of “perverseness,” or doing something evil simply because it is evil. However, we cannot take him at his word and it is more likely that his own psychology is to blame. As James Gargano explains, the way the incidents are arranged in the tale suggests development over time as well as “a gradually enfeebling of his moral nature under the impact of increasing self-indulgence.” The narrator also tries to explain away his deeds and rationalize them, which complicates his defense. He is immersed in and infatuated by evil and deliberately chooses to ignore the moral implications of his behavior. He embraces evil more and more, exonerates himself, and often “rejects obvious moral explanations in favor of either spurious or ingenious rationalizations to admissions of his inability to determine the cause-and-effect relationship between the events of his life.”

The Cat as Symbol

At the beginning of the tale, James Gargano explains, the cat is a neutral figure. It is docile, like the narrator and his wife. However, as the narrator turns violent the cat turns aggressive; it then turns into an innocent victim, and finally comes back to haunt him as a reincarnation. It is to be understood symbolically: it is “the narrator’s own multiple nature…once the total self is outraged, the subterranean king, Pluto, tyrannically exacts his vengeance.” When the narrator cuts the cat’s eye out, the “mutilation represents the narrator’s compulsive attack upon himself and a partial obliteration of his vision of good.” The aftermath is a deeper deadening of his moral self. He becomes more stubborn and less insightful; “he is now ready to violate himself in a more complete manner.”

The Daemonic

Poe studied daemonology, interested in the intersection between human destiny and demonic power. In his study on this topic, Kent Ljungquist looks into how Poe saw the daemonic impulse as linked with poetic inspiration. Possession in both cases was “a morally ambiguous experience, both elevating and terrifying.” Ecstasy and dread are present in equal parts in this inward mental state. “The Black Cat” is a tale that explores daemonic force, symbolized by the cat itself. Not only were cats often associated with dark powers, but there are also other factors that support this claim based on the scholarship of the daemonic. First, daemons brought about a feeling of oppression, or a heavy weight that could hamper breathing, which the narrator complains of. Second, the daemon can create a feeling of being frozen or paralyzed, which is also an issue for the narrator. And third, nightmares bring feelings of daemonic dread; the narrator suffers from these. Tellingly, “his sensation cannot be defined easily because it is a mixture of elevation and horror. He professes agony over his degradation, but significantly, his sense also thrill to a height of emotion never before experienced.”

The cat is, then, a symbol of the narrator’s daemonic possession. He often comments on how smart it is, and he also seems to think it is “sapping his energy”—that “his moral vitality steadily diminishes” and is absorbed by the cat.

The cat begins as a “model of domestic virtue,” but as the narrator falls apart mentally, “the transformation from domestic house cat to fiendish demon coincides with the narrator’s moral deterioration.” The cat appears in places that are problems for the narrator—the house that burned down after his act of violence and a bar. The cat is thus “an inextricable part of the narrator’s psychology” and also “a symbolic reminder of his destined punishment.” The cat is a powerful entity that grows even more powerful as the narrator’s power and autonomy wane, and ultimately, “these spectral appearances reflect a residue of conscience.”

The Grotesque

Critics see the grotesque as a mixture of the normal, the abnormal, the archaic, the modern, the fearful, the horrible, the witty, the burlesque, the singular, the strange, and the mystical. Poe uses the grotesque in his work and pushes it into the excessive, but by his doing so in “The Black Cat” and other tales, as Marita Nadal writes, the grotesque “proves to be a source of both fear and laughter.” Some of the details in the story undermine the solemnity of the narrator’s confession, as do some of the unbelievable and fantastical elements.

Elements of the grotesque in the tale also include uncanniness (an idea expostulated by Freud), repetition, the double, the claim to perverseness, and the fixation on sight. For Freud, losing an eye was linked with castration, so for the narrator, who was perhaps overly concerned with his own masculinity, fixation on the animal’s missing eye could be telling.

Masculinity

The narrator seems to resort to bursts of hyper-masculine behavior to cover his more feminine behavior. Critics Moreland and Rodriguez explain, “He is constantly undermined by his impulsive, irrational temperament, a trait not only common to adolescent boys but also one stereotypically attributed to women. His violent outbursts are not expressions of machismo but are rather futile attempts to eradicate the feminine traits which were always latent in his personality, and are only now coming to the surface.” They suggest that Poe had a subtle message for his male readers: “men’s grip on sanity and masculine identity is more slippery than they might think, that at their most vulnerable moment a demonic thief in the night might pull back the curtains of their minds and deprive them of what they treasure most: their ‘vaunted supremacy.’”

Motive and Meaning

Though readers may want to determine the reason for the narrator’s actions, as Joseph Stark argues, there might not be a sufficient reason at all: the story can be seen to “[uphold] the mysterious nature of the human will in a time dominated by intellectual rationalism.” There are diverse clues in the text that give rise to numerous motives, all of which seem to be presented with equal weight to readers. First, Stark notes that the most straightforward reading would locate the narrator’s behavior in human depravity, but this “fails to acknowledge the unreliability of the story’s narrator as well as the insufficiency of the answer.” We should be cautious of any explanation that the narrator himself gives, and furthermore, “he himself offers no ultimate explanation for the cause behind the perversity.” Another motive is alcoholism, but this does not account for what drove him to alcohol in the first place or the fact that some of his crimes take place when he is not drunk. A third explanation is the psychobiography of the narrator, particularly his effeminacy, but the excesses in which the narrator engages cannot be explained through this.

Ultimately, then, there is no clear explanation. The moral of the tale, if there is one, “may be more a statement on the insufficiency of human reason than the nature of the human will…No one, it may be inferred, is so distinct from either the murderous tendencies of the narrator or from his inability adequately to explain such tendencies.”

The Black Cat Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Black Cat is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

the black cat

He sees the black cat.

Write down all the main events that happened in the story' the black cat part 2' ?

I don't know about part 1 or part 2. I just read it as a whole story. You can check out the general summary below:

https://www.gradesaver.com/the-black-cat/study-guide/summary

It's Pluto, mate

Michael Moore

Study Guide for The Black Cat

The Black Cat study guide contains a biography of Edgar Allan Poe, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Black Cat
• The Black Cat Summary
• Character List

Essays for The Black Cat

The Black Cat essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe.

• Damn Cat: The Blasphemous Spirituality of Poe's The Black Cat
• The Unpredictable Map: Unreliable Narration in "The Black Cat"
• Edgar Allan Poe's Gothic Elements
• The Political, Social and Philosophical Analysis of 19th Century American Gothic Literature
• Eyes as a Reflection of the Self in Poe's Short Fiction

Wikipedia Entries for The Black Cat

• Introduction

• Ask LitCharts AI
• Discussion Question Generator
• Essay Prompt Generator
• Quiz Question Generator

• Literature Guides
• Poetry Guides
• Shakespeare Translations
• Literary Terms

Poe's Stories

Edgar allan poe.

• Quizzes, saving guides, requests, plus so much more.

Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat"

Summary of the story, point of view.

• Style and Interpretation

Related Information

Works cited.

• Complete Text Available

Style and Interpretation " 'The Black Cat' is one of the most powerful of Poe's stories, and the horror stops short of the wavering line of disgust" (Quinn 395). Poe constructed this story in such a way that the events of the tale remain somewhat ambiguous. As the narrator begins to recount the occurrences that "...have terrified--have tortured--have destroyed [him]," he reminds the reader that maybe "...some intellect more calm, more logical, and far less excitable than [his] own," will perceive "...nothing more than an ordinary succession of very natural causes and effects." As the narrator begins to tell his story (flashback), the reader discovers that the man's personality had undergone a drastic transformation which he attributes to his abuse of alcohol and the perverse side of his nature, which the alcohol seemed to evoke. The reader also discovers (with the introduction of Pluto into the story) that the narrator is superstitious, as he recounts that his wife made "...frequent allusion to the ancient popular notion, [that] all black cats [are] witches in disguise." Even though the narrator denies this (much as the narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" denies that he or she is insane), the reader becomes increasingly aware of his superstitious belief as the story progresses. Superstition (as well as the popular notion to which the man's wife refers) has it that Satan and witches assume the form of black cats. For those who believe, they are symbols of bad luck, death, sorcery, witchcraft, and the spirits of the dead. Appropriately, the narrator calls his cat, Pluto, who in Greek and Roman mythology was the god of the dead and the ruler of the underworld (symbolism). As in other Poe stories ( "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "The Gold Bug" ), biting and mutilation appear. The narrator of "The Black Cat" first becomes annoyed when Pluto "inflicted a slight wound upon [the] hand with his teeth." After he is bitten by the cat, the narrator cuts out its eye. Poe relates "eyes" and "teeth" in their single capacity to take in or to incorporate objects. This dread of being consumed often leads the narrator to destroy who or what he fears (Silverman 207). Poe's pronounced use of foreshadowing leads the reader from one event to the next ("one night," "one morning," "on the night of the day," etc.). Within the first few paragraphs of the story, the narrator foreshadows that he will violently harm his wife ("At length, I even offered her personal violence."). However, are the events of the story, as the narrator suggests, based upon "...an ordinary succession of very natural causes and effect," or are they indeed caused by the supernatural? By using, three main events in this story (the apparition of the first cat upon the burned wall, the appearance of the gallowslike pattern upon the chest of the second cat, and the discovery of the second cat behind the cellar wall), a convincing case can be presented for both sides. While making a case for the logical as well as the supernatural, one must remember the state of mind of the narrator. All events are described for the reader by an alcoholic who has a distorted view of reality. The narrator goes to great lengths to scientifically explain the apparition of the cat in the wall; however, the chain of events that he re-creates in his mind are so highly coincidental that an explanation relying on the supernatural may be easier to accept. Once again, the reader wonders if the narrator's perceptions can be believed as he describes the gallowslike pattern upon the chest of the second cat. Maybe what he sees is just a hallucination of a tormented mind. The markings of an adult cat surely would not change that much, unless maybe the pattern was not part of the animal's fur, but only a substance on its surface which, with time, could wear off and disappear (a substance such as plaster?). Afterall, the second cat is also missing an eye. Poe is very careful to avoid stating if it is the same eye of which Pluto was deprived. Are there really two cats in this story, or did Pluto (possibly "a witch in disguise") survive, and return for retribution. Of all the incidents, the discovery of the cat (first or second) behind the cellar wall is the easiest to believe. The cat was frightened by the man, and logically, sought shelter. What is somewhat strange is the fact that the police searched the cellar several times, and not one time did the cat make a sound. It was not until the narrator rapped heavily with a cane upon the wall, that the cat responded. Was it a series of natural causes and effects, or was it what the narrator described? "Upon its head, with red extended mouth and solitary eye of fire, sat the hideous beast whose craft had seduced me into murder, and whose informing voice had consigned me to the hangman. I had walled the monster up within the tomb." Theme

• Poe Perplex on the Black Cat
• Do Black Cats cause bad luck?
• "I am Safe" - David Grantz