Name-Areeba Anjum

Roll Number- 241558689

Course- ENGL 201

Submission Date- April 30, 2022

An Analysis of “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe

Summary and Analysis-

The Black Cat" illustrates the narrator's spiral towards madness after he claims his sanity

in the first paragraph of the story. Even the narrator admits the story's "wild" nature, striving to

separate his mental state from the plot's happenings. He is well aware of his mental decline, and

he realizes the change that is occurring within him at various times in the story, he attempts to do

something about it, but he is powerless to stop his descent into madness.

The narrator of this narrative begins his admission in retrospect, at a time when he was

thought to be a totally normal person, known for his docility and compassion for animals and

people. His parents supported his love of animals, and he was permitted to have a variety of pets.

He was also lucky to marry a woman who shared his passion for animals. They had a black cat

named Pluto who was one of several animals they had. His wife frequently alluded to the

prevalent belief that all black cats are actually witches in disguise, and the name Pluto (which is

the name of one of the gods of the underworld in charge of witches) becomes significant.

Another popular belief that is important to this narrative is that a cat has nine lives; this

superstition becomes a part of the story when the second black cat is thought to be a

reincarnation of the dead Pluto with only one minor but horrifying change — the gallows

impression on its breast.

Interestingly, Pluto was the narrator's favorite animal, and the two had a special bond for

several years. Then, unexpectedly (due in part to drinking), the narration changed dramatically.

"I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others.” The

narrator undergoes a transformation here. When he returned home inebriated, he imagined that

his beloved cat was avoiding him, so he grabbed the cat by the throat and hacked out one of its

eyeballs with a penknife. He was appalled by what he had done the next morning, he writes, and
the cat eventually recovered, but now it actively avoids the narrator. As the cat continued to

evade the narrator, the spirit of perversion overtook him once more, this time with an

inexplicable desire to "offer violence... to do wrong for the purpose of doing wrong." He tied a

noose around the cat's neck and hung it from a tree limb one morning, but tears streamed down

his face as he did so. He is ashamed of his perversity because he knows the cat loved him and

there was no justification for him to hang it. What he did was an act of pure perversity.

His house burned to the ground that night after the awful deed was carried out. Here we

have an example of a deranged person expressing a rational rejection of anything so superstitious

as the house being burned down as retaliation for murdering the cat. The next day, he went to the

wreckage of the house and observed a multitude of people gathered around it. One wall remained

standing, despite the fact that it had recently been replastered and was still damp. It was the wall

over his bed and inscribed into the plaster was a perfect image of a gigantic cat, with a noose

around the animal's neck. However, the narrator does not explain why the vision is of a gigantic

cat; hence, we must believe that the image took on gigantic proportions exclusively in the

narrator's mind.

The narrator couldn't stop thinking about the black cat for months, and one night, while

highly inebriated, he saw another black cat that looked just like Pluto, save for a splash of white

on its breast.  This cat was undoubtedly a reincarnation of Pluto in the mind of the storyteller. He

soon becomes disgusted by the cat's affection.

The cat nearly tripped him one day as he and his wife were heading into the cellar; he

grabbed an axe to kill it, but his wife stopped him. This unexpectedly gruesome conduct is

unprepared in any way. The narrator's strong affection for his wife has been frequently
emphasized. As a result, this act of perversity outnumbers Pluto's hanging and can only be

explained by the narrator's concept of perversity.

After accidentally murdering his wife and covering up his crime, the narrator intended to

slaughter the cat, but it had vanished, and he was now able to sleep easily in spite of his crime.

This absence of guilt is a significant departure from his feelings at the start of the novel. We

never know what prompted the cops to conduct a search when they arrive suddenly. Similarly,

the narrator here is overconfident; he revels in the fact that he has so deftly and totally covered

his heinous crime that an investigation of the premises is welcomed.

A "voice from within the tomb" responded to his utter terror. It began as a muffled and

broken cry but soon evolved into an "utterly anomalous and inhuman... howl... a wailing shriek,

half of horror and half of triumph, such as might have arisen only from hell, jointly from the

throats of the damned in their agony and of the demons that exult in the damnation,”. The police

soon began tearing down the brick wall, discovering the rotting body of the narrator's wife, as

well as the "hideous beast whose craft had seduced me into murder... I had walled the monster

up within the tomb," 

Of course, the ultimate irony is that the cat he had grown to loathe — the cat that could have

been Pluto's reincarnation — now acts as a figure of revenge against the killer. By the end of the

story, we can see how the narrator, by commenting on his own behavior, convicts himself of the

crazy that he so vehemently denounced at the start.

Themes-

Violence-

The nameless narrator of "The Black Cat" presents us with a series of horrific acts. The grisly

highlights include eye gouging, hanging, and axing. Pluto, the black cat who goes from

pampered pet to tormented beast, is the center of the detailed stories of violence until the end of

the story when someone is killed. The cruelty that the anonymous narrator inflicts on his wife

and other creatures is a bit hazy. Nonetheless, the reader has a rather good image of what is

going on. And by the end of the story, the narrator has entirely wrecked his family, as well as

possibly himself.

Perverseness-

Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a silly action, for no other

reason than because he knows he should not? Have we not a perpetual inclination […] to violate

that which is Law, merely because we understand it to be such? 

The narrator claims that perversity is a natural aspect of human nature. It's what drives people to

break the law simply for the sake of breaking the law, even if they know they'll face

consequences and even if they believe the law is fair. This, according to the narrator, is why he

killed Pluto. The narrator appears to be stating that he understands the difference between right

and wrong, but that this twisted drive, which he refers to as "one of the primordial impulses of

the human heart," drove him to do it nevertheless. This could jeopardize his insanity argument,

which hinges on his ability to demonstrate that he has no concept of right and wrong.

Illusion vs. reality-

Does the narrator's drinking unleash his inner demons, or is it just a cover for his heinous deeds

of violence? Is the black cat just a cat, or is it a creature endowed with greater ability to bring

about justice or execute vengeance?

Superstition-

The black cat is seen as a bad omen.

Justice-

The narrator tries to hide the truth by burying his wife's body, but the black cat's voice aids in

bringing him to justice.