Benguedouar 1

Aimen Abdennour Benguedouar

Dr. Benkhelifa

Research Methodology M1

19 December 2023

The Dominance of Freudian Id in the Black Cat

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet and literary critic. He is widely

regarded as a central figure within the literary movement, dark romanticism, which

emphasized the dark and mysterious aspects of human life. Poe wrote many works,

including poems and short stories. This paper is concerned with one of Poe’s well-

known short stories: “The Black Cat”. It seeks to analyze the short story from a

Freudian psychoanalytical perspective. More precisely, this paper is determined to

answer the question: how does the narrator’s Freudian id control and dominate his

psyche?

In “The Black Cat”, an unnamed alcoholic narrator walks a path that leads him

to the gallows. First, he adopts a black cat, named Pluto towards which he develops

affection and love. Soon, however, hatred surges within him towards the cat as it

starts to avoid him. Therefore, he cuts one of its eyes and later hangs it from a tree. As

his house is set on fire, the narrator sees an apparition of Pluto, which goes on hunting

and torturing him for months. One night in a tavern, the narrator sees another black

cat so similar to Pluto with the exception of a white mark on its chest. The narrator

takes it home. The cat displays fondness towards the narrator, but he soon finds

aversion within him towards it. He starts avoiding it until one day in the cellar when it

nearly makes him fall. He takes an axe and aims it at the cat, but his wife stops him so

he aims the blow at her instead. The narrator, then, hides the corpse of his dead wife

in the cellar. When investigators come, the narrator excitedly throws a can at the very
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spot where his wife is hidden. The sound of the second cat, which is hidden with the

wife, reveals the crime of the narrator and sends him to the gallows.

This paper seeks to analyze the short story using the Freudian three-part model

of the psyche: the id, ego and superego. Explaining this model is necessary to lay the

groundwork for the analysis. In Freud’s seminal work, The Ego and the Id (1923),

Freud introduces three psychic provinces: the id, ego and superego. “Freud classifies

the id as a dark instinct that is away from awareness, social order, and rational

behavioral patterns.” (Siddiqui et al. 6) The id is the part of the psyche that is driven

by desires, impulses, wants and needs, all of which it strives to gratify instantly. The

id is unconscious, and it unheeds rationality. The id’s desires, impulses, wants and

needs are part of either the pleasure instinct or the aggressive instinct. The ego is

another part of the human psyche. According to Ostow, “the ego is the agent of the id,

charged with the task of arranging the most appropriate circumstances for

gratification, and deferring or preventing gratification when gratification would not

serve the individual’s best interests.” (7) In other words, the ego operates on the

reality principle. It seeks to satisfy the id’s desires not impulsively but in a realistic

and socially acceptable way. The ego decides appropriateness in human behavior. It

appropriates such behavior by mediating between the id and the superego, which is

the part of the psyche that holds a “critical authority.” (Ostow 18) The superego

contains our internalized moral standards and ideals, which give us guidelines for

making judgments between the right and the wrong. Therefore, the superego

represents our conscience.

Early on in the short story, the narrator’s id derives pleasure from animals.

From an early age, the narrator was tender of heart. However, this tenderness was

subject to the ridicule of his childhood companions. “My tenderness of heart was even
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so conspicuous as to make me the jest of my companions.” (Poe 2) This jest made

him minimize his human contact; instead, his ego applied what Freud describes as

identification to appease his id’s need for connection. Identification is a defense

mechanism where a person attaches himself/herself to something positive. In the

narrator’s case, this positivity lays in animals.

“I was especially fond of animals, and was indulged by my parents with a

great variety of pets. With these I spent most of my time, and never was so

happy as when feeding and caressing them. This peculiarity of character grew

with my growth, and, in my manhood, I derived from it one of my principal

sources of pleasure.” (Poe 2)

His id induces him to seek pleasure from animals and from anything or anyone related

to them. In fact, he married and was happy with his wife only because she could

discharge his id’s desires. “I married early, and was happy to find in my wife a

disposition not uncongenial with my own.” (Poe 2) His wife satisfied his id when she

bought him pets of all kinds, including a black cat.

The narrator’s state of alcoholism causes him to lose grip on reality. (Djaffour

18) Early in the short story, the narrator mentions his drinking problem when he says,

“But my disease grew upon me—for what disease is like Alcohol?” (Poe 3) He calls it

a disease because it impairs his mental functioning. “Alcohol consumption may have

kindling effects…and alter neurotransmitter systemic balance.” (Pervin and Stephen

2) As alcohol changes the function of the nervous system, it alters cognitive function

and therefore leads to a distorted consciousness. According to Freud, the ego

represents the conscious part of the psyche as it deals with reality. From this vantage

point, it is safe to conclude that our narrator’s ego is eliminated by the effect of
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alcohol. Thus, the narrator’s regulator that can mediate between his id and superego is

absent.

According to Kurniawan, alcoholism allowed our narrator to evince his

suppressed aggression. (14) “Alcohol causes disinhibition, or a release of natural

impulses...alcohol is also believed to increase antisocial impulses, such as aggression

or risk-taking.” (Grant and MacDonald 1) Impulsivity is directly linked to the id.

What is also directly linked to the id is the aggression instinct or what Freud named

Thanatos. In the short story, intoxication triggers this instinct.

“Through the instrumentality of the fiend Intemperance—had (I blush to

confess it) experienced a radical alteration for the worse. I grew, day by day,

more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others. I

suffered myself to use intemperate language to my wife.” (Poe 3)

His id starts aggressing his wife, and later moves to Pluto. It cuts one of its eyes and

then “in cool blood” hangs it from a tree. This shows that the id won the competition

against the narrator’s ego and superego.

After murdering Pluto, the narrator experiences if but a little remorse. “For

months I could not rid myself of the phantasm of the cat; and, during this period, there

came back into my spirit a half sentiment that seemed, but was not, remorse.” (Poe 5)

According to Siddiqui et al., after this incident, the superego as a moral consciousness

impulse took control and made the narrator feel guilty. (7) Since an early age, the

narrator’s superego internalized the virtue of tenderness. “I was noted for the docility

and humanity of my disposition.” (Poe 1) This tenderness implies being

compassionate, gentle and kind. When the narrator’s id released its aggression

instinct, it breached such a superego virtue. This is what led the latter to chastise the

narrator. It is therefore important to acknowledge that the narrator’s superego

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dominated his psyche after the incident of Pluto’s murder; however, its control did not

last long since the remorse itself was barely strong and also because his id’s craves for

animal fondness were in motion again.

After a few months of Pluto’s murder, the narrator’s id took into effect.

“…and to look about me, among the vile haunts which I now habitually frequented,

for another pet of the same species, and of somewhat similar appearance, with which

to supply its place.” (Poe 5-6) His id seeks to find a cat similar to Pluto because the

latter was once, if only for a little time, a source of pleasure. One night in a tavern as

he sat indulging in drunkenness satisfying his id’s desires, his attention “was suddenly

drawn to some black object…” (Poe 6) This black object was a cat, and it resembles

Pluto in every aspect but one, which is the white mark on its chest. According to

Kurniawan, the suddenness of the appearance of the second black cat was magical and

reinforced the idea of superstition within the narrator. (16) Early on, the narrator

mentions that his wife hinted casually to the superstition of black cats regarded as

witches in disguise. The narrator’s superego internalizes such belief. Because his id

craves for animal affection, the ego represses this belief in order to satisfy the id’s

desire; therefore, he develops friendship with Pluto. However, the second cat’s abrupt

appearance strengthened the belief of superstition. The superego warns the narrator of

the cat. This is manifested in the “surprise” the narrator experiences when the nature

of the black object is distinguished. Eventually, the belief is once again repressed, and

his id wins as he takes the cat with him home.

The second black cat forces the narrator’s id to form aggressive impulses.

Despite caressing the cat at first, the narrator states that he “soon found a dislike to

it...” (Poe 6) According to Kurniawan, the second cat was a source of unpleasantness

to the narrator. (17) The many similarities between the second cat and Pluto reminded
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the narrator of the latter. Not only did it remind him of Pluto itself, but it also

reminded him of the discomfort and displeasure Pluto caused him before and after its

murder by him. Thus, the second cat’s presence and its connection to Pluto underlie

vexing torments to the narrator. Such torments force his id to contemplate dark

thoughts.

“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 moodiness of my usual temper

increased to hatred of all things and of all mankind;” (Poe 8)

Such evil thoughts well up the narrator’s id, eventually becoming malignant impulses

in need of an immediate release.

According to Siddiqui et al., the first crime, that of murdering Pluto,

encouraged an irrepressible irrationality within the narrator. (7) What finally made the

narrator’s id able to channel those dark thoughts to the external world via Thanatos

was his horrendous deed to Pluto. The first crime gave the narrator’s id the confidence

to reach a maddening impulsivity. This is clearly depicted as the narrator goes to the

cellar when the second cat nearly makes him fall. “The cat followed me down the

steep stairs, and, nearly throwing me headlong, exasperated me to madness.” (Poe 8)

The narrator, thus, acts on instinct, without any concern for the consequences that will

have to be faced by both his ego and superego. He uplifts an axe ready to fell the cat

only to be stopped, at least for a moment, by his wife.

“Uplifting an axe, and forgetting, in my wrath, the childish dread which had

hitherto stayed my hand, I aimed a blow at the animal which, of course, would

have proved instantly fatal had it descended as I wished. But this blow was

arrested by the hand of my wife.” (Poe 8)

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When his wife stopped him, the narrator’s ego used the Freudian term

“Displacement” as a defense mechanism. (Kurniawan 18) The narrator’s ego set out

to satisfy the id by substituting the cat with the wife. As a result, his id’s Thanatos

was released onto the wife instead of the cat. “Goaded, by the interference, into a rage

more than demoniacal, I withdrew my arm from her grasp, and buried the axe in her

brain. She fell dead upon the spot, without a groan.” (Poe 8) Hence, the narrator’s

irrepressible irrationality, pertaining to his id, arose mightily.

“This time his behavior was lucid but bizarre when after murdering his wife,

there was no pattern of repentance, or guilt rather he hid the corpse of his wife in the

wall.” (Siddiqui et al. 7) After the incident, the narrator’s ego did another defense

mechanism, which is rationalization in order to justify the socially and morally

unacceptable impulse of his wife’s murder. His ego started thinking of where to hide

the body. In all this, there was no room for his superego to interfere as a punisher;

instead, it was completely set aside.

“This hideous murder accomplished, I set myself forthwith, and with entire

deliberation, to the task of concealing the body. I knew that I could not remove

it from the house, either by day or by night, without the risk of being observed

by the neighbours.” (Poe 8)

Eventually, the narrator’s ego settled on hiding the body inside a wall located in the

cellar. Once doing that, his id was in a triumphant mood, having got rid of a source of

unpleasantness.

“I easily dislodged the bricks, and, having carefully deposited the body against

the inner wall, I propped it in that position, while, with little trouble, I relaid

the whole structure as it originally stood…When I had finished, I felt

satisfied…” (Poe 9)
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After hiding the body, the narrator’s id prompts him to look for the second cat. His

id’s desire to wipe this cat off existence heightens. “My next step was to look for the

beast which had been the cause of so much wretchedness; for I had, at length, firmly

resolved to put it to death.” (Poe 9) Three days passed and there was no sign of ‘the

beast.’ Thus, the narrator’s id was gratified as there was no ‘tormentor’, and he is

finally able to breathe as a ‘free man.’

After getting rid of all sources of unpleasantness, including his wife who

attempted to stop him from murdering the second cat and the second cat itself which

disappeared apparently of its own accord, the narrator’s id’s impulsivity reached its

climax, thereby taking complete control over his psyche. According to Kurniawan, his

id was in an ecstatic mood. (18) Thus, this ecstasy was the very reason that led to his

downfall. This can be understood when we see the police coming to investigate the

disappearance of the narrator’s wife. The police searched the house thoroughly, but

they did not find his wife’s corpse. They were ready to leave when the narrator did

something that was completely driven by impulse. His id’s desire to assure the police

that he was not guilty overcame him. This desire put the narrator in a brain fog

condition. His ego could not help repress nor restrain it by way of a defense

mechanism. “The police were thoroughly satisfied, and prepared to depart. The glee at

my heart was too strong to be restrained. I burned to say if but one word, by way of

triumph…” (Poe 10) Eventually, the narrator succumbs to this desire. His id wins

again.

“These walls—are you going, gentlemen?—these walls are solidly put

together;" and here, through the mere frenzy of bravado, I rapped heavily, with

a cane which I held in my hand, upon that very portion of the brickwork

behind which stood the corpse of the wife of my bosom.” (Poe 10)
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He throws a can towards the place where his wife was hidden, and the second cat

gives a shriek that finally exposes the corpse of the narrator’s wife to the police, and

hence sends the narrator to the gallows.

To sum up, the analysis of Poe’s short story “The Black Cat” from a Freudian

perspective gives an insight about how the narrator’s psyche really works. Applying

Freudian three-part model of the psyche to the short story, one can see how the id, the

ego and the superego of the narrator operate. Throughout the story, alcohol acts as an

external stimulus that triggers the disinhibition of the id’s desires and impulses,

pertaining to pleasure and aggression. As a result, the id controls the psyche.

Although the superego makes the narrator remorseful once, the guilt is not as

powerful as need be to make him stop and reconsider his actions. In addition, the ego

is not in a sound state due to alcohol effect; therefore, it serves as an all-time gratifier

of the id.
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https://doi.org/10.1093/alcalc/agh177

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