Norte-Americana - Black Cat

Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro
Aluna: Fabiana de Freitas
Essay on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “Black Cat”
“Black Cat” is a short story that combines elements of Gothic fiction and Poe’s
unique way of writing horror stories. The story is about the confession of a nameless
man, the narrator, who is now on death row because of the crime he committed in the
past. By telling this story to the readers, he is trying to unburden his soul since he is
going to die on the next day, even though he thinks that no one will believe what he is
saying, because it is too wild to be true. In this confession, the narrator describes
alcohol abuse, domestic violence, perversity and vengeance as mere “household events”
and the black cat(s) is/are symbolisms that are used in order to develop this Gothic
narrative.
Since his infancy, the narrator was very fond of animals and was happy to find a
wife that shared this same interest. Although they had “birds, goldfish, a fine dog,
rabbits, a small monkey and a cat” (POE, 1843, p.4), it is only the cat that really catches
the man attention while the other pets are only mentioned again when he is attacking
them.
The cat was named Pluto, which is a reference to the Greek god of death and the
underworld. Pluto was the man’s favorite pet, since he was smart and beautiful. As the
days went by, however, even the cat experiences the effects of the narrator’s alcoholism,
and the man uses a pen-knife to cut his eye out. After he came to his senses, he felt
remorse, but as the cat avoided his presence, he broke down and killed him hanging
from a tree, because he was feeling possessed by the spirit of perverseness:
And then came, as if to my final and irrevocable overthrow, the spirit of

PERVERSENESS. Of this spirit philosophy takes no account. Yet I am not
more sure that my soul lives, than I am that perverseness is one of the
primitive impulses of the human heart -- one of the indivisible primary
faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of Man. (POE,
1843, p.6)
After murdering the cat, the man’s house catches fire and when he visits it, he
sees the image of a cat with rope around his neck. The narrator tries to explain this fact
rationally, but he can’t stop thinking about this “ghost” and he starts feeling something
different, something that, according to him, is not remorse.
One of the greatest mysteries in this short story is the appearance of a black cat,
after Pluto has died. The reader cannot tell if this cat is different – although similar – or
if it is Pluto. Everything that the readers know is from the drunk man’s point of view,
which means that it is possible that the murdered cat appeared as his guilty
consciousness. After all, this “second cat” was black, large and was deprived of one of
its eye. The only difference between them is a “indefinite splotch of white, covering
nearly the whole region of the breast” (POE, 1843, p. 8), that later on the narrator sees is
shaped like the gallows, something that connects these “two” cats:
The reader will remember that this mark, although large, had been
originally very indefinite; but, by slow degrees—degrees nearly
imperceptible, and which for a long time my reason struggled to reject as
fanciful—it had, at length, assumed a rigorous distinctness of outline. It was
now the representation of an object that I shudder to name [...] it was now, I
say, the image of a hideous—of a ghastly thing—of the GALLOWS!— oh,
mournful and terrible engine of Horror and of Crime—ofAgony and of
Death! (POE, 1843, p.10)
This resemblance of Pluto and the second cat brings back the man’s rage and he
abuses his wife that, according to him, did not complain about anything. She even
accompanies him to their old house. There, the man blames the cat – when, perhaps, he
should blame his own alcoholism – for making him almost fall down. He tries to hit the
cat with an axe, but as his wife gets in the way, the man kills her instead and hides her
body in the cellar. Without his wife and after the cat disappeared, the narrator tells the
readers that he was able to sleep well in this absence of guilt – that is, the cat was gone.
The police, shortly thereafter, appeared in his house in order to search the place.
They looked around the cellar, but there was nothing out of the ordinary, but at the
moment that the man stood up to talk about his perfect walls and hit them, as if he was
reviving his guilt, an unhuman cry came from the walls, where the police found the
corpse and the man saw that he had “walled the monster up within the tomb”. (POE,
1843, p. 14)
In conclusion, Poe’s work can be interpreted in various way and in this Gothic
fiction, the reader can perceive elements such as the presence of supernatural and
unexplainable things, madness, perverseness and the evil side of human nature –
portrayed here as the nameless man.
Reference:
POE, Edgar Allan. The Black Cat (1843). Available in:

http://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Poe/Black_Cat.pdf>. Accessed on: January 13, 2016.

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Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro

Aluna: Fabiana de Freitas

Essay on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “Black Cat”

And then came, as if to my final and irrevocable overthrow, the spirit of

POE, Edgar Allan. The Black Cat (1843). Available in:

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