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Edgar Allan Poe’s Story “The Black Cat” Thesis

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Edgar Allan Poe’s story The Black Cat is one of the most memorable as it explores the psychological self-destruction of a man. The cat itself is an important symbol that plays the role of an omen, which leads his owner down the road of insanity and loss of reasoning.

As it is believed that black cats are “witches in disguise,” it is not surprising that Poe chose to use a cat to add to the dark and magical mood of the story. While the narrator dismissed the possible magical significance of the cat, the superstition gave flavor to the story. For instance, when the main character looked at the image of the cat on the wall, he saw it as “gigantic”; however, whether the size of the animal was an expression of paranormal or the product of imagination remained for the story’s readers to be discovered. In a similar vein, the main character saw the patch of white fur on the animal to take the shape of gallows, a “mournful and terrible engine of horror and crime.” Although, it is much more likely that the transformation was a twisting of the narrator’s mind.

When speaking of the cat as not the symbol of witchcraft but rather a sign of a human being’s capacity to observe personal destruction, the first black cat that appeared in the story as a symbol of the main character’s evil mind and heart. Pluto was named after the God of the Underworld and was hung by his owner who understood the evil of his crime and felt guilt. Although, the sense of guilt disappeared after the narrator killed his wife, which pointed to his perverseness and aggression as “one of the primitive impulses of the human heart.”

The character of the second black cat did not only remind the owner of his deterioration but also that he was initially prone to perverseness. It became clear that the cat was an omen – a sign that predicted a bad event, according to the superstition. The cat warned its owner of the dangers of alcohol, a substance that destroyed the lives of many. In the beginning, the narrator seemed to love both his wife and pets; although, by the end of the story, the innate struggles of the main character overtook and made him impartial to the fate of his loved ones.

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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.

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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.

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"The Black Cat" Study Guide

Edgar Allen Poe's dark tale of descent into madness

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"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?
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Example Of Essay On The Black Cat By Edgar Allen Poe

Type of paper: Essay

Topic: Illness , Literature , Disease , Cat , Family , Pets , Women , Psychology

Published: 02/02/2020

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The short story ‘The Black Cat’ by Edgar Allan Poe can be categorized under the sub-genre Psychological Horror as it is based on events and incidents that take place mainly due to the mental illness that the narrator, who refers himself throughout the story as ‘I’, is going through and has no control over. The story revolves around the idea of how a human mind has the unbelievable capabilities of doing dark and perverse acts that are beyond the imagination. The narrator at the beginning comes out as being a normal person who loves animals and is spending a simple life with his wife. However, later the narrator gets caught in the bad habit of excessive drinking which turns out to be life threatening as he becomes schizophrenic due to immense indulgence in alcohol. The narrator’s belief in superstitions can also be described as he names his black cat, which he and his wife thinks is evil in disguise, as Pluto which is a term used in the Greek mythology for the god of dead. As the story moves on the narrator becomes a possession of aggression and violence and ceases to care even for his beloved ones and all that he loves. The narrator’s bafflement of his situation and unawareness of his violent mental illness can be proven by laying an emphasis on the brutal ways he uses with his black cat and cuts out one of its eye. Although, inside his heart he feels deeply guilty and weeps while doing such merciless acts but being helpless of his situation he gets unstoppable and the urge of perversity start to get intense day by day. Also, another evidence of the perplexity of his mental condition can be shown through the murder of his wife. While murdering his wife he shows no mercy rather he kills her cruelly with an axe with which he wants to kill the second cat in the house which comes after the Pluto he kills Pluto. He feels a psychological confusion and fear from the second cat causes that nervousness him which adds to his mental illness which starts getting worse as the story goes on towards the murder of his wife. He gets hopeless and tremendously violent and also his mind set gets firm on the idea that he is possessed by an evil spirit which is making him do these sins and crimes and being unaware of his mental condition he begins to feel regretful and depressed. As the loss of losing all his loved ones starts to make his mental illness even worse and the guilt starts to kill him inside and take control of all his acts. He leads the police to the exact point of the wall where he has hidden his wife’s dead body that he had murdered which shows that when his mind thinks something he cannot resist from it and is not in control of any of his efforts and mind. Furthermore, coming towards the conclusion it is proven that all the acts and crimes that the narrator takes place are highly in control of his mental illness which is caused by the drinking of alcohol. The story fits in the genre of psychological horror because the author has presented a paradigm of psychological disorder that resulted in brutal murders and mental perplexity of the narrator which involved killing of his own wife whom she loved unconditionally and the deteriorating of his love for animals which is shown when he kills his black cat. This story is a based on psychological issues that the story’s narrator underwent from the beginning till the end of this story by Edgar Allan Poe and that is what makes it recognizable under the category of psychological horror.

Junfeng Z. & Haiyuan L. (2012) The Conflicting Mind Reflected in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” and D. H. Lawrence’s “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter”. 16-17

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Essays on The Black Cat

Table of Contents

“The Black Cat” is a horror story by American author Edgar Allan Poe. It was first published in 1843 in the Philadelphia-based “Saturday Evening Post”. The story follows a young man who, after being haunted by a black cat, descends into madness and murders his wife.

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The Black Cat

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The Sources of Sin

Content Warning : This section references animal cruelty, alcohol addiction, domestic violence, and mental illness.

In its depiction of the narrator’s guilt, “The Black Cat” relies on a Christian framework of sin. Other than his alcohol addiction, the narrator can give no reason for why he murdered his beloved Pluto beyond a “spirit of Perverseness” (225). This tendency, which he describes as an inclination to do wrong simply for its own sake, roughly resembles the notion of original sin—the innate propensity to do wrong, in Christian theology. In other words, while the devil might have tempted humanity into its initial sin, the primary locus of evil in Christianity is internal rather than external.

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The Black Cat Edgar Allan Poe

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.

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The Black Cat Essays

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Into the Cellar: Descent into Madness in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” Anonymous College

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” written in 1843 is a short story about the psychology of a murderer and his descent into madness. The story is about an unnamed man who proclaims a love for animals from a young age and he marries a woman who...

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — The Black Cat — The Main Message In The Black Cat By Edgar Allan Poe

The Main Message in The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe

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Words: 913 |

Published: May 14, 2021

Words: 913 | Pages: 2 | 5 min read

In Edgar Allan Poe's chilling tale "The Black Cat," the theme of personal transformation and the consequences of one's actions takes center stage. The story, narrated in the first person by Edgar himself, delves into the horrors of alcoholism, its destructive effects on relationships, and the ultimate descent into madness.

Edgar's belief that alcohol could change how others perceived him reveals his deep-seated insecurities. As he spirals further into addiction, his affection for his beloved cat, Pluto, transforms into cruelty.

Edgar's violent tendencies towards Pluto exemplify his inner turmoil, driven by alcohol-induced delusions. The cat's attempt to help by cleaning Edgar's wound serves as a poignant reminder of its loyalty and concern for its owner.

The story raises questions about the origins of Edgar's hatred and alcoholism. While it remains unclear, his downward spiral into cruelty and the eventual remorse he experiences indicate the destructive power of addiction.

"The Black Cat" serves as a cautionary tale, emphasizing the importance of self-awareness, the consequences of unchecked emotions, and the enduring impact of one's actions on others. Edgar's journey from affection to cruelty highlights the chilling truth that no one is immune to the darkness within when pushed to the brink.

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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 [...]

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