Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Black Cat is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe that was first published on August 19, 1843, in the edition of The Saturday Evening Post. The story is a prime example of the genre of Dark Romanticism or Gothic literature that emanated as a response to American Transcendentalism. Just like Transcendentalists, Dark Romanticists too considered intuitions over logic and emphasized human emotions and imagination. However, while transcendentalists showed a sense of optimism and goodness in nature, Dark Romanticists emphasized human fallibility. Works of Dark Romanticism frequently show individuals failing in their attempts to make changes for the better.
Themes of The Black Cat:
The main theme of Poe’s story is ‘Guilt.’ The Black Cat is often compared with Poe’s other story ‘The Tell-Tale Heart.’ In both these stories, a murderer carefully conceals his crime and believes himself unassailable, but eventually breaks down and reveals himself, impelled by a nagging reminder of his guilt. In The Black Cat, the narrator’s guilt brings the black cat back from the dead to haunt him. The cat represents his guilt. As the narrator feels more guilty, the cat becomes more active. Another important theme is the issue of sanity versus insanity. The narrator was aware of his fall. The story illustrates best the capacity of the human mind to observe its own deterioration and the ability of the mind to comment upon its own destruction without being able to objectively halt that deterioration. The story is that of Perversion and its effect. Poe highlights the probable ill effects of Alcoholism through this story. Another theme of the story is superstitions and supernatural beliefs. The title The Black Cat itself suggests superstitious elements. It is based on the superstition that a black cat brings bad luck.
Characters of The Black Cat:
The main character of the story is the unnamed unreliable narrator who is driven to madness. However, he assures the reader that he is not mad and since he is about to die the very next day, he won’t say a lie. The narrator clearly states that he is a great animal lover who believes that if your pet animal loves you and is loyal to you, it means you are a good person but if your pet shows disloyal behavior, it means you are not morally correct. The narrator had a good life but then he turned alcoholic. The narrator’s wife also remains unnamed. She is a submissive wife who also loves animals and dares to stand for them against the brutality she sees committed against the animals by her husband. Both the narrator and his wife were animal lovers. Then they brought Pluto, a black cat. While the relationship of the narrator was already deteriorating with his wife and other pet animals as he was suffering the ill effects of alcoholism, he made a strong connection with Pluto and it became his favorite pet. However, gradually he found himself more in the effect of alcohol, and soon Pluto suffered ill-treatment. The Second Cat remains unnamed. After the death of Pluto, the narrator’s house mysteriously catches fire and is destroyed. The narrator misses Pluto and when he sees this second cat, it appears just like Pluto as it is also black but with white fur on its breasts. The second cat lacks an eye just like Pluto. It signifies the narrator’s guilt who is extremely repulsed by the new cat and even tries to kill it. The Police also play an important role in unfolding the mystery. As they visit the narrator’s house to investigate the disappearance of his wife, they instigate him to succumb to his own guilt.
Summary of The Black Cat:
The story begins as the narrator informs that he is about to die the next day as he will be sent to the gallows. The narrator insists that though he may appear mad, he is not insane and he wants the reader to believe what he is about to say. He says that he wishes to reveal some household events that happened to him in the recent past and how they lead him to the brink of death.
The narrator informs that since childhood, he has always loved pet animals as he had many pets. He especially loved dogs because he believed that the usefulness and loyalty of a dog surpass what one may achieve from other people. However, as he grew adult, he did marry and luckily, his wife too loved animals. His wife always respected his love for animals and together, they had many pets including a goldfish, rabbit, dog, birds, and a monkey. Then they brought a new pet, a black cat. The narrator named the cat Pluto and he was very fond of it. The black cat became his favorite pet. The cat was unusually large and impressive. The narrator’s wife often claimed that black cats are witches in disguises but the narrator didn’t believe in superstition. Nevertheless, his wife always loved Pluto and so did he. Pluto too loved the narrator and would follow him everywhere. They developed a special bond that continued for years. However, the time was not good for the narrator. He suffered some losses in business and gradually got addicted to alcohol. He would often get drunk and that started affecting his mood as he lost much of his patience. Situations worsened and his relationships with the animals started deteriorating. Often he would show bouts of temper to the pet animals and hence, most of the animals started fearing him and keeping him away. However, Pluto remained loyal to him. Yet, he felt that Pluto too started avoiding and wouldn’t follow him like he used to do in the past. One day, when the narrator returned home, drunk, he felt that Pluto is avoiding him and he didn’t like that and Pluto bore the brunt of his rage. The narrator informs that though he is ashamed of his action he attacked the cat and gouged out one of Pluto’s eyes with a quill pen.
The next morning, the narrator felt horrible and ashamed of his cruel act. The eye socket of Pluto gradually healed but the cat learned the hard lesson to keep away from the narrator as it was fearful of him. The narrator was very sad about it as he actually loved Pluto which had been his only consistent supporter in his bad times. Pluto’s rejection of him forced him towards alcohol. Alcohol continued affecting him and soon his sadness turned to rage and perversion. The narrator says that Perversion is a natural phenomenon in human beings, to do the thing that one knows is wrong just because it is wrong. The narrator explains that he started liking the idea of harming his own pets. One day while he was too drunk, he grabbed Pluto and hung it from a tree. The black cat died. The narrator mentions that he was crying while murdering the cat because he actually loved the pet and he knew that he was committing a great sin for which there is no redemption.
The narrator slept while still in the stupor of alcohol. After some hours, the narrator and his wife were forced to wake up because of the raging sounds of flames. Their house was on fire and as the smoke was increasing, they ran out for safety. The narrator saw all their belongings being burnt in the fire. The next day, the narrator examined his burnt house and saw that all the walls except one had fallen because of the fire. The crowd gathered around the remaining wall that was still standing. The narrator observed that there was the shape of the black cat on the wall, being hanged by the tree. The wall was recently plastered. The narrator applies logic and thinks that when his home caught fire, someone might have thrown the dead body of Pluto through the window and it got stuck with the wall.
The narrator and his wife shifted to another building. One day, when the narrator was about to buy a barrel of alcohol, he saw a black cat sitting on the barrel. This cat too was missing an eye. It was exactly looking like Pluto with a little difference. This second black cat had a small patch of white fur on its breast. The narrator liked the cat and started patting him. The second cat too responded cordially and the narrator brought the second black cat to his home. His wife too welcomed the new cat. Though the narrator loved the cat, he wasn’t the same as before. He didn’t name this new pet. The narrator continued his tryst with alcohol and soon his perversion got to new heights. Though he brought the second cat himself, he started disliking the cat’s inquisitiveness and tendency to follow him everywhere. Not only that, his anger had increased many folds. Now he didn’t have any pets except the second black cat, and his wife who too started feeling the heat of his rage.
One day, the narrator and his wife decided to visit the cellar of their new house building to store some things. The second cat followed the narrator and his wife. While they were going down the stairs, the black cat jumped over and raced past them. The narrator felt a sudden rush of anger and he picked an ax and swung at the cat. The narrator’s wife interjected at the right moment and stopped him from killing the cat. While the cat was saved, the narrator couldn’t control his rage. In his anger, he attacked his wife with the same ax and she got killed right on the stairs to the cellar. The narrator somehow dragged her body to the cellar and decided to hide it in one of the walls of the cellar with cement and tar. After completing his job, he was convinced that no one would ever come to know that the dead body of his wife is hidden in the wall of the cellar. While the narrator was at peace, he noticed that the second black cat was mysteriously absent.
After four days, the police knocked at the narrator’s house. Someone had informed the police about the vanishing of his wife as nobody saw her for four days. The police questioned him about his missing wife and he answered that he didn’t know anything. The police investigated his whole house but the narrator was confident and free of any fear or guilt as he was convinced that the dead body of his wife will never be revealed. The police visited the cellar and the narrator boasted about the good strong build of the walls by tapping on them. As he tapped the wall in which he hid the body of his wife, a terrible wailing howl of a cat came from the inside of the wall. The narrator got extremely nervous. His face started showing off his guilt. The police decided to examine the wall to confirm from where the shriek of the crying cat came. As they broke the wall, they found the dead body of his wife, as the second black cat was sitting on her dead body. As the narrator saw towards it, the second black cat stared at him with its one eye.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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