The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe
The Black Cat by Edgar Allan PoeCharacter of “The Black Cat”
Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Black Cat” involves a man and his love hate
relationship for animals that ends in sin. He describes himself as loving animals of all
kinds, “I was especially fond of animals, and was indulged by my parents with a great
variety of pets”(307). The character of this story goes through some changes of his own.
After giving much love and care to his animals he starts to abuse them, goes as far to kill
them and then commits the ultimate crime; murder of his wife.
The character begins by explaining his past history of pets, “We had birds,
gold-fish, a find god, rabbits, a small money, and a cat”(307). He then recalls his change
of mood, “I grew day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings
of others”(307). The man finds himself easily getting irritated by his animals and ill
treating them but refraining from ill treating his favorite pet, Pluto the black cat. Alcohol
began to feed his ill temper. He came home one night intoxicated and felt that his favorite
cat Pluto was avoiding him. He found his cat and grabbed him; Pluto bit him and this
angered the drunken man, “The fury of demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no
longer”(308). This was the turning point of the man’s character. He proceeds to cut one
of Pluto’s eyes out from it’s socket.
As the cat recovered from his wound the men felt little remorse. His evil deed had
toughened his soul. Pluto healed from his viscous wound but also keeping his distance
from the man, rightfully so. After a while, this angered the man to a more extreme
temper, “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
offending brute”(308). The man recalls the event that took place next, “One morning, in
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cold blood, I slipped a noose about its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree;-hung it with
the tears streaming from my eyes, and with the bitterest remorse at my heart”(308).
A second black cat appeared to him one night; it resembled Pluto with the
exception of a white breast. He took that cat home and cared for it. The man then felt
anger dwelling inside of him for reasons unknown, “I soon found a dislike to it arising
within me”. “It’s evident fondness for myself rather disgusted and annoyance rose into the
bitterness of hatred”(310). Though he felt temptations for abusing this new cat he
refrained himself for some time. The cat’s fondness for the man would result in the end of
the cat. The cat would follow the man around everywhere as Pluto did. One day when
the cat was accompanying the man down the stairs to the cellar, it caused him almost to
fall down the stairs headfirst. In the moment of pure anger the man lifted an axe over his
head that would kill the cat with one blow. The man recalls, “But this blow was arrested
by the hand of my wife. 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”(311). His next conquest is to figure out what to do with her body.
The main character of this story goes through different stages of violence. He
beats his animals, kills the cat and the end result killing his wife. The man has no control
of his inner feelings, “as I made no scruple of maltreating the rabbits, the monkey, or even
the dog, when, by accident, or through affection, they came in my way. But my disease
grew upon me-for what disease is like Alcohol!”(308). He showed more remorse for
killing his beloved cat Pluto than his wife of flesh and blood. After killing his wife his
mind was occupied with what to do with the body rather than with remorse or guilt.