“The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe Essay (Book Review)

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Updated: Mar 25th, 2024

Edgar Allan Poe is among the few writers who supported and promoted Gothicism in the 1800s, in America. Having developed from transcendentalism, this form of writing aimed at exploring the fallibility of human nature. Poe allegedly immersed himself in writing dark and ominous pieces because of childhood trauma and the fact that he was an alcoholic. In other words, his motivation to pursue dark romanticism was based on personal experiences. One such dark story by Poe is “The Black Cat”, in which he employs terror and degeneracy to tell his narrative about the evil nature of human beings. This paper has two sections: the first one is a literary analysis of “The Black Cat” by Allan Poe highlighting the theme of terror, death, and violence, and stylistic devices, such as symbolism, metaphor, and irony. The second part discusses several criticisms leveled against this work by Poe.

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Brief Summary

“The Black Cat” starts with a monologue whereby the narrator reminisces about his childhood when he loved cats and dogs. He reflects on the gone days when he was an honorable man – more respected than his fellow men. He marries a beautiful woman who equally loves pets, and they have a black cat called Pluto. Life for the two lovebirds seems perfectly normal until the narrator becomes an alcoholic and forever changes his demeanor. He abuses his wife and mistreats Plato even at the slightest provocation. One night, he arrives home inebriated, and in his drunken stupor, he gouges out one of the cat’s eyes. The following day he remembers the previous night’s events remorsefully, and even though he regrets his actions, his soul is set on an irreversible ominous course. He later kills Pluto by hanging, but another black cat appears in his home. He attempts to kill the new cat, but his wife intervenes, and he axes and kills her instantly. He entombs the corpse in the basement of his house, and when the police unexpectedly show up at his house, he inadvertently leads them to the corpse.

This story was meant for the general population of that time. Dark romanticism was an emerging style in nineteenth-century America, and it focused on highlighting the evil nature of human beings. People tend to gravitate towards evil due to their fallibility and sinful nature, and Poe sought to share this information with the public at the time. This style of writing is important to American literature to warn people about the dangers of individualism, which has pervaded all aspects of society. When individuals pursue selfish ends as opposed to the common good, tragedy is bound to happen, as it did to Poe in the story.

Literary Analysis

The Theme of Terror, Death, and Violence

“The Black Cat” plotline revolves around terror, violence, and, ultimately, death. The narrator becomes a dipsomaniac, and he changes from a caring husband and a lover of animals to unleashing unprecedented terror. From his narration, it appears the narrator enjoys the violence that he engages in to those around him. He finally kills his wife using an axe, but he insinuates it is an accident. However, the audience might not be aware that Poe’s obsession with dark and gory stories was somehow connected to his personal experiences. Pruette (1920) posits,

The life of Edgar Allan Poe might be considered an unhappy record of that “disaster” which “followed fast and followed faster” this man of brilliant capacities till it drove him into opposition with most of the world, deprived him of the love he so inordinately craved, paralyzed his creative abilities, seduced him to seek a vague nepenthe in the use of drugs and stimulants, and, its relentless purpose achieved, cast him aside, a helpless wreck, to die from the darkened tragedy of a Baltimore. (p. 370)

Based on this assertion, it suffices to argue that Poe uses the rhetoric of confession to talk about his life experiences. Moldenhauer (1968) defines confessional rhetoric as a writing style in which the narrator “introduces or concludes his account with elaborate gestures of self-condemnation, and with dire forecasts of eternal disgrace for his name or perpetual torment for his soul” (p. 285). Poe’s narrative fits this definition because, in the story, he deliberately fails to make conclusions to let the audience know what happened after the police discovered the corpse of his wife. Presumably, he suffers eternally in perpetual torment for his actions. The suspense in the end of the story allows the audience to reflect and connect the events of the narrative with their lives.

Symbolism

In literature, symbolism refers to the use of images to convey an underlying message or embody a hidden meaning. In “The Black Cat,” this stylistic device plays a central role in the development of the overall plot and different themes. “The Black Cat” is used as a symbol in this story. Historically, black cats were associated with misfortune, bad luck, death, suffering, and a dark future, especially among people who believed in superstitions. In the story, the narrator adores the black cat, but it is about to change his life forever. It symbolizes the tragedy that is about to befall the narrator and his wife. Even though she is not superstitious, she “made frequent allusion to the ancient popular notion, which regarded all black cats as witches in disguise” (Poe, 1843, p. 4). To deepen the issue of misfortune, the black cat is named Pluto – who is a Hellenistic god of death.

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Tragedy does not depart with the passing on of Pluto, as another black cat, with a white spot on its head, appears in the narrator’s house, and it terrifies him. He admits that the white spot is “the representation of an object that I shudder to name…I loathed, and dreaded…the image of a hideous – of a ghastly thing —of the gallows! – oh, mournful and terrible engine of horror and of crime – of agony and of death” (Poe, 1843, p. 10). This new cat symbolizes the fate of the narrator – he will have to face the gallows and pay for the crime of killing his wife. He loathes and fears this feeling, but it is inevitable because, as a human being, he has gravitated toward sin.

Metaphor and Personification

As a literary device, metaphor is used to refer to something indirectly, while personification involves giving abstract ideas human characteristics. The narrator personifies the black cat with a white spot – a representation of his alcoholism and fallible nature, which has caused him untold suffering. After the police tear his house and discover the corpse of his wife, the black cat is seated on her head. The narrator then says, “…with red extended mouth and solitary eye of fire, sat the hideous beast whose craft had seduced me into murder, and whose informing voice had consigned me to the hangman. I had walled the monster up within the tomb” (Poe, 1843, p. 14). In this case, the narrator refers to his dark soul, which has been poisoned by alcohol and made him a disillusioned murderer blaming his woes on the black cat.

The house, in this case, is used metaphorically when the narrator says that he had embedded the monster inside the sepulcher. By hiding his wife’s corpse and the ensuing disappearance of the second black cat, he thinks that his problems are over. No one could ever find the corpse, and the cat would not return. However, the police discover the corpse, and the cat is found, and, thus, when he says that he had walled the cat up on the wall, he means that his evil ways are deeply embedded in his soul, and he cannot be saved. The wall is a metaphor for his body, and the cat symbolizes his dark soul, and given that he cannot be redeemed, he rues that he has been consigned to the hangman – death is the only redeemer of his soul.

Irony

The stylistic device of irony is used mainly in literature to express scorn, specifically by saying one thing, but deliberately implying something else. In “The Black Cat,” the audience is exposed to irony early in the story when the narrator says that he intends to talk about “a series of mere household events” (Poe, 1843, p. 3). The irony in this observation is that what follows has nothing to do with “mere household events” but the grotesque killing of Pluto and the narrator’s wife. The story is riddled with terror and violence, and, thus, it is ironic that the narrator talks of these events as normal household occurrences. Additionally, he starts the story by recounting how he loves animals and people – he remembers a time when he was more honorable than fellow men.

Ironically, the self-proclaimed lover of animals and people descends into dipsomania, and when he comes out, he turns against the very things that he loves. He first gouges out one of Plato’s eyes using a penknife and later kills the cat by hanging, and in the way he narrates the events, it appears that he is enjoying every bit of it. He also kills his wife, and instead of becoming remorseful and accountable, he tries to hide his crime by entombing the corpse in the basement. Another example of irony stands out when the narrator brags that he has safely hidden his crime, and it cannot be discovered. He says, “Secure, however, in the inscrutability of my place of concealment, I felt no embarrassment whatever…I burned to say if but one word, by way of triumph, and to render doubly sure their assurance of my guiltlessness” (Poe, 1843, p. 13). The narrator takes pride in his actions, but ironically, the very wall that he claims to be well-constructed, betrays him and exposes his evil.

Criticism

“The Black Cat” has attracted numerous criticisms, especially where the narrator says, “My immediate purpose is to place before the world, plainly, succinctly, and without comment, a series of mere household events” (Poe, 1843, p. 3). According to Bliss (2009), Poe situates the story within his home, which is a feminized environment, and by insinuating that abusing and ultimately killing his wife are mere household events, he validates gender violence. In addition, in the story, the narrator and his wife do not have children, and there is no mention of whether he is in gainful employment or engaged in any activities to support his family. Critics point to the portrayal of these events as a way of contravening cultural expectations of gender roles. In other words, Poe implies that men do not necessarily have to be providers of their families. Additionally, in order to compensate for his broken masculinity, the narrator resorts to violence directed towards his wife and the cat – both of whom are defenseless, which explains why he finally kills them both. Bliss (2009) argues that the narrator uses “perverseness to reinforce his masculinity, noting that acting on such an impulse gives direction to the character of man” (p. 97). Therefore, Poe seems to support social ills like perverse masculinity unleashing violence on females, which is being presented as normal household occurrences.

Another critic, Amper (1992), argues that the narrator in the story is a liar, as mentioned early in the story. The narrator allegedly tells a far-fetched tale to justify the killing of his wife by blaming it on alcoholism and the two black cats. He somehow claims that the axing of his innocent wife happened by accident, but he shows no remorse for his actions. He blames everything else but himself – for instance, after killing Plato, he alleges that another cat from nowhere appears and domesticates itself in his home, which eventually drives him into frenzy and he accidentally kills his wife while his intention is to strike the cat. Amper (1992) says, “Obviously, the man is lying” (p. 475). The narrator says that he is sane, but the fact that he does not anticipate anyone to trust his story is a validation that he is a liar.

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In another critical analysis of the story, Tsokanos and Ibáñez (2018) claim that the black cat, Pluto “may not simply function as a demonic spirit, but rather as the Pluto of Hellenic mythology himself” (p. 111). Pluto was the Greek god of the underworld, where good and evil are in constant collision. Therefore, the black cat in this story does not symbolize evil; on the contrary, it is the Hellenic Pluto. As such, the entire story gets a new meaning as the focus shifts from the narrator to this Greek god. Tsokanos and Ibáñez (2018) argue that Poe had been exposed to Greek ideologies through the works of Homer and other classic writings as a teenager, and thus “The Black Cat” has nothing to do with his childhood experiences.

Conclusion

“The Black Cat” is a masterpiece story based on dark romanticism, which seeks to expose human beings’ fallibility and the tendency to gravitate towards evil. The narrator starts out as an admirable and respected person, but he sinks into alcoholism, which leads to the killing of Plato and his wife. Poe explores the themes of violence, terror, and death by using stylistic devices such as irony, symbolism, metaphor, and personification. Critical analyses of this story have yielded varied opinions. While Bliss (2009) points at the domestic masculinity in the story, Amper (2010) notes that the narrator is an outright liar, and Tsokanos and Ibáñez (2018) claim that “The Black Cat” is a representation of the Hellenic god, Pluto.

References

  1. Amper, S. (1992). Untold story: The lying narrator in “The Black Cat”. Studies in Short Fiction, 29(4), 475-485.
  2. Bliss, A. V. (2009). Household horror: Domestic masculinity in Poe’s The Black Cat. The Explicator, 67(2), 96-99.
  3. Moldenhauer, J. (1968). Murder as a fine art: Basic connections between Poe’s aesthetics, psychology, and moral vision. Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, 83(2) 284-297.
  4. Poe, E. A. (1843). [PDF document]. Web.
  5. Pruette, L. (1920). A psycho-analytical study of Edgar Allan Poe. The American Journal of Psychology, 31(4), 370-402.
  6. Tsokanos, D., & Ibáñez, J. R. (2018). Such as might have arisen only out of hell: A note on Poe’s Hellenic motifs in “The Black Cat”. Complutense Journal of English Studies, 26, 111-120.
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