The Black Cat Essay

The Black Cat

From my infancy I was noted for the docility and humanity of my disposition. My tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make me the jest of my companions. I was especially fond of animals, and was indulged by my parents with a great variety of pets. With these I spent most of my time, and never was so happy as when feeding and caressing them. This peculiarity of character grew with my growth, and in my manhood, I derived from it one of my principal sources of pleasure. To those who have cherished an affection for a faithful and sagacious dog, I need hardly be at the trouble of explaining the nature or the intensity of the gratification thus derivable. 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.

I married early, and was happy to find in my wife a disposition not uncongenial with my own. Observing my partiality for domestic pets, she lost no opportunity of procuring those of the most agreeable kind. We had birds, gold-fish, a fine dog, rabbits, a small monkey, and a cat.

This latter was a remarkably large and beautiful animal, entirely black, and sagacious to an astonishing degree. 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. Not that she was ever serious upon this point - and I mention the matter at all for no better reason than that it happens, just now, to be remembered.

Pluto - this was the cat's name - was my favorite pet and playmate. I alone fed him, and he attended me wherever I went about the house. It was even with difficulty that I could prevent him from following me through the streets.

Our friendship lasted, in this manner, for several years, during which my general temperament and character - through the instrumentality of the Fiend Intemperance - had (I blush to confess it) experienced a radical alteration for the worse. I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others. I suffered myself to use intemperate language to my wife. At length, I even offered her personal violence. My pets, of course, were made to feel the change in my disposition. I not only neglected, but ill-used them. For Pluto, however, I still retained sufficient regard to restrain me from maltreating him, 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! - 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.

A black cat, his back arched, his claws drawn, sits atop a plain wood picket fence; each board, pointed and worn in front of a full yellow moon. An ominous vision or a cardboard, ninety-nine cent Halloween decoration found in the living room window of those in the spirit. Either way, there is power to the superstition turned clich: fears to childs play. Whatever the origin or reasoning there is for having even the slightest notion that a black furred cat can be a demonic entity or less menacingly bad luck it is an image we are all familiar with.

From an early age, the narrator in Poes, The Black Cat, preferred the companion of animals far more than that of humans. Even more so he was gentle and unaggressive to the extent where he was ridiculed by other children. His docile nature and love of animal companionship reached its limits and his parents would get him any domesticated animal they could find as he was only truly happy when he was caring for the mentally inferior beings he kept so close to him.

The narrator is clearly an outsider; much like the kid, in modern times, whose parents buy all the best video games in lieu of the child having friends. What may separate the narrator from this hypothetical modern boy is the former has had numerous human friends as he stated that the love of an animal can only truly be appreciated by those who had frequent occasions to test the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere man. He is calling any human relationship a mockery when compared to the companionship man can share with a dog or a cat.

His disposition only strengthened upon adulthood. It is surprising then that the narrator would marry at a young age. It seems that anyone who would refer to human loyalty as flimsy in comparison to an animals would not be in a rush to enter holy matrimony. He was, however, happy to have found a wife that not only shared in his passive nature but also enables him to domesticate all the animals he wants.

Their animal collection was large and diverse. They had birds, goldfish, a dog, a monkey and a cat and the story focuses on the cat. One would think that if there was an interesting story about any of the pets it would be the monkey it is, after all, the most unusual. However the narrator ignores it and jumps into the cats intelligence and refers to him as sagacious (a word, synonymous with wise or perceptive, used earlier to describe the behavior of a dog). Even in the presence of a monkey, the cat, Pluto, stands out at being unusually smart.

The wife in the passage, though not given much action, alludes, even ironically so, to black cats being witches in disguise. This idea is played with a lot both in the story and in society. A black cat is a warning of impending disaster. Even having a black furred cat stroll passively past you is, perhaps, not a foretelling of misfortune but the cause of it.

After noting the wifes allusion to such superstition the narrator makes it clear that he mentions it only because he remembers it. The black cats gloomy past has nothing to do with the string of events that is the story and the reader should ignore it and move on. It is that fact that the reader should not ignore it. Nothing written in a story is by accident. Poe would not have mentioned the narrators wife paying tribute to the black cat superstition had it not have been significant. By saying that it is not important, it is further emphasized and should be considered. It can be reasoned then that the cat is evil and the cause for the downfall of the characters.

The passage sums up the personality change from the narrator, as a child, to the narrator as an adult. His gentle and docile nature, which lasted for years even after his marriage, is fading as he is becoming more angry and violent every day. His wife, who one can assume is still holding to her tame disposition, is receiving threats from her husband whom no longer cares about the feelings of others. He blames his gradual descent into bitterness on the instrumentality of the Fiend Intemperance. He is comparing the effects of his excessive alcohol use to that of a demon, almost like he is not in control. The word instrumental implies that it is very much influential on his character.

A wonderful and easily missed play on words is present in the paragraph where he states the instrumentality of the Fiend Intemperance. Within the next couple of lines he refers to the language he used against his wife as intemperate or overly emotional. The words have similar meanings but intemperance usually has to do with surfeit self-indulgence (especially when it comes to alcohol) while intemperate usually involves an excess in emotional arousal.

The picture of Edgar Allan Poe that the public holds in their minds is one of a depressed writer, drinking to the point of passing out. Even his death is surrounded by stories of drinking himself to death in the gutter or possibly committing suicide. It is difficult to say how much of these rumors are true but it is interesting to see Poes ideas about the effects of alcohol on human behavior. Still, I do not think that alcohol is entirely to blame.

As mentioned before, Pluto holds a power over the narrator and his wife. He is their favorite of all the animals and is constantly made out to be smarter than the rest he is more than just a cat. The narrator mentioned that he is the only one who plays with and feeds Pluto and that Pluto follows him everywhere and has difficulty making it so he cannot follow him through the streets. The narrator might not even remember how he feels when Pluto is not around because the only time he gets away from his pets is when he is drunk. Drinking might be the only way of fighting a curse brought on by the witch-cat who shares a name similar to the Greek god of the underworld.

The narrator started neglecting and mistreating all of his pets but not Pluto. Pluto was still held in a higher regard for a short time. He made efforts not to abuse Pluto until Pluto started to age and become more irritable, than he started to get treated as badly as or worse than the other animals.

Alcohol was slowly breaking a hold Pluto had over the narrator. Being away from his cat allowed him to drink in the excess and a battle between his true form and what Pluto was making of him came out. Unfortunately, this battle had bad results for everyone.