“I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity”. ~Edgar Allan Poe. Edgar Allan Poe, the noted American Author, Poet, Editor, and Literary Critic. He considered as major part of observing the paranormal literature. Who gave a new way of establishing the work in sense of thinking of horror, which is now a days this genre is so popular. In other sense his tales of mystery and imagination is conveys the mind of something that is beyond something and not a normal person can think in the way that Edgar Allan Poe thinks. It’s interesting to study Edgar Allan Poe with going through his short stories and Poems. He observed Fantasy and defectiveness in America for that his way of writing based his invention of this. In which it gives the idea of how his mind reflects and as beyond thinker, he himself what wants to convey is so connective to this study of him. References: The Complete Edgar Allan Poe  (English, Paperback, Poe Edgar Allan) LItCharts, Gradesaver The Black Cat (short story) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Cat_(short_story) Psychological Study of Edger Allan Poe (https://desaikaushal1315.blogspot.com/2014/10/psychological-study-of-edger-allan-poe.html)

1. The Black
Cat (1843)
~Edgar Allan Poe
Kaushal Desai
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2. o About author
o Historical Context of Poe's Stories
o Theme
o Characters
o Summary
o Symbols, Allegory and Motifs
CONTENTS OF “THE BLACK CAT”

3. Edgar Allan Poe
• Edgar Allan Poe (born Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809
- October 7, 1849) was an American writer, editor, and
literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and
short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and
the macabre.
• He is widely regarded as a central figure
of Romanticism in the United States and of American
literature as a whole, and he was one of the country's
earliest practitioners of the short story. He is generally
considered the inventor of the detective fiction
genre and is further credited with contributing to the
emerging genre of science fiction.
• He was the first well-known American writer to earn a
living through writing alone, resulting in a financially
difficult life and career.
• Edgar Allan Poe's best-known works include
the poems “To Helen” (1831), “The Raven” (1845),
and “Annabel Lee” (1849); the short stories of
wickedness and crime “The Tell-Tale Heart” (1843)
and “The Cask of Amontillado” (1846); and the
supernatural horror story “The Fall of the House of
Usher” (1839).

4. Poe was orphaned at a young age and fostered by the Allans, and grew up
with them in Virginia. After dropping out of university and the army, he
became one of the first writers of the time to make a living from publishing
his work, but he had much financial and mental difficulty throughout his life.
His death in 1849 was a much debated tragedy - alcohol, suicide,
tuberculosis and many other things have been attributed as causes.
Brief Biography of Edgar Allan Poe

5. Many autobiographical details can be inferred from Poe’s
work. Narrators that suffer from loneliness, temper and
disease are particularly pertinent to his own life. Historical
events such as the slavery and poverty of 19th century
America also affected the reception of the stories and Poe’s
insight.
Historical Context of Poe's Stories

6. • Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray takes much of its suspenseful plot, opium-
induced reveries and doppelganger antagonist from Poe. William
Wordsworth, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley,
and even William Blake are part of the Gothic and Romantic legacy
that Poe had a hand in inspiring and the wild weather and violent deeds
of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, for example, are strongly reminiscent
of Poe’s settings.
• Another short story is also presented by Ruskin Bond with the same
title “The Black Cat” (When the broom was brought home, there
appeared a black with a mysterious look. The cat loved to move around
the broom all the time. At this time, a woman, equally mysterious in
appearance, Miss Bellows, came to Bond’s house in search of her cat.
Other Books Related to Poe's Stories

7. PC: Kaushal Desai
Poe’s Pets. Though many of Poe’s stories are influences by real events and characters,
his violence towards cats in The Black Cat couldn’t be further from the truth. Poe was a
cat-lover, and his own cat was named Catterina!

8. -Narrator
In speaking of his [the cat]
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.”

9. Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary
work.
o Man’s descent into insanity
o The ill-effects of alcoholism
o Supernatural beliefs
o Guilt
o The Divided Self
Theme of “The
Black Cat”

10. 01. Man’s descent into insanity
In "The Black Cat," the narrator was aware that his thoughts and
actions were transforming into a downward spiral. He was aware of
his increased irritability, his disregard of the feelings of others, and
the unreasonable violent actions he carried out towards his wife.
He was even aware that his favorite pet and playmate, Pluto, was
falling victim to the ill-effects brought by alcoholism onto the
narrator. However, for reasons that remain inscrutable to the
reader, he continues his descent into moral degeneration. Is he
affected with "perverseness"? Is it a result of the alcohol? Does he
not know what he is doing?

11. 02. The ill-effects of
alcoholism
In this story, the narrator describes to the readers the effects of the
“Fiend Intemperance." It was due to the increased intake of
alcohol that the narrator experienced a radical alteration for the
worse. He became more irritable, cared little for the feelings of
others, and often used intemperate language with his wife not to
mention the violent acts he committed towards her. He abused the
rabbits, the dogs, the monkey, and even his favorite pet, Pluto. We
do not know why he was driven to drink, and being drunk did not
explain all of his evil deeds but alcohol certainly exacerbated his
behavior and helped him stray further from a unified self.

12. 03. Supernatural beliefs
The theme of supernatural elements pervades this story. The title itself
suggests supernatural elements, for there are various superstitions
regarding the bad luck that a black cat allegedly brings. In this story, the
narrator kills his pet Pluto, a black cat by hanging him from a tree branch.
After the murder of the black cat, bad luck followed the narrator. His
house burned down, only one wall remained, and that wall had an
impression of the black cat with a rope about the animal’s neck. A few
days later, another black cat appeared in front of the narrator. This cat
looked exactly like Pluto except it had a patch of white fur at the bosom,
which later represented the "gallows." The events that followed the
hanging of Pluto can be attributed to supernatural explanations, for it is a
common belief that a black cat brings bad luck.

13. 04. Guilt
The narrator's guilt is what brought the black cat back to
haunt him. The cat represents his guilt: as the narrator
became more guilty, the cat became more realistic. For
example, the only time the cat was heard was when the
police were searching the narrator's house, at which point
his guilt and fear finally pushed him into full madness. The
narrative shows that guilt is a key factor in man's descent
into madness yet also a vital part of what keeps us human.

14. 05. The Divided Self
The narrator experiences a fragmented, divided self. This is
apparent not only in the dichotomy between the man telling the
tale and the man committing the acts in the tale, but also in terms
of nearly all of his actions once his "perverseness" set in. He
vacillated between sanity and insanity, between fear and horror of
the cat and the impulse to act. He had nightmares, drunken
stupors, and paroxysms of rage and despair. He killed his cat and
then desired another one; he felt poorly for his long-suffering wife
but murdered her without a thought. The only bliss and peace he
had were when he completely lost himself after killing his wife and
walling up the cat in the tomb.

15. “The Black Cat”
Characters:
• Unnamed Narrator
• The Narrator's Wife
• Pluto
• The Second Black Cat
• The Police
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16. Character
The narrator is another of Poe’s unnamed and unreliable
men driven to madness. All we really know about him if
his word can be trusted, that is is that he has enjoyed a
lifetime love of animals and that the animals have
reciprocated this love. The narrator does make clear what
it is about animals that inspires in him a higher level of
love and respect: he particularly admires their loyalty and
perception. In other words, if an animal remains loyal to
you, you must be a good person which should bring into
question the character of any person whose pet begins to
exhibit disloyal behavior.
Unnamed Narrator

17. Character
Not much information is provided about the narrator’s wife
other than that she shares his love of animals. We do learn that
she might be more superstitious than he is since she is fond of
mentioning the belief that cats and witches are inextricably
linked. Of course, this information arrives courtesy of a narrator
that is not entirely trustworthy, and even he is careful to assert
that just because she mentions this superstition, doesn’t
necessarily mean she believes it. Ultimately, it is the narrator
that seems to possess a deeper belief in supernatural
explanations. One thing is for certain: the wife is willing to
intrude on behalf of animals when in danger, even if that
danger is her husband.
The Narrator's Wife

18. Character
Pluto is the black cat that joins the goldfish, rabbit, dog,
birds, and monkey in the menagerie of pets that the
narrator and his wife invite into their home. The close bond
between cat and owner (i.e. the narrator) even manages to
initially shield the cat from the abusive effects of the owner
effects that were already affecting the man's relationship
with his other pets and his wife. The passage of time and
the rise of addiction tolerance eventually takes their toll,
however, resulting in Pluto first losing an eye at the
narrator’s hand before losing his life at the end of a noose.
The name Pluto is very metaphorical and allegorical. First,
Pluto is the name given in Roman Mythology to the God of
underworld, or netherworld.
Pluto
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19. Character
Following rather quickly upon the death of Pluto and an
unexplained fire that destroys the narrator’s home, a
second black cat enters the narrative. This cat remains
nameless, like the narrator. It is almost identical to
Pluto, right down to having only one eye, but it has one
distinguishing difference: a patch of white fur covering
almost its entire breast. The lack of an actual name
indicates the emotionless connection between it and
the narrator that claims to be such an animal lover:
despite a seemingly strong desire by the cat for them to
become best friends, the narrator is utterly repulsed by
the cat, to the eventual point of attempted murder.
The Second Black Cat
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20. Character
The police arrive to investigate the
disappearance of the narrator's wife. They
catalyze the mad narrator's hubris, which
leads him to inadvertently give away the
murder he has continued.
The Police

21. “The Black Cat”
Summary
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22. PC: Kaushal Desai
Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Black Cat” uses an
unreliable narrator to tell a story of unrelenting mental
instability that ends with a killer’s self-revelation of his
deadly deed.

23. The narrator boasts of his well-known kindness and compassion
towards animals, which was mirrored by his wife. His favorite pet of
theirs was a large black cat named Pluto. As the years passed, the
narrator became more besotted by drink and consumed by his own
cruelty and perverseness. He abused his wife and the animals.
Continue….

24. Pluto, who was his favorite, bore the brunt of his rage.
One day, the narrator cut out one of the cat’s eyes,
and not long after that, he hanged the cat from the
branch of his tree.
Continue….

25. The night of the hanging, the narrator’s house caught fire
and everything was lost. One remaining plaster wall
featured the indent of the body of a cat, which was
attributed to a neighbor throwing the cat inside the window
to warn the sleepers of fire. This image utterly horrified the
narrator.
Continue….

26. Over time, the narrator began to pine for the cat. To his
great delight, he found a cat that looked very similar to
Pluto at a dive bar, and he took it home with him. This cat
was also missing an eye, but its fur had a white patch on
it, unlike Pluto’s solid black coloring.
Continue….

27. The narrator began to despise this creature as well, and its excessive
attention to him made him insensate with rage. One day, the narrator and
his wife ventured into the cellar of the building where they now lived, and
the cat raced past them down the stairs. The narrator swung an ax to try to
kill it, but when his wife stopped him, he killed her instead. He decided to
wall up her body in one of the cellar walls.
Continue….

28. After completing his task, he felt pleased with
his work and the fact that the black cat had seemingly
vanished.
After four days, the police came to thoroughly investigate his place. He felt not
a twinge of guilt, only confidence that his wife’s body would never be found.
He tapped gleefully on the cellar walls, boasting of their construction.
However, at that tapping, a terrible wailing howl came from inside the wall.
The police pulled it down and found the corpse, as well as the black cat
inside, staring straight at the narrator with his one eye.
Continue….
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29. “The Black Cat”
Symbols, Allegory and
Motifs

30. • Premature Burial
• Eyes
• The Double
• Pluto
Symbols in “The Black Cat”:
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31. • Prior to the technological revolution in medicine and advancements in the art of embalming,
the fear of being buried alive due to being misconstrued as dead was very real. As a result,
stories of premature burial abound throughout literature and throughout Poe’s stories. The
plot of “The Black Cat” puts a nice spin on the narrative device, but the concept of being
buried alive also appears in “The Cask of Amontillado,” “Morella,” “Eleanora,” “Ligeia,” and
“Berenice.”
• The premature burial of Roderick Usher’s sister drives the entire narrative of Poe’s story
about the fall of that house; further, as if the appearance of this running motif were not
obvious enough, there is the story that Poe titled “The Premature Burial.” Beyond the literal
fear of this kind of death, premature burial takes on a symbolic meaning as the fear of being
trapped in a kind of existential limbo. Outright death brings with it a kind of finality and release
from the mortal world: burial alive, in contrast, condemns one to a kind of liminal space
between the realms of the living and the dead.
Symbol:Premature Burial

32. • The movement from obsession toward madness takes a particularly sadistic turn in “The Black
Cat” when the narrator jabs a penknife into the cat and leaves it with only one eye. When the
second cat shows up, it also is mysteriously missing one eye. Eyes are a symbol to which Poe
returns again and again in various forms of expression in his stories. In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” it
is the sound of the heart thumping away beneath the floorboard that eventually drives the
narrator to guilt-ridden insanity, but the engine powering that drive is his obsessive belief that
an old man is delivering a curse upon him through his Evil Eye. The eyes of the titular figure in
“Ligeia” are the predominant symbol in that story, hiding the key to knowledge their dark and
mysterious beauty. As a symbol, eyes especially when contemplated from the perspective of a
paranoid narrator epresent the kind of existential persecution that comes from knowing that
one is being observed, yet being unable to locate the observer or do anything to escape their
gaze.
Symbol: Eyes

33. • The most comprehensive study of the psychology of the Double in Poe’s canon
occurs in his long story “William Wilson,” in which the plot is driven by the
obsessive pursuit by the narrator of his own doppelganger. The brother and sister
who remain the last of the line of the Usher lineage are also positioned despite
gender differences as being doubles of each other. The Double that Poe engages
in “The Black Cat” is a bit more idiosyncratic than his usual employment, as here it
is an animal that gets a double. After finally killing off his pet Pluto, the narrator is
stunned by the arrival of a near-duplicate of the pet. Despite the Double being a
cat rather than a human protagonist, it nevertheless fulfills the symbolic role of
being the agency of internal conflict taking place within the protagonist: even when
he tries to kill the cat to quiet himself, he finds that he cannot really accomplish
this, for a Double manifests in its place.
Symbol: The Double

34. • The narrator names his pet cat after a figure from Roman mythology:
Pluto. Modern readers mostly associated Pluto with a former planet or a
Disney dog, but Pluto referenced just one thing during Poe’s time: The
King of the Underworld (readers might be more familiar with Pluto’s
Greek-mythological counterpart, Hades). The fact that the narrator
chooses this name for the cat well before things take a turn for the weird
indicates that he may already have had a subliminal predisposition
toward seeing the cat as evil or seeing the world in terms of death from
the very start.
Symbol: Pluto

35. The Complete Edgar Allan Poe (English, Paperback, Poe Edgar Allan)
LItCharts, Gradesaver
The Black Cat (short story) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Cat_(short_story)
Psychological Study of Edger Allan Poe
(https://desaikaushal1315.blogspot.com/2014/10/psychological-study-of-edger-allan-poe.html)
References

36. kaushaldesai123@gmail.com
https://sites.google.com/view/
kaushaldesai
Thank you..
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