“The Black Cat”

             “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe 

The Black Cat follows the narrator’s descent into madness after he proclaims his sanity in the opening paragraph. The narrator confesses han alcoholism that interferes with his grasp on reality and produces mood changes.

The alcohol in the tale is like the cat, an external agent that intrudes in the dynamics of the plot. The introduction of alcohol is very significant as Poe was reputedly uncontrollable drunk during his lifetime.

The concept of  the ‘fantastic’ is introduced in his literature of horror. The fantastic explores the real and the supernatural and it contains both rational and irrational elements. A fantastic element is the apparition of a second black cat. The resolution of the story can be both rational and irrational.

In Poe’s stories, homicide requires animalistic elements. Animals signal the absence of human reason and morality. The murder of Pluto signals the narrator’s loss of reason and plunge into perverseness. Irrational Humans vs. Rational Animals, indicates Poe sees murder as animalistic and inhuman.