Critical Analysis of The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe
Critical Analysis of "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe
The short story entitled, “The Black Cat”, written by Edgar Allen Poe is a dark and twisted tale of a man who commits an evil deed early in his life that he is never able to forget or forgive himself for. There are many supernatural elements in this story, such as references to apparitions, God, and inescapable acts. It is the latter that is the theme of the story and the strongest reference to unmentioned, unseen forces. This unmentioned force is a strongly believed Buddhist belief, called Karma. Belief in Karma implies that a person who commits good, just acts will be rewarded with better life conditions in their next incarnation. Unjust acts lead to worse conditions in their next life. This story deals with a modified version of that belief, and that is that horrid, unjust acts, like those committed by the narrator of the tale, cannot go unpunished forever.
In his early years, the narrator seems like any other man. He falls in love, marries that special girl, and they decide to get a few pets. Some of these pets appear to be quite unusual, but they seem happy and therefore to each his own. They end up with birds, goldfish, a dog, rabbits, and a black cat. This black cat proves to be the man’s faithful companion in his youth, and he and the cat quickly become very attached to one another.
However, as this man sunk into the depths of alcoholism, he quickly became intolerant with everything around him, everything including his wife, and his faithful companion, Pluto, which was the cat’s name. He constantly maltreated each of the animals, all except Pluto, whom he left alone because of their early friendship. However, Pluto could not understand that his master had changed and continued to try to stay close to the man, further and further aggravating the man, and eventually driving the man to a fit of madness that caused him to drive his pen into Pluto’s eye, effectively removing the eye from the socket. The cat obviously avoided the man from then on, but the man was so aggravated that he hung Pluto in a near by garden. The man’s house was then burnt to the ground, and because of the actions of one of his neighbor’s, Pluto’s dead body ended up saving the man’s...