![]() Dually repulsed by and attracted to the reminder of his earlier chastisements – the company of Pluto II – the narrator finds himself torn between the cleansing desire for atonement and the thrilling hunger for impunity. It is an emotional string of brutalities – both against the wife and the cat – all of which arise from a sensual reservoir of self-indulgence and self-loathing. Punctuated by deep emotion and remorse, it differs from every murder tale he wrote: unlike “Amontillado” and “Hop-Frog,” the violence is instantly regretted unlike “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Imp of the Perverse,” the destruction is not for the sake of amusement. “The Black Cat” remains one of Poe’s most haunting studies in guilt. The narrator bemoans: “I had walled up the monster within the tomb!” But this is only half true: her gore-encrusted corpse is now bloated and rotting, but crouching on the head, yowling in triumphant defiance, is the black cat, with its glowing spectral eye and the image of the gallows seared on its breast. The police immediately tear down the wall, under the belief that his wife must have been buried there alive. Overwhelmed with confidence, he lifts his walking stick and wraps it against the brick wall to demonstrate its soundness, but is immediately silenced and mortified when the walls rattle with a ghoulish, wild wail that sounds like a soul in hell. The narrator is delighted to accompany them, even when he leads them – arrogantly and perversely, a la “The Tell-Tale Heart” – to the very spot where she is buried. The police probe leads nowhere, but before they give up, they insist on one last top-to-bottom exploration of the house. ![]() He finds that the cat has disappeared from the house, and he can finally sleep in peace. Shortly after, his wife’s friends note her absence, and the police visit to investigate, but find nothing suspicious, although they conduct a broad examination. ![]() “The Black Cat” may not accurately depict Poe’s tangible life – he was a remorseful, if sporadic drunk, and a great lover of cats – it does delve into some of the man’s chief philosophical inquiries, especially those of his later life: can conscience be avoided can personality be irrevocably transformed can guilt be banished can the caverns of the unconscious be regulated and contained? An exploration in the struggle between will and conscience, “The Black Cat” shadows many of the same themes as “William Wilson,” excepting that its doppelgänger – for it has one – is not the replica of the man, but that of his most cherished possession. Nonetheless, its major components – alcoholism, domestic abuse, impulsive murder, and psychological decay – have become synonymous with both Poe the Man and Poe the Writer. Those who carelessly “read into it” as confessional may held responsible for recklessly promoting the Poe myth. ![]() Other than his elegiac poetry (“The Raven,” “Ulalume,” “Annabel Lee”), “The Black Cat” may be interpreted as autobiographic more than any other member of Poe’s canon.
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