Horror Short Stories: The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe

 

Think about classic horror stories and which author comes to mind? If you thought Edgar Allan Poe, you won't be the only one who came up with that answer.

Edgar Allan Poe has long been an inspiration to several horror writers over the years, and his short stories and poems are read today and quite fondly.

One of his short stories was The Black Cat. Published in 1843, The Black Cat provides a thought-provoking discussion of the narrator's mind and his descent into madness.

When we meet the narrator, he talks about his fondness for animals, especially those that can be kept as pets. He was often teased for his docile behavior but he didn't mind because he loved animals. Fortunately he married a woman who shared his love for pets too. They kept goldfish, a dog, rabbits and monkeys, and a black cat.

Of all the animals, the narrator was particularly fond of the cat, he names Pluto, who followed him everywhere. But over the years, the narrator's behavior changes and he becomes an alcoholic. He believes the cat is beginning to avoid him and so one night, after he returns from the Inn inebriated,  he uses his knife to gouge the cat's eye.

He feels remorseful after that and admits the cat looks frightful now. The cat goes back to its normal routine although it avoids the narrator.

This must have irked the narrator who didn't appreciate his friend avoiding him because the next time he gets drunk, he takes the cat out in the garden, puts a noose around its neck and hangs him from a tree.

That very night, the house catches fire and the narrator loses all his belongings though he manages to flee with his wife and servant.

The next day when he returns, he sees am apparition of the cat with a noose around its neck.

The narrator regrets his cruelty and misses his cat. Some time later, when he goes to the Inn, he finds a cat following him about. The narrator,  missing his cat, decides to adopt this one and offers to buy it from the innkeeper. He tells the narrator that he's never see the cat before and it is definitely not his. The narrator leaves the Inn and let's the cat follow him home.

The narrator is now living in a cellar of am old building and when he looks at the cat the next morning, notices that he too has an eye missing. The wife is overjoyed to have another pet.

We are to assume the other pets perished in the fire?

The narrator also notices a white patch on the cat's fur which grows into the shape of the gallows.  The narrator, reminded of his guilt for killing his beloved Pluto, begins to hate the cat and starts avoiding him.

The cat however gets closer to the narrator and one day, manages to get between the narrators feet as he is going downstairs. Angered that he was going to fall headfirst down the stairs, he gets an axe. He was probably drunk too at that time.

The wife intervenes and this angers the narrator even more. He brings down the axe on his wife, killing her. The cat disappears.

The narrator looks around the cellar and finds a place where the fireplace no longer is in use and the stones are loose. He removes the bricks and with great difficulty puts his wife in the hole and bricks up the wall again.

The narrator spends a restful night. There's no wife to nag him, no cat to remind him of his guilt.

Soon People come over to ask about his wife and then the police. The narrator lets them look around the house but they don't find any evidence to incriminate the narrator.

The narrator grows confident that he's about to get away with murder. Or perhaps, subconsciously the guilt is gnawing at him and he wants to get caught. That would explain why he catches the attention of the police and leads them to the wall behind which his wife is entombed. He also uses his  cane to tap the exact spot. As soon as he does, an inhuman wail is heard leading the police to break down the wall and find the wife's corpse. Sitting atop her head is the cat.

The cat had survived days without food or perhaps it fed on the wife?

Was there even a cat? There is no indication that the police saw the cat too so it could be the narrator's guilty conscience that made him hallucinate the cat in the first place. The innkeeper does say that he's never seen a cat before or knows anything about it. And why would the cat have the shape of the gallows on it?

Is it because the narrator knew he had sinned and deserved that punishment? Or perhaps it was a foreshadow of the crime he was about to commit that would lead him to the gallows?

The story sheds light on the problems associated with mental health and alcoholism, and how guilt can drive a person into violence too.