Heath 1
Sarah Heath
Dr. Miller
English 203-50
27 October 2015
Consequences of Alcohol Portrayed in Poe’s The Black Cat
The Black Cat is a story included in Tales, a collection of short stories written by Edgar Allan Poe and published in 1845. This story is an example of gothic literature because of the use of violence and supernatural elements that are prevalent in almost every gothic piece. One major theme in this story is the harsh reality of how depression and lack of control caused by alcoholism can overcome reason.
In the beginning of the story, the narrator states that he married young and that he is happy with his wife. He writes that they are animal lovers and therefore, they have several domestic pets. Notably, he emphasizes his love for the cat named Pluto. Pluto is his favorite pet by far, and the cat seems to love him, too. The narrator is the only one who feeds him, and the cat follows him around wherever he goes. Pluto would even try to follow the narrator into the streets. He even goes as far as to personify the cat and refer to their relationship as a friendship (Poe 38). Everything about the story so far seems perfect, such as his relationship with his wife and all his animals.
However, the narrator goes on to explain how he is changing. He states that he has begun neglecting his pets and mistreating them. At first, he is hurting all of his animals except Pluto, but then he talks about how his disease grew upon him. The narrator proclaims, “for what disease is like Alcohol” (Poe 38). He is relating alcoholism to a disease in the sense that it takes over his life, and he has no control over what he is doing and what is going on with him. He is harming his animals, whom he loves very much, because of alcoholism. He also states that “a demon instantly possessed me” (Poe 38). This further explains the fact that the narrator is no longer in control of his actions. His word choice in these two quotes emphasizes that this is from the Gothic era and that it is supposed to be a depressing story. He is essentially comparing alcoholism to a disease and demonic possession, which are two topics that are not very happy, but characteristic of gothic literature, and they set the scene for the rest of the story.
As the story progresses, the narrator’s alcoholism worsens and he lashes out at Pluto, cutting out his eye. He writes that when he woke up the next morning, he “experienced a sentiment half of horror, half of remorse, for the crime of which I had been guilty” (Poe 39). He woke up, realized what he did to the poor, helpless cat, and immediately regretted it. This is an issue that the majority of people have with alcohol. It causes people to lose control of their actions and usually do something that they will regret in the morning. This would have been a good learning experience for the narrator, but he states that he “again plunged into excess, and soon drowned in wine all memory of the deed” (Poe 39). Instead of learning from what he did and deciding not to drink again, he turns to alcohol and drinks to attempt to forget what he did to Pluto.
Pluto eventually recovers from his injury, but the narrator’s guilt never goes away. He states that he even began to dislike the cat, regardless of the fact that they had such a strong relationship at the beginning of the story. The guilt eventually consumes the narrator and he tries to rid himself of this feeling by killing the cat. He states that “[I] hung it because I knew that it had loved me, and because I felt it had given me no reason of offence” (Poe 40). His alcoholism caused him to hurt Pluto, who had done nothing but love him. The narrator does not explicitly state that he was drinking at this time, but it can be assumed that he was not in the right state of mind while hanging the cat.
At this point in the story, the narrator does not feel like he should worry about his actions towards the cat. In fact, he states that he feels bad about the cat’s death, but he does not feel guilty about what he had done to the cat anymore. However, the actions that one performs while under the influence are not always so easily forgotten. Months after Pluto’s death, another cat mysteriously shows up. The narrator states that “it was a black cat—a very large one—fully as large as Pluto, and closely resembling him in every respect but one” (Poe 41). He goes on to explain that the one difference was that the new cat had a white splotch on his stomach while Pluto was completely black. This new cat came back as a memory of his killing Pluto, and it symbolizes the fact that the consequences of one’s actions do not simply disappear.
Throughout the story so far, the narrator has been focusing on his relationship with the cat and has not mentioned much about his wife. All that has been mentioned was the fact that they married young and that they were happy together (Poe 38). However, his relationship with his wife is also falling apart due to alcohol. The narrator states that he hates all of mankind and that he has “sudden, frequent, and ungovernable outbursts of a fury to which I now blindly abandoned myself” (Poe 43). He goes on to mention that “my uncomplaining wife, alas! was the most usual and the most patient of sufferers” (Poe 43). In these two quotes, he is saying that he is very angry the majority of the time and that he rarely has control of his actions. His alcoholism is also a hindrance to his wife. His actions due to his alcohol abuse not only affect himself, but the people around him as well.
Ultimately, the narrator ends up murdering his wife. In an alcoholic rage, he attempts to kill the second cat, but his wife gets in the way and falls victim to his axe. Much like a madman, the narrator is not fazed by the fact that he just murdered his wife. In fact, he is only worried about how he is going to get rid of the body. The word choice in this section proves that he does not care about the death of his wife. He uses the word “accomplished” when referring to the murder and then he “felt satisfied” and “looked around triumphantly” after finding a hiding place for the body (Poe 44). These are not words that a sane person would use after the death of his wife. This further proves that alcohol has significantly changed him for the worse.
In conclusion, Poe’s The Black Cat has the recurring theme of the consequences of alcohol. Throughout this one short story, the reader witnesses how fast one man’s life falls apart once he becomes dependent on alcohol. The narrator starts off living a happy life with his wife and many pets. He starts drinking, which leads to depression and loss of control. Eventually, heeHe ends up ruining the friendships with his pets, which he valued at the beginning of the story. Furthermore, the story ends with him killing his wife, something he definitely would not have done had he stayed sober.
Works Cited
Poe, Edgar Allan. Tales. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1845. Print.