The philosopher Thomas Hobbes is quoted as saying that life is “nasty, brutish and short” (Landry).
This certainly turns out to be the case for the people and animals who live with the alcoholic, abusive, and murderous man in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat.” One shudders as he describes the horrific thoughts running through his mind. Even more terrible and shocking are the senseless acts of cruelty, and later murder, that he carries out upon his cat and wife. Edgar Allan Poe evokes a sense of terror within the reader by describing the man’s physical actions as well as his thought process, allowing the reader to perceive the overall effect of the grotesque within his short story.
The terrible actions that the man performs throughout the story are presented in an unsuspecting manner, which adds to the fright. He mentions that he abuses his wife and animals, with the exception of the black cat, Pluto. His pointing out of the abuse foreshadows what is about to occur in the story. When the man returns home in one of his usual drunken stupors he takes hold of the black cat’s neck “and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket” (Poe 97).
This senseless act of cruelty makes the reader cringe as one can almost feel the pain the cat experiences as it loses one of its eyes. The eyes are one of the most sensitive parts of the body and the slightest irritation, such as sand getting into them, causes excruciating pain. However, grains of sand rubbing against the surface of an eye must pale in comparison to the pain the cat experiences as its eye is sliced out. A short while after cutting out the cat’s eye, an exact time period is not given, he goes outside and hangs the cat from the tree. One assumes that he is not drunk at the time of the hanging since it occurs in the morning and he would have had time to sleep off the previous night’s intoxication. This shocking turn of events with the hanging of his beloved cat is almost too stupefying to fathom. However, Poe does not stop at creating that astonishing action. The most terrifying of the man’s actions is that of the murder of his wife. The murder is not planned, but rather a spur-of-the-moment form of action that he carried out while in a wild fury. The man becomes enraged as the second black cat, which arrives shortly after Pluto’s death and strangely possesses an injured eye as well, comes close to tripping him as he and his wife walk down the stairs to the cellar. The cat is merely trying to show affection for the man, but he becomes enraged and grabs for an axe. As he swings down towards the cat, his wife stops him by grabbing hold of his arm. Her interference in his depraved act sends him into a larger frenzy and he takes his anger out on his wife “and buried the axe in her brain” (Poe 100).
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Poe’s description of the wife’s murder is extremely graphic. He does not stop at saying that the man buried the axe into her head or skull, which would have been horrible enough, but rather into his wife’s brain. He attacks her in the location that controls everything that a being does and thinks, rendering her completely inoperative. The man quickly covers up the murder of his wife and is ecstatic to observe that he can find no trace of evidence. It is sickening that he feels no remorse for the slaughter of his wife, much less any of his actions.
However, Poe makes it clear that the man is not of sound mind by conveying the man’s thoughts, which adds to the horror of the story as the reader discovers his insanity. The man starts off describing himself as being noted “for the docility and humanity of [his] disposition” (Poe 96).
These characteristics are never truly seen in any part of the story, but only described by the man at the start almost in a deliberate attempt to make one perceive him as a placid individual before they became aware of his true nature. As he begins to relay the happenings of past events it is evident that it “is not so much a confession as it is a murderer’s attempt to rationalize his crime” (Peeples 96).
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... in doing so I was committing a sin-a deadly sin that would jeopardize my immortal soul as to place it-if such ... all mankind." (Poe 68) Finally, one day as the narrator and his wife descend the steps into their cellar, the cat causes the ... and repulsion motions of the universe. Consider the possibility that man's prolific creative genius necessarily must be just as abundantly perverse. ...
In rationalizing, he tries to place the blame of his actions upon his alcoholism. Although, this is not the true reason for the vile acts that he performs, “his crime is motivated by impulses more sinister than a weakness for drink” (Peeples 96).
Attempting to lay complete and total blame upon alcoholism is ludicrous. True, while in a drunken state one is more likely to carry out one’s inhibitions, whether good or bad, but they must already be present in one’s mind. The man has an urge “to violate that which is law” (Poe 97) and the alcohol only empowers his wants. It is as if the man wants to commit as many sins as possible. He may have chosen to harm the others living under his roof because of their innocence. By choosing innocent victims, he feels as if he commits a larger sin, one for which he will receive a harsher punishment. This quality of wanting condemnation evokes a chilling effect upon the reader. The fact that he realizes his victims are innocent, yet he continues to subject them to his brutality, adds to the depravity of his character. After gauging out one of Pluto’s eyes, he refers to the cat as an “unoffending beast” (Poe 98), proving that he recognizes the innocence of the animal. It is valid to assume that the man chose the eye to inflict damage upon because it is often known as the window to the soul. The cat possesses a pure soul and he wants to destroy that which is untainted, therefore he removes the eye believing that in doing so he is removing the pure soul of the cat. In referring to the hanging of Pluto, he even admits that the cat did nothing to him, but that he “hung it because [he] knew that in so doing [he] was committing a sin—a deadly sin that would so jeopardize my immortal soul” (Poe 98).
These thoughts are not the thoughts of a sane person, but those of an appalling man whose concepts are as terrifying as his actions.
As petrifying as the man in Edgar Allan Poe’s story is, it is even more terrifying to realize that there are people as vile as him in the world. There are those among the public who may appear to be a kind citizen of one’s community, but have another side that is hidden from society’s view. Who knows what secrets the next-door neighbor is keeping? Perhaps they suffer from alcoholism as well and their inhibitions will disappear just as this man’s and their grotesque nature will be revealed and consume the innocence of the world.
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King Lear - A Man More Sinned Against Than Sinning? A King is supposed to have all that he needs without having to worry about anything in his late years. Yet King Lear, in Act 3, Scene 2, cried out in pitifully: 'I am a man / More sinned against than sinning.' ; Although Lear has made a huge mistake in the first scene of the play in dividing up his kingdom and banishing his two dearest people, ...
Works Cited
Hoffman, Daniel. Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1972.
Landry, Peter. “Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679).” Online. Internet. www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Philosophy/Hobbes.htm#Quotes. January 2000.
Peeples, Scott. Edgar Allan Poe Revisited. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1998.
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Black Cat.” Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Compact Edition. Ed. Robert DiYanni. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2000. 9
