Drunkenness Killed the Cat and Wife

            In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Black Cat” the narrator who is on the eve of his death by hanging is explain the reason for doing such atrocious crimes. The narrator explains that his pet cat “Pluto” was his “favorite pet and playmate” (231). The narrator then describes how he soon became addicted to alcohol and becomes very violent and ill-tempered towards his wife and pets but “still retained sufficient regard to restrain [himself] from maltreating [Pluto]” (231). After a night of drinking he comes home and sees “Pluto” and becomes angry because the cat avoids him. In his anger he seizes the cat and the cat then bites him. This angers the narrator more and causes him to cut the cat’s eye out with a knife. He then proceeds later in the story by hanging the cat from a tree and the next day having to leave his home because it was burnt down. He later finds a new cat that treats him like “Pluto” use to. The cat would follow the narrator everywhere, but the narrator quickly started to hate this cat for doing so. This hatred then leads to the narrator murdering his wife and concealing her into the wall of the house. The second cat also goes missing after the murder and the narrator becomes happy about its disappearance. Of course the sudden disappearance of his wife causes questioning around the town and eventually brings people to search the narrator’s house. As the people search the house they go to the area where the wife is concealed within the wall and a sudden screeching noise comes from the wall. The cat is the cause of the noise and the cat is the reason the narrator gets caught for the murder of his wife.

            This narrator is very irrational in his actions. He first cuts his cats eye out because it bit him. If you ask me no matter how much I am under the influence and one of my pets bit me especially one that I love so dearly, I would never have the urge to cut its eye out. While the narrator is describing the scene of hanging his cat he sounds very irrational. “One morning, in cool blood, I slipped a noose about its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree;-hung it with tears streaming from my eyes, and with the bitterest remorse at my heart.” (232) This scene is very irrational; while he is hanging his cat he is crying and saying how much he loves this cat. That just doesn’t make sense. Why would anyone in their right mind kill something they love? Let alone cut out its eye and then hang it.

            Later in the story with the murder of his wife the narrator explains how he is going to kill the second cat. But while doing so in his drunken rage his wife grabs his hand and tries to stop him. “Goaded, by the interference, into a rage more then demoniacal, I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot, without a groan” (236). What rational person would kill his wife while she tried to stop him? The narrator is so irrational that as soon as he kills his wife he immediately thinks about getting rid of her body and where the hell the second cat went. “My next step was to look to the beast which had been the cause of so much wretchedness; for I had, at length, firmly resolved to put it to death.” Also what rational person hates his pet so much that he feels the urge to kill it? Why not just get rid of it? Clearly this narrator has many problems, especially with dealing with situations rationally.