Alcoholism In The Black Cat

His motive is even harder to guess than the one in the previous short story; the more or less obvious answer seems to be alcohol. However, the constant emphasis on his former kindness and tenderness might actually outline the possibility of things being utterly different. All the superlatives considering his temper might be a joke, combined with the blaming of alcohol for the responsibility. What if his childhood has been completely different to how he interprets it to be; what if his parents were not the loving kind and his peers at school only mistreated him? It is common for those who bottle frustration up to unburden on someone – or something, like an animal, that has almost no power of fighting back. His acts towards all the animals kept in his adulthood would be a mere sequel to what has started when he was younger. And all those random acts of violence are, nonetheless, now
His already twisted mind was fed by alcohol for too long and his ability to think clearly was reduced to its minimum. But there is always the possibility of him seeing Pluto and his successor as the witches in disguise, as has been hinted in the story, too. The disdain felt towards anything supernatural could force, again combined with liquor, him to decide to get rid of the evil powers. In addition, he did not torture the other animals in the same manner he decided to persecute the cats.
The Tell-Tale Heart and The Black Cat are both short stories with rather unreliable narrators who like to twist the reality. And like with a crooked mirror, it is hard to distinguish what is real and what is only visible due to the material defect. It is therefore up to the reader to decide what is relevant and what has been altered in order to appeal to the audience more. Everyone might interpret the two stories differently, even though they for sure have one element in common –