Comparison Of Poe And The Narrator In The Black Cat

Poe and the narrator in The Black Cat both have a drinking problem, which is noticeable when the narrator describes the room, “reposing upon the head of one of the immense hogshead of gin, or of rum, which constituted the chief furniture of the apartment” (Pg. 226). Poe and the narrator both also had a loving wife who died, although one died of tuberculosis and one of murder. Moreover, both had a mental illness. Poe faced depression that influenced his life and the narrator is clearly unstable and apathetic.

Natural Causes
Supernatural Causes
His first black cat dying was caused by the narrator and therefore is a natural cause. Because of his temperament, he killed the cat of his own accord, not because of a supernatural cause.
The death of
The cat is supernatural because he survives four days inside a wall and only comes out to expose the narrator as a murderer to the police.
Poe defines “perverseness” as something evil and despicable that comes with being human. The narrator believes that perverseness is part of being human and that he’s finally reached the point where he’s lost his morals and his humanity. He’s living on his pure primitive instincts which tell him to be malicious.
The wife’s murder was caused by a motive from the narrator’s subconscious. Throughout the entire story, he’s been getting more and more irritated and succumbing to “perverseness”: “Evil thoughts became my sole intimates-the darkest and most evil of thoughts. The moodiness of my usual temper increased to hatred of all things and of all mankind;” (Pg. 228). Subconsciously, the narrator is slowly is building up hate for his wife. It develops until she interferes with his actions and he snaps and kills her: “Goaded by the interference into a rage more than demoniacal, I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain” (Pg. 228). The attack wasn’t premeditated as much as a passionate act in the spur of the