The Black Cat
By Edgar Allan Poe
The Narrator as a Youth /
Young Man
 Personality: Tenderness of heart
 Disposition: Docile, gentle, humane
 Friends: Had some; they joked about his
tender-heartedness
Early Issues
He MISTRUSTED PEOPLE
 even as a young man
 thought animals were more trustworthy!
The Narrator as a Youth/
Young Man
 Marriage: Wife had the same likes as he did,
esp. for animals
 Pets: Birds, goldfish, dog, rabbit, monkey, cat
Changes in the Narrator
 Personality
 Disposition
 Friends
 Marriage
 Pets
Narrator and Wife
He treated her with
 Intemperate language
 Personal violence
Narrator & Pluto
FIRE!
I approached and saw, as if graven in bas relief upon the
white surface, the figure of a gigantic cat.
After the Fire
Changes in Lifestyle
After the
Fire
 The Second Cat
A Wife’s Revenge?
 Women & marriage in early 1800s
 Power of suggestion
 Repressed/dulled guilt
Final
Downfall
A Cat’s Revenge?
What Goes Around Comes Around
Poe, Catarina, and Virginia