The Black Cat Essay

The story is told by the murderer himself, the first-person narrator speaking on the eve of his execution for the crime of killing his wife. He begins his account in the remote past of his own childhood. The narrator says that he was an extremely sensitive boy, so passive that his schoolmates teased him. He explains that as a child he always had a passion for animals. Since he had this passion for animals his parents allowed him to have a great variety of pets growing up. So early in his marriage he was happy to find that his wife observed his passion for domestic pets and agreed to have them. He and his wife had birds, gold-fish, a fine dog, rabbits, a small monkey, and a cat. The cat was a remarkable large black cat, which was named, Pluto. He was very fond of Pluto. Pluto was his favorite out of all the animals. Pluto was also very fond and made a friendship with his master.

Pluto would never leave his side. Their friendship lasted for several years until the murder's anger issues took a turn for the worse. When his anger issues took the turn for the worse he started neglecting and ignore his pets and even threatening his wife with violence. For Pluto, however, he still like him and tried to keep him from mistreating him. As his drinking problem grew upon him even Pluto began to feel his ill temper. One night when Poe returned home drunk he felt that Pluto was avoiding him. So he went and found Pluto, Pluto was scared of the murders violence and bite his master

After Pluto had done this to the murder he became very angry and found a noose and hung Pluto to a tree and killed him. After a nights sleep he felt very guilty for what he had done to Pluto. The night after he had kill the cat he woke up to find the house in flame. He, his wife, and a servant were all that escaped the fire. The next day he went back in the house and finds an image of a gigantic cat on a white wall. This image reminds him of Pluto. This image then starts haunting Poe and he feels very badly for what he had done to Pluto.

Some time later Poe becomes so scared of the image and guilty that he goes and gets another Black Cat to take the place of Pluto. He was not very fond of this Black Cat though like he had been with Pluto. One day the murder's wife accompanies him to do his chores around the house. He gets very mad at the Black Cat for following them wherever they went. So he tries to throw an axe at it to try to kill it. His wife then takes the axe from his hand and will not allow him to kill the cat. The murder then becomes angry with his wife and murders her and the cat. He then takes both of them and hinds them in a hole in the wall. A couple days after some detectives come to search the house. As they are coming down the stairs about to leave they hear the cat meowing. So then they go toward the sound and find the murders dead wife and the Black Cat.