After reading Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Black Cat,” the story prompted
several questions during class. One being whether the narrator’s horrific,
twisted story should be considered a confession or a defense. Specific moments
in the story led me to believe that this story is a defense. As the narrator
begins to reveal his horrendous abuse towards his animals; specifically the
black cat he always tries to justify his actions. As his hated and rage
develops towards the cat he justifies his feelings as a “disease,” he goes
further saying that “my disease grew upon me- for that disease is like alcohol”
(231). It is no secret that the narrator seems to be suffering from alcoholism;
therefore his initial defense towards his rage is to blame it on the alcohol.
It is the alcohol that holds this “disease” that is causing him to abuse, and
ultimately kills this helpless cat. If it were really the alcohol that was to blame
he would be showing more remorse and genuine guilt towards his horrifying actions.
He states that he felt “a sentiment half of horror, half of remorse, for the
crime which I had been guilty; but it was, at best, a feeble and equivocal
feeling and the soul remained untouched” (231-32). The fact that he states that
he only felt half remorse and horror shows how unauthentic his emotions towards
the situation are. He might have felt slightly guilty at some point but at that
exact moment when he is retelling his story he doesn’t and his conscious remains
unaffected. After stabbing the cat’s eye out he continues to justify his
actions by suggesting that his body was taken over by some type of spirit of “perverseness.”
Suggesting that because of this spirit he tortured and killed the cat.
When he kills his wife he also seems
to provide a defense for his actions. As the narrator is ready to kill off the
second cat his wife unfortunately intervenes and is left to face her husband
psychopathic rage. He states “Goaded, by the interference, into a rage more
than demoniacal, I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her
brain” (236). The narrator seems to suggest that his wife’s death is his wife’s
fault; if she wouldn’t have intervened then she wouldn’t have gotten an ax to the
head. Also, once again he makes the reference to being demonized. This seems to suggest that he was taken over
by some type of demonic force. However, I believe he was fully aware of his
actions. The fact that he doesn’t exhibit any type of emotional response or reflection
towards killing his wife shows that his actions could have been premeditated.
He just needed some type of excuse or situation to act on. Although, there are also
some moments which would lead the reader to believe that this could story could
also be seen as a confession, for the most part this seems to be a defense. As he
is getting ready to die for his crimes it makes sense that he would try to
justify to and defend his actions to the reader and attempt to victimize
himself. To try to make it seem like he was the one who is the victim in this
situation and the cat’s, alcohol, perverseness and his wife are the ones who
provoked him to act in this violent rage. He even makes reference to the cat as
his “tormentor” as if he is the one that is being tortured and terrorized. It’s
almost as if he is trying to convince us that he is innocent but his
justifications don’t validate the fact that he killed a cat and his wife.
As the narrator is closing off his
story in the last paragraph he states “upon its head, with red extended mouth
and solitary eye of fire, sat the hideous beast whose craft had seduced me into
murder, and whose informing voice had consigned me to the hangman” (238). He is
trying to make one last attempt to try to justify what he did to the reader
placing the blame on the cat again. The narrator stands behind his story that
the cat “seduced” him into committing his crimes. Ultimately, it is left for
the reader to interpret what they think the narrator was trying to do confess
to his crimes? Or defend his actions?
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