The story "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe follows a narrator who descends into madness after proclaiming his sanity. His alcoholism interferes with his grasp on reality and causes mood changes. The introduction of alcohol, like the black cat, is an external agent that intrudes on the plot. Poe uses elements of the fantastic, which explores both the real and supernatural, to tell the story.

1. “The Black Cat”
Edgar Allan Poe (1843)

2.  The Black Cat follows the narrator‟s descent into
madness after he proclaims his sanity in the opening
paragraph.
 The narrator confesses han alcoholism that interferes
with his grasp on reality and produces mood changes.
 The alcohol in the tale is like the cat, an external
agent that intrudes in the dynamics of the plot. The
introduction of alcohol is very significant as Poe was
reputedly uncontrollable drunk during his lifetime.

3.  The concept of the „fantastic‟ is introduced in his
literature of horror. The fantastic explores the real
and the supernatural and it contains both rational
and irrational elements.
 A fantastic element is the apparition of a second
black cat.
 The resolution of the story can be both rational and
irrational.

5. Meaning of Animal Imagery
 In Poe‟s stories, homicide requires animalistic
elements.
 Animals signal the absence of human reason and
morality.
 The murder of Pluto signals the narrator‟s loss of
reason and plunge into perverseness.
 Irrational Humans vs. Rational Animals, indicates Poe
sees murder as animalistic and inhuman.