This summary provides background on Edgar Allan Poe and analyzes his short story "The Black Cat". It describes the narrator's close relationship with his pet black cat Pluto and how the narrator's alcoholism leads him to mistreat and eventually kill Pluto. Months later, a similar black cat comes into his life and the narrator grows to hate it, believing it represents his guilt over Pluto's death. This drives the narrator to madness, leading him to kill his wife and wall up her body in his home. The cat's cries then alert the police to the crime during their investigation. The summary analyzes themes of insanity, alcoholism, supernatural elements, guilt, and the divided self in

1. Edgar Allan Poe
Prepared by : Gayatri Nimavat
The Black Cat

2. Edgar Allan Poe
▪ Edgar Allan Poe was born on 19
January 1809 and died on 7 October
1849. He was an American writer,
editor and literary critic. Poe is
known for his poetry and short
stories. Particularly his tales of
mystery and the macabre.

3. His best known works:
▪ To Helen (1831)
▪ The Raven(1845)
▪ Annabel Lee (1849)
▪ The Tell-Tale Heart (1843)
▪ The cask of Amontillado (1846)
▪ The Fall of the House of Usher (1838)

4. Brief Biography of Edgar Allan Poe:
▪ Poe was orphaned at a young age and fostered by
Allan and grew up with them in Virginia. After
dropping out of University and the army. He became
one of the first writers of the time to make a living
from publishing his work but he had much financial
and mental difficulty throughout his life. His death in
1849 was a much debated tragedy, alcohol, suicide,
tuberculosis and many other things have been
attributed as causes.

5. Character:
1. Unnamed narrator
2. The narrator's wife
3. Pluto (First cat)
4. The second black cat
5. The police

6. Summary
The Black Cat' is told from the perspective of a narrator who, in his own
words, does not expect the reader to believe him. He tells the reader up
front that he is scheduled to die the following day, but the reader doesn't
find out why until the end of the story.
After setting up his story from this perspective, the man tells the reader
about a cat named Pluto he used to have as a pet. He describes Pluto as
a remarkably large, beautiful animal, entirely black. The narrator's wife
jokes that the cat might be a witch in disguise, given its unusual
intelligence. The narrator and Pluto have a close bond. He takes care of
Pluto, and Pluto follows him everywhere around the house. It is a very
tender relationship.

7. Continue...
Then, everything goes wrong. The narrator, an alcoholic, starts getting
angry at everyone. He mistreats his wife and their other animals, but he
never hurts Pluto. But one night, the narrator comes home drunk and
thinks Pluto is avoiding him. He grabs the cat, who bites him. In
retaliation, the narrator cuts out one of the cat's eyes.
After he sleeps off his drunken state, the narrator is horrified about his
actions. It is not enough to get him to stop drinking, though. The cat's eye
socket heals, but Pluto and the narrator no longer have a good
relationship. Pluto starts to avoid the narrator all the time. Instead of
feeling remorseful, the narrator just feels irritated at the cat's behavior.

8. Continue...
The narrator hangs the cat 'in cold blood' from a tree. That night, his
house burns down. The narrator, his wife, and their servant all escape
the fire unharmed, but the fire destroys his home and all of his
possessions. When the narrator returns to the ashes later, he sees the
figure of a cat on the only surviving wall.
Months pass. The narrator sees a cat remarkably similar to Pluto, except
that on his chest is a white patch. The cat follows him home. At first, the
narrator likes the cat, but soon he can't stand the cat at all, especially
after he notices that one of its eyes is missing.

9. Continue...
The more he hates the cat, the more the cat likes him. The
narrator cannot bring himself to hurt the cat because he is
afraid of it. The white shape on its chest morphs into a
gallows, a direct reminder of his crime against Pluto.
Eventually, the narrator is driven so mad that he tries to kill
the cat with an axe. His wife intervenes, and the narrator
ends up killing his wife. He decides to conceal the body
inside his house, behind the wall of the basement.

10. Continue...
The narrator looks for the cat, but it is missing. For three
nights, he sleeps undisturbed by the cat. Then, on the
fourth day, police come to his house to ask questions about
his wife's disappearance. During their investigation, the
narrator raps on the wall he has rebuilt to conceal his wife's
corpse. The noise of him knocking causes the cat, which
had accidentally become sealed inside the wall, to howl,
alerting the police to the presence of the narrator's wife.

11. Theme
• Man's descent into insanity
• The ill-effects of alcoholism
• Supernatural beliefs
• Guilt
• The divided self

12. Symbol:
•Premature burial
•Eyes
•The double
•Pluto

13. Thank you