The short story “The Black Cat” written by Edgar Allan Poe meets the criteria for a gothic protagonist well in the sense that the protagonist went from having a completely reasonable mindset to dangerously caught up in the mysteries of life. As stated right at the beginning of this piece, “From my infancy I was noted for the docility and humanity of my disposition” (2). What this future assasinator is saying, is that even as a child he was known for being greatly behaved and compassionate. Nothing too scary yet, but although as he aged these traits stuck with him, once under the influence of too much alcohol for quite some time, his personality slowly started to alter. “My general temperament and character -- through the instrumentality of the Fiend Intemperance -- had (I blush to confess) experienced a radical alteration for the worse” (6). This eventually lead to the killing of his most treasured companion, his black cat, then to the almost murder of a similar cat, which brought on the gorey death by assassination of his wife, yet his soul remained unburdened by the horrors he had committed. “The guilt of my dark deeds disturbed me but little” (28).
