“The Black Cat”, by Edgar Allan Poe, is a horror fiction short story about a man who is retelling events that happened to him as if it was normal and he was sane. He describes his relationship with alcohol and how he abused animals from a young age. He describes his experiences with one particular cat named Pluto, and how he killed his wife in attempt to kill the cat. Although he starts off the story retelling it as if he were a sane person, there are many pieces of evidence from the text that disprove this. The narrator of “The Black Cat” is insane because of the way he factually presented the story, his relationship with alcohol, and how he did not have the ability to distinguish the difference between right and wrong. One example of how
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Sane people can distinguish the difference between right and wrong, and they are aware when something does not seem right. “But this blow was arrested by the hand of my wife. Goaded, by the interference, into rage more than demonical, I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot, without a groan. This hideous murder accomplished, I set myself forthwith, and with entire deliberation, to the task of concealing the body.” (p. 5). This quote proves his lack of sanity because it shows how he was aware of what he was doing, but killed his wife anyway, out of rage. This was told very factually, without any emotion. He does not really dwell on the fact the he just killed his wife, he just moves on to where and how he will hide the body. People trying to prove that he is sane may argue that his actions were just plain cruel and terrible, but not insane. This would not be right because if he were sane, he would be able to differentiate good actions from bad actions. He shows the lack of being able to do that through his events with his cat and his wife, proving that he is
Sane people can distinguish the difference between right and wrong, and they are aware when something does not seem right. “But this blow was arrested by the hand of my wife. Goaded, by the interference, into rage more than demonical, I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot, without a groan. This hideous murder accomplished, I set myself forthwith, and with entire deliberation, to the task of concealing the body.” (p. 5). This quote proves his lack of sanity because it shows how he was aware of what he was doing, but killed his wife anyway, out of rage. This was told very factually, without any emotion. He does not really dwell on the fact the he just killed his wife, he just moves on to where and how he will hide the body. People trying to prove that he is sane may argue that his actions were just plain cruel and terrible, but not insane. This would not be right because if he were sane, he would be able to differentiate good actions from bad actions. He shows the lack of being able to do that through his events with his cat and his wife, proving that he is