Edgar Allan Poe The Black Cat — Story

To hide the body, he considers cutting her up, but decides to wall her inside a cellar niche (behind a false wall). He uses bricks and mortar. He feels clever when the cat disappears – it was the cat he wanted to kill anyway.

One night, returning home drunk, the narrator feels the cat avoiding him. He grabs Pluto, who bites his hand. In a demonic rage, the narrator pulls a penknife and cuts out one of the cat’s eyes. edgar allan poe the black cat story

The narrator becomes convinced that the cat is a malevolent spirit, sent to torment him for his cruelty to Pluto. He tries to get rid of the cat, but it follows him everywhere. Eventually, the narrator becomes convinced that the cat is trying to kill him and decides to kill it. However, while he's trying to dispatch the cat, his wife intervenes, and in a fit of rage, he kills her with an axe. To hide the body, he considers cutting her

Alcoholism triggers the narrator’s violence. The story is one of the first American tales to depict domestic abuse realistically within a marriage. One night, returning home drunk, the narrator feels

“I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain.” — The murder is abrupt, shocking, and coldly described.

Though ashamed the next morning, the narrator soon feels a “spirit of PERVERSENESS” – a desire to do wrong for its own sake. He hangs Pluto from a tree. That night, his house catches fire and burns almost completely. The only wall left standing has a strange image: a giant cat with a rope around its neck.