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The black cat - Edger Allan Poe

The narrator narrates the story from prison. He begins by describing how kind he was in childhood. he had many pets. At young age he marries a woman who also loves pets. In their household they have a number of animals, including a large and beautiful black cat named Pluto. Although his wife often refers to the superstition that black cats are actually disguised witches, the narrator is particularly fond of the unusually intelligent cat.

In subsequent years, the narrator becomes increasingly moody and irritable due to alcoholism, and he begins to verbally abuse and threaten his wife as well as his pets. He remains less harsh to Pluto until one day, when he comes home drunk and, imagining that Pluto is avoiding him, he seizes the cat, which bites him on the hand in fear. In response, the narrator loses control and cuts one of Pluto's eyes out with a pen-knife. After sobering up the next morning, he feels a modicum of remorse but returns to drinking. The cat recovers, but it conspicuously avoids its owner, who is at first grieved and later annoyed and provoked. He describes it as a primitive impulse of perverseness that drives him to complete his attack on Pluto by hanging the cat from a tree, although he cries as he does the deed, aware that he has committed a deadly sin on an animal that once loved him.

The same night as the cat's death, the house is set on fire, and the narrator, his wife, and his servant barely escape, although he is left with little wealth. Peculiarly, on the single wall that did not fall in the fire is an image of a gigantic cat with a rope around its neck. The narrator explains the phenomenon away, reasoning that someone must have thrown the cat into his window to try to wake him up in the fire and that as other walls fell, they must have compressed the animal into the plaster, where the lime, the heat, and the ammonia from the cat's body combined to form the image. However, he remains disturbed and feels a sense of regret that falls just short of remorse.

For months, the narrator searches for a replacement cat, which he discovers while drinking. The new cat resembles Pluto except for a patch of white hair on its chest. The landlord has never seen the animal before, and the cat takes a liking to the narrator, who brings it home. His wife becomes fond of the cat, but the narrator is increasingly annoyed with the cat's affection towards him, and his annoyance turns into hatred. He begins avoiding the cat, although his shame about his previous cruelty prevents him from being violent towards it. His hatred of the animal increases until one day the cat loses one of its eyes.

In spite of the narrator's dislike for the cat, it follows him everywhere, and he begins to dread the cat. The narrator fearfully explains that he has lost what was left of his former goodness, and he indulges in hatred and fury, although his wife never complains.

At one point, when the protagonist and his wife enter their cellar, the cat trips him. Enraged, he starts to take an axe to the cat, but his wife's hand stops his arm. Furious at her interruption, he strikes her head with the blade, killing her instantly. Realizing that he cannot remove the body from the house, he considers ways to conceal it, including cutting it up and burning it, digging a grave in the cellar, throwing the corpse into the well, and packing it up in a box and having it carried out of the house under the guise of merchandise. Eventually he decides to wall it up with plaster in the cellar behind a false fireplace, leaving no evidence of the deed. The narrator tries to find the cat so he can kill it, but the animal is nowhere to be found, and he sleeps well that night, free of guilt.

On the second and third days, the cat does not appear, inspiring relief in the narrator, but on the following day, policemen come to investigate. The narrator calmly cooperates, and the policemen find nothing, despite searching the cellar multiple times. The narrator bids the police farewell, but in a fit of bravado, he mentions that the walls of the house are sturdily constructed, and with a cane, he raps on the wall that hides his wife.

A cry emanates from behind the wall, evolving from a muffled, broken sob into an inhuman scream. Seeing that the game is up, the narrator staggers away from the wall, and after pausing from terror and awe, the police disassemble the wall and find the cat "with red extended mouth and solitary eye of fire" sitting on the head of the corpse. The narrator realizes, to his horror, that he must have trapped the cat behind the wall along with his wife.


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