The Black Cat Flashcards
by Edgar Allan Poe — tap or click to flip
Flashcard Review
Flashcards: The Black Cat
What is the narrator's situation as he begins telling the story?
He is in a prison cell awaiting execution the next day, writing to unburden his soul.
What is the name of the narrator's first cat, and why is the name significant?
Pluto, named after the Roman god of the underworld, foreshadowing the darkness and death to come.
What act of violence does the narrator first commit against Pluto?
While drunk, he cuts out one of Pluto's eyes with a pen-knife after the cat bites his hand.
What reason does the narrator give for ultimately hanging Pluto from a tree?
The spirit of perverseness -- he hangs the cat precisely because he knows it is wrong and because the cat had loved him.
What happens to the narrator's house the same night he kills Pluto?
It burns down in a fire, destroying all his worldly possessions.
What image appears on the one remaining wall after the fire?
The figure of a gigantic cat with a rope around its neck, imprinted in the plaster.
How does the narrator rationally explain the cat image on the wall?
He theorizes someone cut the cat from the tree and threw it into his room during the fire, and the chemicals from the carcass, lime, and flames created the impression in fresh plaster.
Where does the narrator find the second black cat?
Sitting atop a hogshead of gin or rum in a disreputable tavern.
What physical trait does the second cat share with Pluto, and what is different?
Like Pluto, it is missing one eye. Unlike Pluto, it has a large white splotch on its chest.
What shape does the white marking on the second cat gradually take?
The image of the gallows, a symbol of execution and punishment.
How does the narrator's wife die?
The narrator buries an axe in her brain when she stops him from striking the second cat in the cellar.
How does the narrator conceal his wife's body?
He walls it up behind bricks in a recess of the cellar, then plasters over the new brickwork to match the old.
What causes the police to discover the wife's body?
The narrator, out of bravado, raps on the exact wall hiding the corpse, and a terrible wailing cry from within alerts the police.
What is the source of the cry behind the wall?
The second black cat, which the narrator had accidentally walled up alive with the corpse.
How does the narrator's personality change over the course of the story?
He transforms from a gentle, animal-loving man into a violent, cruel alcoholic who abuses his pets and wife.
What role does the narrator's wife play in the story?
She is a passive, patient sufferer who shares the narrator's love of animals and becomes the ultimate victim of his violence.
Why does the narrator grow to hate the second cat despite seeking it out?
Its affection disgusts him, its missing eye reminds him of his guilt, and the gallows-shaped marking fills him with dread.
What does the narrator mean by the 'spirit of perverseness'?
An innate human impulse to do wrong precisely because one knows it is wrong -- to violate moral law simply because it exists.
How does the story explore the theme of guilt and punishment?
Each act of cruelty brings escalating consequences -- the fire after killing Pluto, the haunting second cat, and finally the discovery of the murder by the cat's cry.
How does alcoholism function as both cause and excuse in the story?
The narrator blames alcohol for his transformation, calling it a 'disease,' but his cruelty becomes deliberate and sober as the story progresses.
How does the second cat serve as a symbol of the narrator's guilty conscience?
It haunts him relentlessly, mirrors the cat he killed, bears the image of the gallows, and ultimately exposes his crime from within the tomb.
What type of irony is demonstrated when the narrator raps on the wall before the police?
Dramatic irony -- the reader suspects what lies behind the wall, and the narrator's overconfident boasting directly causes his own downfall.
How does Poe use foreshadowing in the opening paragraph?
The narrator states he will die tomorrow and describes the events as having 'destroyed' him, signaling from the start that the story ends in catastrophe.
What narrative point of view does the story use, and how does it affect the reader's trust?
First-person unreliable narrator -- he insists he is sane while describing increasingly irrational and violent behavior, forcing the reader to question his account.
What does the word 'sagacious' mean as used to describe Pluto?
Having keen perception and good judgment; wise. The narrator uses it to emphasize Pluto's exceptional intelligence.
What does the word 'conflagration' mean in the context of the house fire?
A large, destructive fire. The narrator uses it to describe the blaze that destroys his home the night after he kills Pluto.
What does 'intemperance' refer to in the story?
Excessive indulgence, specifically in alcohol. The narrator calls it 'the Fiend Intemperance' and blames it for his moral decline.
What is the significance of the narrator's opening claim: 'Mad indeed would I be to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence'?
He acknowledges the events seem unbelievable even to himself, yet insists he is not mad -- establishing his unreliability while desperately seeking credibility.
What does the narrator reveal about human nature when he says perverseness is 'one of the primitive impulses of the human heart'?
He argues that the desire to do wrong simply because it is forbidden is a fundamental, universal part of human psychology, not unique to him.