Theme of Guilt in The Black Cat

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Pluto, in the story of The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe serves an important purpose of demonstrating the narrator’s guilt. The protagonist in this story goes back to alcoholism and whenever he sees Pluto, the titular cat, he is filled with guilt. He later kills the cat. This Act worsens his guilt and he is forced to realize that his guilt is a cause for his alcoholism. This is evident because the narrator tries to cover up his guilt by pointing out that the cat had been dead at least two days and that it was still rotting. He argues that this was quite normal because of an excessively warm climate. This confirms his guilt, which drives him to murder Pluto before he can be discovered by being forced to pay horrifying amounts of money.

The narrator also kills his wife and a friend in the story. This is to make up for the murder of Pluto. The narrator’s guilt is demonstrated when he states “I think, never more to see my wife, or any human being.” This shows that he feels guilty for life and tries to protect himself from feeling any guilt by taking drastic actions. He immediately goes to bed with his wife while she is at home and tries to get off quickly by claiming that he has a headache.

Pluto begins as an innocent and playful kitten who brings joy into the narrator’s life. The narrator finds joy in playing with the cat and there is a bond between the two. When Pluto disappears, the narrator feels that he has lost something special and precious in his life. He realizes that he will never see the cat again; this means that Pluto is dead.

The narrator begins to drink at this time because the pain of losing Pluto drives him to it. The moment he sees the ghost cat, very much alive, he wants to get drunk as quickly as possible, not caring whether it is good for him or not. In the last scene, the cat’s wails reveal the location of the wife’s body and announce the protagonist’s guilt. This shows that he is not willing to face and accept his guilt. Later, the narrator will be destroyed by his guilt. This story contains evidence that the narrator feels guilty because he killed Pluto. He is too afraid to face it and he never admits his guilt in any way. He sees Pluto at night in the black cat, and he sees him again during the day. This makes him think about Pluto all day, filling him with immense sadness and grief which drives him back to alcohol. He says that he would rather drink than feel such sadness; this is evidence that he feels guilty for killing the cat.

The conflict in The Black Cat is the conflict of good and evil, or those human emotions which make us act against what we know is right. Guilt is that emotion which causes us to act against these emotions. The narrator is aware of his guilt when he sees Pluto at night and again during the day. However, he also believes that it is normal and usual; however, when his wife discovers what he has done, and stops drinking to bring shame on him, the guilt becomes unbearable.

The conflict of good and evil represents an internal conflict with the forces of our nature or personified in The Black Cat as Pluto. Evil is represented by Pluto who is an evil cat who haunts the narrator for all his life. He may not have met him first in life but through his inner conscience he knows that this cat is evil and will do anything to ruin him.

The theme of guilt is clearly portrayed in the story of The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe. The narrator feels guilt and ends up making other mistakes that deepens the guilt. The Cat tries to help the narrator but is instead killed by him.

The narrator of Edgar Allan Poe’s story, The Black Cat, feels guilt and ends up making other mistakes that deepen the guilt. The cat tries to help the narrator but is instead killed by him. Though Poe leaves us on a note of uncertainty, this should not stop us from seeing guilt in its many forms: as an overwhelming thought that leads one to do wrong; as a mental state that becomes clearer over time; and as an act where people feel regretful or remorseful for their actions. These behaviors may be exhibited with or without explicit expressions of self-blame, shame or embarrassment about one’s wrongdoing.

The narrator, protagonist, in this story illustrates a man who could not handle his guilt and who took it out on his cat. The narrator is a young man who has devoted himself to studying the sciences and mathematics. He has given himself over to his work, with the result that he feels isolated from the world. He lives alone in a country villa where he has isolated himself, spending most of his time reading and writing. According to this theme, a person should not live with their own guilt, instead one should try to fix it through various strategies (Sheoran, 2016).

Reference

Sheoran, P. (2016). Effectiveness of NLP in dealing with guilt induced anxiety, depression and stress: A case study. Mental Health: A Journey from illness to wellness. İndia, 179-88.