Lilly Tzanides
Exploratory Essay on “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe

Among Freud’s five lectures on psychoanalysis is the discussion of “wishful impulse”, which is described as an urge or idea that doesn’t necessarily agree with a person’s own morals or beliefs (Freud, 2212).  In short, Freud provokes the idea that when a thought becomes repressed due to it being incompatible with the conscious mind, a person will feel the need to act upon it because they know they don’t want to, and that the impulse continues to exist unconsciously (Freud, 2213).  The series of events that take place in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” suggests that the narrator experiences the repression and subsequent impulse mentioned and described by Freud. 

One of the biggest characteristics of the narrator in “The Balck Cat” is that he has a strong appreciation for animals, as illustrated when he says “I was especially fond of animals, and was indulged by my parents with a great variety of pets. With these I spent most of my time, and never was so happy as when feeding and caressing them.” (Poe, paragraph 2).  As he lists the numerous animals he cared for in his adult life, the reader will quickly notice how especially enamored the narrator is with his cat, Pluto.  It is made obvious from the start that his appreciation for his animals is critical to who he is as a person, and that taking care of his pets is an impression of his happiness.  

Later in the text however, it is clear that this parallel between him and his pets is not only a reflection of his desires to care for them, but that it also reflects his state, such that the animals’ conditions will be directly influenced by the condition of the narrator.  This is explained when it is revealed that he developed a drinking problem, to the point where “[his] pets, of course, were made to feel the change in [his] disposition. [He] not only neglected, but ill-used them” (Poe, paragraph 6).  While it is not clear what initially triggered his alcoholism, it is evident that that which he loved most received the brunt of his emotional imbalance that resulted from his alcohol use.  

Going back to Freud’s third lecture, the narrator’s actions seem to line up with the idea of wishful impulse.  His love for animals was something not only a part of him, but important enough to the core of his being that others identified him by that trait alone.  And yet, his actions following his alcoholism seem to express the complete opposite.  This reaches an extreme point when he fully takes it out on Pluto and cuts one of his eyes from the socket (Poe, paragraph 7).  Though he quickly realizes the horror of what he has done, the cat’s subsequent avoidant behavior begins to annoy him, and eventually this makes him angry enough to hang the cat on a tree.  It is arguable that he repressed what initially drove him to abuse the animal out of fear and shame, only for him to impulsively act on it again when the cat’s fear pushed him to a breaking point.  He even states directly that he “hung it because [he] knew that in so doing [he] was committing a sin” (poe, paragraph 9), directly relating his actions to Freud’s definition of wishful impulse.  

Following these events, the narrator’s house burns down mysteriously, and by the only preserved wall lies the cat he hung just the night before.  This image and symbolism seems to terrify the narrator, and this caused him to have a brief shift in his state of mind.  He began to regret the loss of Pluto, and began trying to correct his actions.  He states, “ I went so far as to regret the loss of the animal, and to look about me, among the vile haunts which I now habitually frequented, for another pet of the same species, and of somewhat similar appearance, with which to supply its place” (Poe, paragraph 13).  This feeling, however, doesn’t last for long.  Once he does in fact find such a cat, he very quickly begins to despise it.  That said, he begins to deeply repress the urges to hurt it, given his previous crimes and a fear of this particular cat that he later mentions.  He hides and represses these feelings until once again he is pushed over the edge and attempts to murder this cat.  Nonetheless, he is stopped this time by his wife, whom he married because they shared an interest in animals.  When he is stopped, his rage suddenly shifts focus from his cat to his wife, and he ends up murdering her in cold blood in the midst of his anger. 

This too ties back to Freud.  The narrator clearly must have loved his wife, considering she shared with him the quality of loving animals, which was presented to be something vital to the narrator’s personality or consciousness.  But even though he repressed and resisted his urges to destroy that which he once loved dearly, he ended up destroying everything because he knew it was wrong and immoral, and this fits almost perfectly with Freud’s definitions.  

While the story itself focuses more on the events and the symbolism surrounding the cat, looking at it from a slightly different perspective allows for a connection between Freud and the narrator to be made.  His passion for his pets became meaningless and obsolete when he was unable to resist the frustrations he kept away, and his alcoholism pushed him to act on it impulsively.  Though a dismal story, it fits well as an example of Freud’s ideas.