The Black Cat

The Black Cat is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe and published in 1843. Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor and literary critic and is considered part of the American Romantic Movement. He was one of the first well-known short novels writers. He is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. Many of his stories are part of the science-fiction and fantastic genre. The Black Cat is about a man who loved animals when he was young. However he gradually changed his mind into a real rage towards animals as he became alcoholic. He first ill-treated his animals but not Pluto, his cat. Then one night he comes back from a pub or something like that, drunk, he believes the cat is avoiding him. When he tries to seize it, the panicked cat bites the narrator, and in a fit of rage, he seizes the animal, pulls a pen-knife from his pocket and deliberately gouges out the cat's eye. Then he killed the cat and his wife but finally get caught by the police. This dramatic story makes us thinking how Edgar Allan Poe join his esthetic in this short story to the gothic genre. In order to answer this question we are going to developp two important points : a psychoanalytic reading explaining how frustrated is the main character, and how the cat symbolizes the consciousness of the character. And the other point is about the macabre point of view : the horror of the story and the fantastic atmosphere in it.

I/ A Psychoanalytic Reading

A/ Frustration

Frustration could be the word that could explain lots of things about the story. But what is frustration? Frustration is an emotional response to circumstances where one is obstructed from arriving at a personal goal. We do not know enough about the characters, their life and occupations but we could easily understand that the male character is frustrated. Something may had turned bad in his life and violence begins immediately. Sources of