The Rise of the Underworld - Felines, Mythology and Psychology in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Black Cat

Abstract

The narrator in The Black Cat tells the story which leads him to the gallows. The unreliable tale depictures the morbid details of violence and murder, hauntings and terror. At the centre of the story is the cat which suffers from the narrator’s paranoia and alcohol abuse. The duality of good and evil, reason and instinct shifts back and forth between man and animal as the narrator unravels the chain of events which caused his concealed disposition to be revealed. By referencing to superstition and the uncanny, the narrator describes the cat as a creature of magical powers and ability to control and affect his actions and deeds. The “resurrection” of the cat adds further elements of mystique and brings the story beyond the realm of the living. The narrator’s decayed mind creates a hell in which he projects responsibility and guilt onto the cat. With this essay I will propose a broader analysis of the cat as a symbol for mythological deities such as Hel, Odin and Bast. Their characteristics offer a figurative description of the cat as victim, judge and executioner.