The Black Cat: Reading Questions

Answer on a separate sheet of paper, in complete sentences . Be specific and use details
from the story. REMEMBER TO ACE—answer, cite, explain.

1. How is the opening paragraph of The Black Cat similar to that of The Tell Tale
Heart?

2. Where is the narrator as he tells his story?

3. What was the narrator like as a child? As a young

married man? What was his wife like?

4. Describe the narrator’s relationship with Pluto.

5. What causes the relationship to change? How

does it change?

6. What does he do to Pluto? Why?

7. Explain what the narrator means by the “spirit of Perverseness.”

8. Why does he finally hang Pluto?

9. How does he FEEL about hanging the cat?

10. What apparition appears on the bedroom wall after the fire? How does the narrator
“explain” its appearance?

11. Compare the second cat with Pluto. How were they alike? How were they different?

12. Why does he begin to dislike the second cat? Why does he not kill it, too?

13. Describe the events that lead up to the murder of his wife.

14. What things does he consider doing with her body? What is his final solution?

15. What is the narrator’s mood after he kills his wife? How does he behave? What is his
greatest feeling? Why?
16. How does the narrator behave with the police who do the final search? How does he
contribute to his own capture?