FLM0543 - Introdução ao Conto - Docente: Laura Patrícia Zuntini de Izarra

Gabriela Oliveira Gaspar de Lima

The black cat, Edgar Allan Poe

1. What is the story about? (Plot)

The story tells about a black cat called Pluto, that was given as a present to a man
from his wife. After that, the man starts to experience awful alterations in his
behavior, even alcoholism. He attributes those changes to the presence of Pluto, and
kills the cat. Later then, he adopts another cat, identical to Pluto, which causes even
worse modifications in his life, and takes him to kill his wife.

2. Main character, setting and time.

The main character is Pluto - the black cat, an animal that is associated to bad luck
and witches - a name that alludes to Hades, the god of underworld. The story is set,
at first, in the couple’s house, and later in a cave, where they start to live after a
burning in their house, which is very meaningful - Pluto, the ancient Greek mythology
god, is also associated to caves. The events comprehend years, since the wife gives
Pluto to the man, until her murder.

3. Issues of instability present in the narrative.

Signals of instability start to appear when Pluto enter the couple’s life and,
apparently, show himself as the cause of the changes in man’s behavior. These
changes become more and more deep and serious, which culminates in the murder
of Pluto by the man. Sequentially, the second cat enters the story and causes the
major instability of the story, what results in the climax of the plot.

4. Climax.
The alterations on man’s mood and conduct, triggered by the second cat, make him
an easily irritable person. Moreover, he starts to nourish perverse thoughts about
everything, and, finally, kills his wife.

5. Conclusion / criticism.
In front of the plot elements given by the narrator, it is possible to conclude that all
the instability in man’s behavior cannot be attributed to the presence of Pluto. Since
the narration is made in first-person, the report is not neutral, therefore the
responsibility of man’s bad conduct could be credited to his own personal and
psychological issues. However, that is only one interpretation possibility, considering
that black cats were had as “witches turned into animals”, in Middle Ages. Because
of that symbolism attached to the black cat, I have chosen this short story. As Poe
says in The Philosophy of Composition, about the poem The Raven: “[...] no one
point in its composition is referable either to accident or intuition.”