Examples Of Insanity In The Black Cat

Many of Poe’s greatest works have left the readers inquiring about the sanity of the narrator. One of those works would be “The Black Cat”, among others. The narrator’s actions in the book bring about many questions and speculations. It is unmistakable that the narrator’s actions in “The Black Cat” show that the narrator’s insanity. There are multiple instances in “The Black Cat” that shows the mental sanity of the narrator. To begin, the narrator states how he loves animals and that he has always had a love for them since he was a little boy. However, the narrator starts to abuse the animals that are so dear to him. Additionally, he physically abuses his wife. As it states in the text, “ I suffered myself to use intemperate language to my wife. At length, I even offered her personal violence.” Although the narrator is abusive doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s insane,

The narrator started to brag about how greatly constructed his walls were. He began to tap on the walls and drew attention to them. The narrator couldn’t just let his actions go unseen; he had to show off his “marvelous work”. As it states in the text, “ I may say an excellently well constructed house. These walls-- are you going, gentlemen?-- these walls are solidly put together.” This need for attention and fulfillment of his ego not only further emphasizes that he’s a sociopath, but he’s a narcissistic sociopath. The narrator self incriminated himself at the expense of his freedom. As it states in the text, “Having carefully deposited the body against the inner wall, I propped it in that position, while, with little trouble, I re-laid the whole structure as it originally stood.” This quote shows how the narrator thought of the plan to wall up his wife as a task that he had to do, not as a horrific method to hide his wife’s corpse. This contributes to the insanity of the