How Does The Narrator Change In The Black Cat

In Edgar Allen Poe’s story "The Black Cat," the unnamed narrator is a depraved man who succumbed to the poisonous kiss of alcoholism, which in turn caused a kind of psychopathy. He confesses his crimes to the reader in writing, not out of guilt but rather simply to relieve his soul from the weight of his actions. It is evident that his only regret for committing murder was getting caught. He displays irrationality, impulsivity, and a lack of remorse throughout the story. This character notes his change from a compassionate and benevolent child to a cruel and barbaric adult. The narrator acknowledges his alcoholism as expressed in the following quote: "But my disease grew upon me—for what disease is like Alcohol!" (Poe 182) and attributes a

Though he claims to be sane and rational, his actions prove to be awfully contradictory. Despite noting his purity and docility by nature and an early love and respect for animals, he ultimately ends up mercilessly killing his pet cat and his wife. He attributes his personality change to alcoholism, mentioning that soon after taking up drinking he "grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others." (Poe 182) By the time he killed his beloved cat, Pluto, he had already been verbally and physically abusing his wife and other animals. His temper was short, and he was constantly under the influence of alcohol. He seems to place the blame for his ruthless actions on the cats or the alcohol, but he never looks within to find the fault within

His mind is immediately flooded with ideas on how to hide her deceased body. He shows no remorse at all for this horrific event. He settled on what he found to be the perfect hiding place for his lover’s dead body, hid her there, and breathed a sigh of relief. He had full intentions to kill the cat as well, but it was nowhere to be found. That night, instead of being haunted by his actions, he sleeps soundly, for what he says is the first time since they brought home the new cat. By this point in the story, he has lost all sense of humanity. He states that "The guilt of my dark deed disturbed me but little." (Poe 187) When the police came to investigate and found nothing, the narrator thought he was going to get away with the murder of his wife. He is beyond elated at this fact, and he confirms this by saying, "The glee at my heart was too strong to be restrained." (Poe 187) This causes him to become overly confident, which in the end leads to the police discovering his wife’s body after