Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809 and dies on October 7, 1849 (Britannica, 2000). Despite his relative youth, in the history of writers one would be hard pressed to leave Poe’s name out of consideration on any top ten list. Including novels, poetry, short stories, reviews, and a host of other literary creations, Poe’s works are generally regarded as the work of literary genius. Despite this prodigious talent, Poe’s works often revolve around the macabre, sinister aspects of human nature. In The Black Cat, we follow Poe’s first-person narrator from being known for his “docility and humanity of...disposition, his tenderness of heart” and his fondness for animals, to a man whose drunkenness spurs the mutilation and murder of his cat as well as the violent murder of his wife (Poe 849). As we follow Poe’s first-person narrator, we plainly see that his descent into insanity is caused not so much by his alcoholism or his increasing superstition but is merely the impulsive action of the dark side of human nature inherent in all humans.
The narration of The Black Cat is mainly told in flashback in the first-person. Because of this the story takes place in the past but we must rely upon the narration of an alcoholic to provide us with a depiction of the past. As such, the environment of the story takes place in a suspect manner for it begs the question: Can we trust the narrative of a self-admitted alcoholic? So, too, the narrator’s own mind is in such a state that he continually questions himself and is not certain of his own explanations. The entire story is akin to a dream-like state wherein things seem real but may not be. As Bloch argues, such a dream-like state symbolizes the duality within human nature with respect to the capacity for good and the capacity for evil: “The typical story within the mind of a poet; and its characters are not independent personalities, but allegorical figures represent...