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How does alcohol affect the narrator?
The narrator’s alcoholism changes his personality completely, leading him to hurt the people and animals he loves. From the way the narrator describes his married life at the beginning of the story, it seems that he and his wife had a truly happy marriage, with both of them adoring animals. But the alcohol makes the narrator both violent and angry, forcing him to lash out. Furthermore, alcohol appears to lower his inhibitions, leading the narrator to give into his sense of perversity and do things because he knows they’re wrong.
Why does the narrator kill Pluto?
The narrator’s murder of Pluto is a complex psychological act of guilt and self-hatred. The narrator claims he kills Pluto out of perversity, or his soul desiring “to vex itself,” damn itself. He also says it’s because he loves Pluto. As the narrator’s once most faithful companion, Pluto’s avoidance of the narrator signals to him just how much he’s deteriorated, making him both sad and angry. With his inhibitions lowered by alcohol and his empathy diminished, the narrator responds to this deterioration almost with acceptance, as if killing Pluto reflects how he feels inside.
Is the second black cat Pluto?
It’s unclear whether the second black cat is Pluto back from the dead or a cat whose similarities to Pluto are magnified by the narrator’s impaired mind. In a supernatural reading of the story, Pluto returns to torment the narrator with his unacknowledged guilt. The physical similarities, the white noose, and that the cat follows the narrator home all support this reading. However, it’s also possible to read the similarities between the two cats as coincidence. In this reading, the narrator seeing a cat he believes is Pluto act with unconditional loyalty overwhelms him with guilt, making him strike out.
What happens to the white spot on the second black cat?
Over time, the cat’s white spot appears to change shape and look more like a gallows. However, it’s unclear whether this truly happens within the story or only happens in the narrator’s mind. The mark appearing like a gallows both serves as a reminder to the narrator of how he killed Pluto, but also the punishment for murderers, foreshadowing his own fate. If the narrator hallucinates the change, we can infer that he sees a gallows there out of his own guilt. If the change is supernatural, the cat serves as a warning of impending justice.
Why does the narrator kill his wife?
The narrator kills his wife for protecting the second black cat. The narrator describes himself as enraged by the “interference,” upset that someone has tried to interfere with his violent whims. At this point in the story, the narrator’s alcoholism appears to have made him both impulsively perverse and furious when prevented from acting on impulse. There’s also a possibility that he perceives his wife’s interference as choosing loyalty to the cat over him. The narrator earlier talks about animals being more steadfast than humans, suggesting that he might see his wife’s action as a kind of betrayal.
