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Violence
“The Black Cat” is full of sudden violent acts that highlight the narrator’s psychological decline and emphasize the destructive power of alcohol. Within the span of three sentences, the narrator describes how he goes from being verbally abusive to physically abusive. This description uses as vague language as possible, as if the narrator is attempting to downplay his actions even as he confesses them. This vagueness suddenly becomes graphic and the narrator describes cutting out Pluto’s eye, and from there only a short reprieve before hanging him. The pause between Pluto’s murder and the final, gruesome murder of the narrator’s wife only builds tension and suspense as we see the narrator’s speech become more erratic as he wrestles with the guilt the second black cat makes him feel. With each violent act, the narrator becomes less outwardly remorseful and loses more of the trappings of his previously happy home, first losing his other pets, then Pluto, then his wife.
Unexplained or Supernatural Occurrences
Many of the events of “The Black Cat” seem inexplicable or even supernatural, making it difficult to know what is real. The inexplicable nature of these events escalates with the narrator’s mental decline because they reveal the nature of the narrator’s deeds. The narrator first evokes the possibility of the supernatural by bringing up his wife’s joke about Pluto being a witch’s cat. Next, the bas relief of Pluto appears on the burnt-out wall, exposing his crime. Although the narrator has a plausible explanation for this strange image, its appearance is extremely unsettling. Next, the second black cat, who looks exactly like Pluto down to the missing eye, appears and instantly attaches himself to the narrator. Once again, this event is not impossible, but it’s certainly coincidental enough to seem potentially supernatural. Whether the cat is Pluto from beyond the grave or a doppelganger, his appearance reminds the narrator that he so violently discarded Pluto. Finally, the black cat’s single white spot begins to transform into the shape of a gallows, once again visually revealing the narrator’s crime. The narrator can imagine no worldly explanation for this, and it torments him until he attempts to kill the cat.
