The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe (Book Analysis)

This practical and insightful reading guide offers a complete summary and analysis of The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe. It provides a thorough exploration of the short story’s plot, characters and main themes, as well as a useful discussion of the unreliable narrator in fiction and Poe’s use of black humor. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time.

This clear and detailed 52-page reading guide is structured as follows:

• Biography of Edgar Allan Poe
• Presentation of The Black Cat
• Summary of The Black Cat
• Character study
  • The Narrator
  • The Wife
  • The Black Cat
• Analysis of The Black Cat
  • Truth vs madness : the unreliable narrator
  • The symbolism of the black cat
  • Irony and black humor

About The Black Cat 

Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Black Cat was first published in 1843, and remains one of his best-known works today. Like many of Poe’s other works, it sketches a troubling psychological portrait of an unnamed narrator, who develops an obsessive and irrational fear of his cat, eventually gouging its eye out in a drunken rage and murdering it shortly thereafter. However, he soon replaces the original cat with a second, and his paranoia only grows, fed by guilt, until he commits a second murder – of which his wife is the victim.

About Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, editor and critic who was best known for his poetry and short stories. He was born in 1809, and his parents died when he was young. Unable to support himself as an adult, he enlisted in the army, during which time he released his first work as a writer. He decided to make literature his career after the death of his brother and, although he suffered numerous setbacks and humiliations, he eventually found relative success. After his wife died, Poe became somewhat unhinged and was eventually found delirious on the streets of Baltimore. He died soon after.