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The Black Cat

93 statements
17 feature instances
9 referencing feature instances

The Black Cat	type	TVTItem
The Black Cat	label	The Black Cat
The Black Cat	page	TheBlackCat
The Black Cat	comment	"The Black Cat" is one of Edgar Allan Poe's more famous short stories, first published in the August 1843 issue of The Saturday Evening Post.We open the story with our narrator days away from being hanged for the brutal murder of his wife. He explains he doesn't expect us to believe anything we're about to hear from him.The man says he used to be a fond lover of animals. He and his wife used to keep many pets, but his favorite of them all was a friendly black cat named Pluto. The man and his wife live happily and take good care of their animals, until one day the man suddenly turns to the bottle, eventually becoming a violent alcoholic. Coming home one night, he believes Pluto is avoiding him, so he snatches him up. In a panic, Pluto bites the man, who in turn gouges out one of his eyes with a knife.From then on, the cat flees in terror at the sight of his master. Frustrated and angry, the man takes Pluto and hangs him from a tree in the garden. That night, his house mysteriously catches fire, and imprinted on the wall in ash is the image of the cat hung from the tree.Some time later, the man runs across another cat, which is exactly the same size and shape as Pluto (it's even missing an eye), the only difference being this one has a patch of white on its chest. The man takes the cat home with him, but soon grows to hate it. It torments and tries to kill him several times, and the man realizes with horror the white fur is starting to take the shape of the gallows.Enraged, the man takes an axe and tries to kill the creature, but is stopped by his wife, whom he kills instead. He hides her body in the walls of the house. When the police come to investigate, he's more than happy to realize that the cat seems to have vanished. However, right when the police are about to leave, they hear a yowling coming from the walls. Opening it up, they find the wife's body with the cat perched on her head.The man accidentally walled up the cat with his wife.This is one of Poe's more violent stories, a little shocking considering he loved cats himself. It isn't held in as such high regard as some of his more infamous works. Some scholars liken it to a mash-up between The Cask of Amontillado and The Tell-Tale Heart. Nevertheless, it is still respected and admired by readers and teachers alike.The story was adapted for film as one of the segments in Tales of Terror.
The Black Cat	fetched	2024-04-05T02:08:19Z
The Black Cat	parsed	2024-04-05T02:08:19Z
The Black Cat	isPartOf	DBTropes
The Black Cat / int_21c95ce9	type	Anti-Alcohol Aesop
The Black Cat / int_21c95ce9	comment	Anti-Alcohol Aesop: Alcohol addiction turns the narrator from a loving husband and diligent pet owner to a raving, violent drunk.
The Black Cat / int_21c95ce9	featureApplicability	1.0
The Black Cat / int_21c95ce9	featureConfidence	1.0
The Black Cat	hasFeature	The Black Cat / int_21c95ce9
The Black Cat / int_59d7839f	type	Animal Lover
The Black Cat / int_59d7839f	comment	Animal Lover: The narrator and his wife keep a number of pets and take good care of them. Unlike the man, the wife continues to provide her pets with love and respect.
The Black Cat / int_59d7839f	featureApplicability	1.0
The Black Cat / int_59d7839f	featureConfidence	1.0
The Black Cat	hasFeature	The Black Cat / int_59d7839f
The Black Cat / int_62434fe2	type	Sanity Slippage
The Black Cat / int_62434fe2	comment	Sanity Slippage: The narrator is clearly insane; this is made obvious by all the strange hallucinations he has.
The Black Cat / int_62434fe2	featureApplicability	1.0
The Black Cat / int_62434fe2	featureConfidence	1.0
The Black Cat	hasFeature	The Black Cat / int_62434fe2
The Black Cat / int_7eebe99c	type	The Alcoholic
The Black Cat / int_7eebe99c	comment	The Alcoholic: The narrator delights in drinking heavily; most of the story he spends in a cantankerous, foul mood.
The Black Cat / int_7eebe99c	featureApplicability	1.0
The Black Cat / int_7eebe99c	featureConfidence	1.0
The Black Cat	hasFeature	The Black Cat / int_7eebe99c
The Black Cat / int_82518cf7	type	Motor Mouth
The Black Cat / int_82518cf7	comment	Motor Mouth: The narrator becomes very talkative out of relief when the police fail to find anything to indicate his guilt, which leads to his downfall when he knocks on the wall while talking about how solid the house is and disturbs the cat.
The Black Cat / int_82518cf7	featureApplicability	1.0
The Black Cat / int_82518cf7	featureConfidence	1.0
The Black Cat	hasFeature	The Black Cat / int_82518cf7
The Black Cat / int_898ff050	type	Villain Protagonist
The Black Cat / int_898ff050	comment	Villain Protagonist: Our narrator is not only an alcoholic, he kills Pluto, abuses and murders his wife, and treats whoever is reading his story with condescension.
The Black Cat / int_898ff050	featureApplicability	1.0
The Black Cat / int_898ff050	featureConfidence	1.0
The Black Cat	hasFeature	The Black Cat / int_898ff050
The Black Cat / int_a2b38d3b	type	Eye Scream
The Black Cat / int_a2b38d3b	comment	Eye Scream: Poor Pluto! His eye gets gouged out with a penknife.
The Black Cat / int_a2b38d3b	featureApplicability	1.0
The Black Cat / int_a2b38d3b	featureConfidence	1.0
The Black Cat	hasFeature	The Black Cat / int_a2b38d3b
The Black Cat / int_a5e77a67	type	The Cat Came Back
The Black Cat / int_a5e77a67	comment	The Cat Came Back: Played With. It's never explicitly stated whether the new cat is Pluto come back to life, a ghost, or just a similar looking cat that happens to show up. Nevertheless, the narrator thinks it knows everything about what the narrator did and it is at least very similar to Pluto.
The Black Cat / int_a5e77a67	featureApplicability	1.0
The Black Cat / int_a5e77a67	featureConfidence	1.0
The Black Cat	hasFeature	The Black Cat / int_a5e77a67
The Black Cat / int_ad902899	type	Constructive Body Disposal
The Black Cat / int_ad902899	comment	Constructive Body Disposal: The narrator, becoming a violent alcoholic, kills his pet cat, Pluto. After some time, he brings home another, similar-looking, cat, and begins to hate it. When it nearly trips him as he goes into the cellar, he tries to kill it with an axe, and his wife gets the axe in her head when she tries to stop him. To keep anyone from finding out, he buries her body behind a brick wall. As in The Tell-Tale Heart, some police come to visit, and the narrator is at first sure he's home free. Then he knocks on the wall while rambling about how well-built the house is, and a wail from behind the wall causes the police to tear it down — he had accidentally entombed the cat while burying his wife's body.
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The Black Cat / int_ad902899	featureConfidence	1.0
The Black Cat	hasFeature	The Black Cat / int_ad902899
The Black Cat / int_adfd3165	type	For the Evulz
The Black Cat / int_adfd3165	comment	For the Evulz: The narrator kills Pluto, as he explains, for no other reason than knowing that it was wrong to do so.
The Black Cat / int_adfd3165	featureApplicability	1.0
The Black Cat / int_adfd3165	featureConfidence	1.0
The Black Cat	hasFeature	The Black Cat / int_adfd3165
The Black Cat / int_be3f482a	type	Inside a Wall
The Black Cat / int_be3f482a	comment	Inside a Wall: After the narrator murders his wife, he hides her body in a wall in his house. However, when the police are investigating, they hear yowling from inside the wall and open it up to find that the narrator's cat had been walled in with the carcass and is sitting on the head, meowing loudly.
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The Black Cat / int_be3f482a	featureConfidence	1.0
The Black Cat	hasFeature	The Black Cat / int_be3f482a
The Black Cat / int_ca87e3ec	type	No Name Given
The Black Cat / int_ca87e3ec	comment	No Name Given: The names of the narrator and his wife are not revealed. The only one in the story with a name is Pluto the cat.
The Black Cat / int_ca87e3ec	featureApplicability	1.0
The Black Cat / int_ca87e3ec	featureConfidence	1.0
The Black Cat	hasFeature	The Black Cat / int_ca87e3ec
The Black Cat / int_cb70651c	type	Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane
The Black Cat / int_cb70651c	comment	Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It's entirely possible that the new cat really is just a new cat and the narrator is just imagining all the similarities it has to Pluto.
The Black Cat / int_cb70651c	featureApplicability	1.0
The Black Cat / int_cb70651c	featureConfidence	1.0
The Black Cat	hasFeature	The Black Cat / int_cb70651c
The Black Cat / int_d2102da0	type	Bad People Abuse Animals
The Black Cat / int_d2102da0	comment	Bad People Abuse Animals: The narrator's violent behavior towards both Pluto and the new cat is cruel and unusual indeed.
The Black Cat / int_d2102da0	featureApplicability	1.0
The Black Cat / int_d2102da0	featureConfidence	1.0
The Black Cat	hasFeature	The Black Cat / int_d2102da0
The Black Cat / int_ed371675	type	Til Murder Do Us Part
The Black Cat / int_ed371675	comment	Til Murder Do Us Part: The narrator ends up murdering his wife with an axe.
The Black Cat / int_ed371675	featureApplicability	1.0
The Black Cat / int_ed371675	featureConfidence	1.0
The Black Cat	hasFeature	The Black Cat / int_ed371675
The Black Cat / int_f8f71b5f	type	Buried Alive
The Black Cat / int_f8f71b5f	comment	Buried Alive: The narrator ends up murdering his wife and "buries" her in the basement wall. When the police inspect his house, they're led to the tomb by the cat's screams, the narrator having buried it alive with her without noticing it.
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The Black Cat / int_name	type	ItemName
The Black Cat / int_name	comment
The Black Cat / int_name	featureApplicability	1.0
The Black Cat / int_name	featureConfidence	1.0
The Black Cat	hasFeature	The Black Cat / int_name
The Black Cat / int_name	itemName	The Black Cat

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

The Black Cat	hasFeature	American Literature (# to D) / int_4edff6bb
The Black Cat	hasFeature	Buried Alive / int_4edff6bb
The Black Cat	hasFeature	Constructive Body Disposal / int_4edff6bb
The Black Cat	hasFeature	Dead Man's Chest / int_4edff6bb
The Black Cat	hasFeature	Disposing of a Body / int_4edff6bb
The Black Cat	hasFeature	Feline Fiction / int_4edff6bb
The Black Cat	hasFeature	Inside a Wall / int_4edff6bb
The Black Cat	hasFeature	Public Domain Character / int_4edff6bb
The Black Cat	hasFeature	Short Story / int_4edff6bb

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