PLOT: The Black Cat, by Edgar Allan Poe In this story the narrator who is setting in prison awaiting his execution for the murder of his wife, relates to the reader how he got there, and how it was not thru a normal course of events but due to the supernatural.
He was a man with an even temperament who loved animals, and married a woman with a similar love of animals. They had a large assortment of animals, including a large black cat, which was his favorite.
After some time due to his drinking he became very abusive to his wife and the animals, especially the black cat. He became so enraged at the cat after one of his drinking spells that he plucked out one of its eyes and later hanged it in a tree.
Later he believes that the cat has returned from the dead to kill him.
Illustration for "The Black Cat" by Aubrey Beardsl...
1848 Daguerreotype of Edgar Allan Poe at 39, a yea...
English: Edgar Allan Poe.The cat almost causes him to fall down a steep flight of stairs and he becomes so enraged that he takes an axe and raises it to strike the cat but is stopped by his wife, now even more enraged, because of her interference, he turns the axe on her, and kills her instantly. To hide his crime he buries her inside a wall in the cellar, and mysteriously the cat disappears.
After a few days it is noticed that his wife has not been seen, and the police pay him a visit to inquire about her whereabouts. Searching the house they find nothing and as they turn to leave the cellar, the narrator thinking he has gotten away with the murder, knocks on the wall, the same wall behind where his wife is entombed, to show the police the stoutness of the house, and a low cry...