“In speaking of his intelligence, my wife, who at heart was not a little tinctured with superstition, made frequent allusion to the ancient popular notion, which regarded all black cats as witches in disguise.” Narrator Then again, Poe's point might just be a very human kind of horror: Who knows what evil actually lurks in the heart of the most docile of men? The transformation from inherent benevolence to a character of pure malevolence would, according to this view, require some sort of devastating neurological event. Some behavioral psychologists caution that things like character and disposition are inherent attributes that can only be altered only in the most cosmetic and usually temporary of ways, remaining resistant to a comprehensive turnabout even when subjected to the most extreme forms of behavior modification. In light of events to be described very shortly, this verbal self-portrait is dubious at best. “From my infancy I was noted for the docility and humanity of my disposition.” Narrator That mastery is given one of its finest exhibitions in 'The Black Cat.' Edgar Allan Poe remains the sublime master of the first-person tale of terror told by an unreliable narrator. Under such intensely emotional circumstances, who on earth could possibly retain the state of mind necessary to relate such a horrific tale in such a controlled manner without absolutely aching for the reader or listener to believe him? The opening line of this story is a bright shining light spelling out words in the sky: DO NOT BELIEVE EVERYTHING THIS GUY IS ABOUT TO SAY.

In the first place, if the events of the story are to be believed at all, there is only one conceptual setting from which the first-person narration of those events could logically originate: in the custody of the judicial system somewhere between being arrested for murder and being executed for that murder. “For the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief.” Narratorįrom the moment the story begins, the reader has reason to be skeptical of the narrator.

The black cat poe