The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe

"I experienced a sentiment half of horror, half of remorse, for the crime of which I had been guilty; but ... the soul remained untouched."

Who among us hasn't had a moment where we act before we think? Whether it's an impulse to hug or an impulse to yell, the mystery lies in whether the regret that  follows impulsive actions, is enough to drive change. In this Edgar Alan Poe tale, narrator Rae Wilson invites us to explore that very question.

Read the Story

No Way Out - by David Robson

"Sneaky Snitch" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Transcript

[00:01-00:30]

Welcome to Echoes in the Dark, a podcast dedicated to the oral tradition of storytelling. If you're looking to enjoy more classic literature, struggle to find the time to read, hate reading, or just love listening to stories, then this podcast is for you. The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe was originally published in August, in the Saturday Evening Post.

[00:30-01:02]

Now, this gothic tale is told in first-person narration, and there's some wonderful foreshadowing that we'll get into later after the story. If you'd like to follow along, you can get a free copy of this work on my website, betteressaywriting.com. The Black Cat by Edgar For the most wild yet homely narrative which I'm about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief.

[01:02-01:23]

Mad indeed would I be to expect it in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. Yet, mad am I not, and very surely do I not dream? But tomorrow I die, and today I would unburden my soul.

[01:23-01:54]

My immediate purpose is to place before the world, plainly, simply, and without comment, a series of mere household events. in their consequences these events have terrified have tortured have destroyed me yet i will attempt to expound them to me they have presented little but horror To many, they will seem less terrible than baroques.

[01:55-02:19]

Hereafter, perhaps, some intellect may be found which will reduce my phantasm to the commonplace, some intellect more calm, more logical, and far less excitable than my own, which will perceive, in the circumstances I detail with awe, nothing more than an ordinary succession of very natural causes and effects.

[02:19-03:00]

From my infancy, I was noted for the docility and humanity of my disposition. My tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make me the jest of my companions. I was especially fond of animals and was indulged by my parents with a great variety With these, I spent most of my time and never was so happy as when feeding and caressing them. This peculiarity of character grew with my growth, and in my manhood I derived from it one of my principal sources of pleasure.

[03:00-03:39]

To those who have cherished an affection for a faithful and sagacious dog, I need hardly be at the trouble of explaining the nature of the intensity of the gratification thus derivable. there is something in the unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a brute which goes directly to the heart of him who has had frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere man I married early and was happy to find in my wife a disposition not uncongenial with my own.

[03:39-04:07]

Observing my partiality for domestic pets, she lost no opportunity of procuring those of the most agreeable kind. We had birds, goldfish, a fine dog, rabbits, a small monkey, and a cat. This latter was a remarkably large and beautiful animal, entirely black and sagacious to an astonishing degree.

[04:07-04:35]

In speaking of his intelligence, my wife, who at heart was not a little tinctured with superstition, made frequent allusions to the ancient popular notion which regarded all black cats as witches in disguise. Not that she was ever serious upon this point, and I mentioned the matter at all for no better reason than that it happened, just now to be remembered.

[04:35-04:55]

Pluto, this was the cat's name, was my favorite pet and playmate. I alone fed him, and he attended me whenever I went about the house. It was even with difficulty that I could prevent him from following me through the streets.

[04:55-05:23]

Our friendship lasted in this manner for several years, during which my general temperament and character, through the instrumentality of the fiend Interperance, had, I blush to confess it, experienced a radical alteration for the worse. I grew day by day more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others.

[05:23-05:43]

I suffered myself to use intemperate language to my wife. At length, I even offered her personal violence. My pets, of course, were made to feel the change in my disposition. I not only neglect it, but ill-use them.

[05:43-06:08]

For Pluto, however, I still retain sufficient regard to restrain me from maltreating him, as I made no scruple of maltreating the rabbits, the monkey, or even the dog, when by accident or through affection they came in my way. But my disease grew upon me for what disease is like alcohol.

[06:09-06:42]

And at length, even Pluto, who was now becoming old and consequently somewhat peevish, even Pluto began to experience the effects of my ill temper. One night, returning home much intoxicated from one of my haunts about town, I fancied that the cat avoided my presence. I seized him when, in his fright at my violence, he inflicted a slight wound upon my hand with his teeth.

[06:42-07:03]

The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My original soul seemed at once to take its flight from my body. gin-nurtured, thrilled every fiber of my frame.

[07:03-07:39]

I took from my waistcoat pocket a penknife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket. I blush, I burn, I shudder while I pin this hellish atrocity. When reason returned with the morning, when I had slept off the fumes of a night's debauch, I experienced a sentiment half of horror, half of remorse for the crime of which I had been guilty.

[07:39-07:58]

But it was at best a feeble and equivocal feeling, and the soul remained untouched. I again plunged into excess, and soon drowned in wine all memory of the deed. In the meantime, the cat slowly recovered.

[07:58-08:41]

The socket of the lost eye presented, it is true, a frightful appearance, but he no longer appeared to suffer any pain. He went about the house as usual, but, as might be expected, fled in extreme terror at my approach. i had so much of my old heart left as to be at first grieved by this evident dislike on the part of a creature which had once so loved me This feeling soon gave place to irration, and then came, as if to my final and irrevocable overthrow, the spirit of perverseness.

[08:41-09:32]

Of this spirit, philosophy take no account, yet I am not more sure that my soul lives than I am that the perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart. one of the indivisible primary faculties or sentiments which give direction to the character of man. who has not a hundred times found himself committing a foul or a silly action for no other reason than because he knows he should not, have we not our perpetual inclination and the teeth of our best judgment to violate that which is law merely because we understand it to be such?

[09:32-10:04]

This spirit of perverseness, I say, came to my final overthrow. It was this unfathomable longing of the soul to vex itself, to offer violence to its own nature, to do wrong for the wrong's sake only. That urged me to continue, and finally to consummate the injury I had inflicted upon the unoffending brute.

[10:04-11:05]

One morning, in cool blood, I slipped a noose round its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree. a deadly sin that would so jeopardize my immortal soul as to place it, if such a thing were possible, even beyond the reach of the infinite mercy of the most merciful and most terrible God.

[11:05-11:35]

On the night of the day on which this cruel deed was done, I was aroused from sleep by the cry of fire. The curtains of my bed were in flames. The whole house was blazing. It was with great difficulty that my wife, a servant, and myself made our escape from the conflagration. The destruction was complete. My entire worldly wealth was swallowed up, and I resigned myself thenceforth to despair.

[11:35-11:57]

I am above the weakness of seeking to establish a sequence of cause and effect between the disaster and the atrocity, but I am detailing a chain of facts and wish not to leave even a possible link in purpose. On the day succeeding the fire, I visited the ruins.

[11:57-12:27]

The walls, with one exception, had fallen in. This exception was found in a compartment wall, not very thick, which stood about the middle of the house and against which had rested the head of my bed. The plastering had here, in great measure, resisted action of the fire, a fact which I attributed to its having been recently spread.

[12:27-13:02]

About this wall a dense crowd were collected, and many persons seemed to be examining a particular portion of it with very minute and eager attention. The words, strange, singular, and other similar expressions excited my curiosity. I approached and saw, as if graven in bas-relief upon the white surface, the figure of a gigantic cat.

[13:02-13:34]

The impression was given with an accuracy truly marvelous. There was a rope about the animal's neck. When I first beheld this apparition, for I could scarcely regard it as less, my wonder and my terror were extreme, but at length reflection came to my aid. The cat, I remembered, had been hung at a garden adjacent to the house.

[13:34-13:56]

Upon the alarm of fire, this garden had been immediately filled by the crowd. By some, one of whom the animal must have been cut from the tree and thrown through an open window into my chamber. This had probably been done with the view of arousing me from sleep.

[13:56-14:12]

The failing of the other walls had compressed the victim of my cruelty into the substance of the freshly plastered, the lime of which, with the flames and the ammonia from the carcass, had then accomplished the portiture as I saw it.

[14:12-14:57]

although i thus readily accounted to my reason if not altogether to my conscience for the starling fact just detailed it did not the less fail to make the phantasm of the cat and during this period there came back into my sprint a half sentiment that seemed but was not remorse. I went so far as to regret the loss of the animal and to look about me among the vile haunts which I now habitually frequented for another pet of the same species and of somewhat similar appearance with which to supply its place.

[14:57-15:46]

One night, as I sat half stupefied in a den of more than infamy, my attention was suddenly drawn to some black object reposing upon the head of one of the immense hogsheads of gin or rum, which constituted the chief furniture of the apartment. i had been looking steadily at the top of this hogshead for some minutes and what now caused me surprise was the fact that i had not sooner perceived the object thereupon i approached it and touched it with my hand It was a black cat, a very large one, fully as large as Pluto, and closely resembling him in every respect but one.

[15:46-16:31]

Pluto had not a white hair upon any portion of his body, but this cat had a large, although indefinite, splotch of white covering nearly the whole region of the breast. upon my touching him he immediately arose purred loudly rubbed against my hand and appeared delighted with my notice this then was the very creature of which i was in search i at once offered to purchase it off the landlord but this person made no claim to it knew nothing of it had never seen it before I continued my caresses, and when I prepared to go home, the animal evinced a disposition to accompany me.

[16:31-16:52]

I permitted it to do so, occasionally stooping and patting it as I proceeded. When it reached the house, it domesticated itself at once and became immediately a great favorite with my wife. For my own part, I soon found a dislike to it arising within me.

[16:53-17:27]

This was just the reverse of what I had anticipated. Ah, but I know not how or why it was. Its evident fondness for myself rather disgusted and annoyed. By slow degrees, these feelings of disgust and annoyance rose into the bitterness of hatred. I avoided the creature, a certain sense of shame and the remembrance of my former deed of cruelty preventing me from physically abusing it. I did not for some week strike or otherwise violently ill use it.

[17:27-17:58]

But gradually, very gradually, I came to look upon it with unutterable loathing and to flee silently from its odious presence as from the breath of a pestilence. What added, no doubt, to my hatred of the beast was his discovery on the morning after I brought it home that, like Pluto, it also had been deprived of one of its eyes.

[17:58-18:24]

This circumstance, however, only endeared it to my wife who, as I have already said, possessed in a high degree that humanity of feeling which had once been my distinguishing trait and the source of many of my simplest and purest pleasures. With my aversion to this cat, however, its partiality for myself seemed to increase.

[18:24-19:14]

It followed my footsteps with a pertinacity which it would be difficult to make the reader comprehend. Whenever I sat, it would crouch beneath my chair or spring upon my knees, covering me with its loathsome caresses. If I arose to walk, it would get between my feet and thus nearly throw me down or fascinate its long and sharp claws in my dress clamber in this manner to my breast at such times although i long to destroy it with a blow i was yet withheld from so doing partly by a memory of my former crime But chiefly, let me confess it at once, by absolute dread of the beast.

[19:14-19:43]

This dread was not exactly a dread of physical evil, and yet I should be at a loss how otherwise to define it. I am almost ashamed to own, yes, even in this felon's cell, I am almost ashamed to own that the terror and horror with which the animal inspired me had been heightened by one of the nearest chimeras it would be possible to conceive.

[19:43-20:20]

My wife had called my attention more than once to the character of the mark of the white hair of which I have spoken and which constituted the sole visible difference between the strange beast and the one I had destroyed. the reader will remember that this mark although large had been originally very indefinite but by slow degrees degrees nearly imperceptible and for which a long time my reason struggled to reject as fanciful It had, at length, assumed a rigorous distinctness of outline.

[20:20-21:03]

It was now the representation of an object that I shudder to name. And for this, above all, I loathed and dreaded and would have rid myself of the monster had I dared. It was now, I say, the image of a hideous, of a ghastly thing. of the gallows oh mournful and terrible engine of horror and of crime of agony and of death And now, was I indeed wretched beyond the wretchedness of mere humanity, and a brute beast whose fellow I had contemptuously destroyed?

[21:03-21:47]

A brute beast who worked out for me, for me a man fashioned in the image of the High God, so much of insufferable woe. Alas, neither by day nor by night knew I was the blessing of rest any more. During the former, the creature left me no moment alone, and in the latter, I started hourly from dreams of unutterable fear to find the hot breath of the thing upon my face and its vast weight, an incarnate nightmare that I had no power to shake off, incumbent eternally upon my heart.

[21:47-22:20]

Beneath the pressure of torments such as these, the feeble remnant of the good within me succumbed. Evil thoughts became my sole intimates. The darkest and most evil of thoughts, the moodiest of my usual temper increased to hatred of all beings and of all mankind while from the sudden frequent an ungovernable outburst of a fury to which I now blindly abandoned myself.

[22:20-22:46]

My uncomplaining wife, alas, was the most usual and the most patient of sufferers. One day she accompanied me, upon some household errand, into the cellar of the old building which our poverty compelled us to inhabit. The cat followed me down the steep steps.

[22:46-23:09]

and nearly throwing me headlong, exasperated me to madness, uplifted in acts and forgetting in my wrath the childish dread which had hitherto stayed my hand. I aimed a blow at the animal, which, of course, would have proved instantly fatal had it descended as I wished. But this blow was arrested by the hand of my wife.

[23:09-23:34]

Goaded by the interference into a rage more demonical, I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot without a growl. This hideous murder accomplished. I set myself forthwith and with entire deliberation to the task of concealing the body.

[23:34-23:57]

I knew that I could not remove it from the house either by day or by night without the risk of being observed by the neighbors. Many projects entered my mind. At one period, I thought of cutting the corpse into minute fragments and destroying them by fire. At another, I resolved to dig a grave for it in the floor of the cellar.

[23:57-24:22]

Again, I deliberated about casting it in the well in the yard, about packing it in a box as if merchandise with the usual arrangements. And so getting a porter to take it from the house. Finally, I hit upon what I considered a far better expedient than any of these.

[24:22-24:59]

I determined to wall it up in the cellar as the monks of the Middle Ages are recorded to have walled up their victims. For a purpose such as this cellar was well adapted. Its walls were loosely constructed and had lately been plastered throughout with a rough plaster, which the dampness of the atmosphere had prevented from hardening. Moreover, in one of the walls was a projection caused by a false chimney or fireplace that had been filled up and made to resemble the rest of the cellar.

[24:59-25:20]

I made no doubt that I could readily displace the bricks. At this point, insert the corpse and wall the whole wall up as before, so that no eye could detect anything suspicious. And in this calculation, I was not deceived.

[25:20-25:36]

By means of a crowbar, I easily dislodged the bricks and, having carefully deposited the body against the inner wall, I propped it in that position while, with little trouble, I relayed the whole structure as it originally stood.

[25:36-26:00]

having procured mortar sand and hair with every possible precaution I prepared a plaster which could not be distinguished from the old and with this I very carefully went over the new brickwork then When I had finished, I felt satisfied that all was right. The wall did not present the slightest appearance of having been disturbed.

[26:01-26:30]

The rubbish on the floor was picked up with the minutest care. I looked around triumphantly and said to myself, here, at least, then my labor has not been in vain. My next step was to look for the beast which had been the cause of so much wretchedness, for I had at length firmly resolved to put it to death. Had I been able to meet with it at that moment, there could have been no doubt of its fate.

[26:30-27:03]

But it appeared that the crafty animal had been alarmed at the violence of my previous anger and for war to present itself in my present mood." It's impossible to describe or to imagine the deep, the blissful sense of relief which the absence of the detested creature occasioned in my bosom. It did not make its appearance during the night, and thus for one night at least, since its introduction into the house, I soundly and tranquilly slept.

[27:04-27:33]

I slept even with the burden of murder upon my soul. The second and the third day passed, and still my tormentor came not. Once again I breathed as a free man. The monster and his terror had fled the premises forever. I should behold it no more. My happiness was supreme. The guilt of my dark deed disturbed me but little.

[27:33-28:10]

Some few inquiries had been made, but these had been readily answered. Even a search had been instituted, but of course nothing was to be discovered. I looked upon my future felicity as secured. upon the 4th day of the assassination a party of the police came very unexpectedly into the house and proceeded again to make rigorous investigations of the premises secure however in the inscrutability of my place of concealment i felt no embarrassment whatever The officers bade me accompany them in their search.

[28:11-28:40]

They left no nook or corner unexplored. At length, for the third or 4th time, they descended into the cellar. I quivered not in a muscle. My heart beat calmly as that of one who slumbers in innocence. I walked the cellar from end to end. I folded my arms upon my bosom and roamed easily to and fro. The police were thoroughly satisfied and prepared to depart.

[28:40-29:07]

The glee at my heart was too strong to be restrained. I burned to say if but one word by way of triumph and to render doubly sure their assurance of my guiltlessness. Gentlemen, I said at last, as the party ascended the steps, I delight to have allayed your suspicions. I wish you all health and a little more courtesy.

[29:07-29:32]

By the by, gentlemen, this, this is a very well-constructed house. In the rabid desire to say something easily, I scarcely knew what I uttered at all. Aye, they say, an excellently well-constructed house. These walls are You going, gentlemen?

[29:32-30:04]

These walls are solidly put together. And here, through the mere frenzy of bravado, I rapped heavily with a cane which I held in my hand upon that very portion of the brickwork behind which stood the corpse of the wife of my bosom. May God shield and deliver me from the fangs of the arch-fiend.

[30:04-30:30]

No sooner had the reverberation of my blows sunk into the silence than I was answered by a voice from within the tomb, by a cry at first muffled and broken, like the sobbing of a child. And then, quickly swelling into one long, loud, and continuous scream, utterly anomalous and inhuman. How?

[30:30-30:52]

A wailing shriek, half of horror and half of triumph, such as might have arisen only out of hell, conjointly from the throats of the damned in their agony and the demons that exult in their damnation. 

[30:49-31:19]

Of my own thoughts, it is folly to speak. Swooning, I staggered to the opposite wall. For one instant, the party upon the stairs remained motionless through extremity of terror and of awe. In the next, a dozen stout arms were toiling at the wall. It fell bodily. The corpse, already greatly decayed and clotted with gore, stood erect before the eyes of the spectators.

[31:19-31:44]

Upon his head, with red extended mouth and solitary eye of fire, sat the hideous beast whose craft had seduced me into murder and whose informing voice had consigned me to the hangman. I walled the monster up within the tomb.

[31:45-32:12]

I don't know about you, but I found that perfectly entertaining. So unlike a lot of Poe's other tales, this particular story is not some, I've got to kill another human to seek revenge. That's usually a really big part of his stories. But but this is kind of an accidental murder going on.

[32:12-32:49]

And so one thing that we need to think about is why did this accident happen in the first place? This is a story that I like to introduce teenagers to as my second introduction to Poe. I usually will start them off with a telltale heart. Now, when I was back in school, I believe we always started off with the Ravens. Teachers always love to start off with The Raven. The Raven is a great poem, but I don't think it is as strong as many of Poe's stories.

[32:50-33:17]

I get it. They want to get us interested in poetry, but get us interested in literature in and of itself because Poe has a lot of really amazing work. Now, I'm guessing those teachers also didn't really want to be spending hours on end trying to explain to us youngins why all this murder is happening. But I'm down with it.

[33:17-33:35]

And so let's do it. Let's talk about why did Poe? Murder his wife. And why was he mean to her before he even murdered her, right? That's the final blow. So why was he mean to her? Well, okay.

[33:36-33:55]

If we said, well, he murdered her. because he was really trying to kill the cat, then we can then look at, well, why was he trying to kill the cat? Well, he was trying to kill the cat because the cat was annoying. Well, why was the cat annoying him? And, well, his wife was kind of annoying him, too, because she was after him about the cat.

[33:55-34:17]

Well, why was his wife annoying him? Right? So We can kind of keep peeling back the layers. Ultimately, this cat didn't do anything to him other than annoy him, right? His wife didn't do anything to him other than remind him to stop being such a jerk. And in the instance of her death, she was in the wrong place at the wrong time kind of thing.

[34:17-34:38]

So the poet was very good at having the narrator introduce things from his childhood. And he says up front that he was not like this as a child. As a child, he was kind to all animals. He loved animals. Animals loved him.

[34:38-35:03]

And he was fortunate enough to find a wife who also loved animals and in turn loved him as well. So you get this idea of kind of like Noah's Ark or something or one of those Disney movies where it's like, look, I am man standing before animals and all the animals will come to me. I think there was a Jim Carrey movie.

[35:03-35:24]

Ace Ventura, pet detective. I think it's kind of like that, right? He's just laying it out there like, I am king of the jungle or something ridiculous. So what changes? Is it just adulthood? Absolutely not. And this is where I got into a bit of a debate with one of my students.

[35:25-36:03]

Because I think the author makes it very clear what changes for him, which is alcohol right and I kind of went back and forth with the student the student was like well you can say it's alcohol but Poe doesn't really say that I'm like it's so in the writing he does talk about how he's so kind at first and then he gets this disease what is the disease alcoholism and And so he spends his nights drinking, and lo and behold, he just becomes more and more irritable because he's drinking more and more.

[36:03-36:27]

For me, it's very apparent in the writing. Poe really lays it out. And this contributes also to this kind of perverseness that he develops. And so There are times when we look at the telltale heart, right? You have the guy who becomes obsessed with this eye that just keeps looking at him.

[36:27-36:47]

He's fixated on it. And in this instance, we have our narrator who is, he's developed this perverseness related to just being dissatisfied with everything. And, you know, that cat, it's just annoying, right?

[36:47-37:18]

i bet i can kick that cat i bet i could hurt that cat you know i'm just so sick of this cat i'm just gonna get rid of it okay i actually i stabbed the cat's eye out when i was drunk and that's something my student kind of kept overlooking like when he was drunk he hurt this cat removed the cat's eye and so And it's in that moment of being sober and reminded of one's guilt of what they did when they were intoxicated.

[37:19-37:39]

When he's like, okay, I'm going to have to hang this cat because I can't stand looking at it and I don't want the reminder. Okay, so is this a story just about how we can't escape our past mistakes? I don't think so.

[37:39-38:09]

I think a really big part of the past mistake is the fact that if you give in to the alcohol of disease, you are going to do things that you will regret, even if these are things that are not a part of your innate nature. Okay, so in that same vein, let's talk about what was actually going on in the U.S.

[38:09-38:37]

when this story was written. So remember that The Black Cat was published in eighteen forty three and in the 18 forties things were happening within the temperance movement. I want to actually mention that in 18 40, the Washingtonians was founded. This was founded by 6 Baltimore alcoholics. And this movement focused on public confession and peer support of reformed drinkers rather than condemnation.

[38:38-39:02]

So think of the Washingtonians as. Very much like an early day Alcoholics Anonymous. Additionally, we have the fact that Poe himself struggled with alcoholism.

[39:02-39:24]

He started drinking when he went off to college. And I believe he didn't finish college. He wound up leaving that particular college that he started with. And so he's got his own struggles with alcoholism. So there's a bit of Poe's own life in this.

[39:24-40:05]

And in 18 42, his wife became ill and wound up then struggling the next few years with tuberculosis. So we have his own issues with alcohol being that he was a binge drinker. So he's He would drink hardcore and then not drink and abstain and try to be good. And then we have the love of his life getting very sick. And she manages to Not thrive, but she does hang around for a few more years and doesn't pass until 18 47.

[40:06-40:39]

But that's got to be just a lot of pressure on him having to take care of this young wife who is sick. In addition to making sure that, you know, they can eat and all this stuff. And then you're trying to be a writer and stuff. So. When we look at this story, it's really hard to isolate the fact of what's going on in his personal life as well as what's going on in society away from the actual text.

[40:40-41:03]

Like, is this story really about this demonic cat that seems to come back in an incarnation of another cat? I mean, cats have 9 lives. Maybe it's really the same cat. It's not about a ghost cat. I kid you not, this story is not about a ghost cat. It is very much about a man who is struggling and not loving him.

[41:03-41:23]

Okay, so we also have the lesson of don't be boastful, right? And when he starts off, he starts off in a rather shy manner, letting us know that he has he's waiting in the gallows. Right. He's going to be hung the next day.

[41:23-41:55]

He has been sentenced to death. So I think this is a really wonderful start to the story. If you were being sentenced to death, this is great foreshadowing. This tells me up front, you did something bad. So what you do? I need to know about it. And then of course, we are put into this kind of fairytale like situation where it's like, oh, well, he was nice to animals. So what? You kind of forget. Poe does a very good job of, allowing the reader to forget that this narrator is on death row.

[41:55-42:14]

He is going to be hung the next day. Kind of like he hung the cat. Okay. So with that being said, we then get to the end in this boastful nature. So we don't start off being boastful. The story starts in a kind of humble, meek tone.

[42:14-42:42]

Yeah, I did something, and I wish I hadn't. And then he kind of blames it on, oh, that fateful cat. But it's not the cat's fault. We all know this. So we go on this ride with the narrator throughout the story. The cat just seemed to haunt him. But really, all of his drama and problems all happen when the drinking returns.

[42:42-43:10]

And I do wonder how much Poe felt that about his own life. Like, did he somehow connect maybe financial woes or the illness of his wife with his own drinking? I don't know. I don't know. There's probably a book on that somewhere. If you know what that book is, message me. Yes, there are tons of, like, biographies on Poe, but I want to not worry about that right now because exploring the story is so good.

[43:10-43:39]

So let's keep with the story, which is To say that this sweet wife, I'm kind of like, lady, why did you not leave sooner? Maybe she had nowhere to go. Where were her parents? What was going on with her? Because she doesn't have much of a presence or voice in the story. Other than the fact that she, like him, loved animals. And at times, she, like the animals, became victim of his abuse.

[43:40-44:02]

And then we have her very present at the end where she's trying to stop him from He's already like, I'm going to kill this cat. I'm upset. What is she doing? Running around like Oh, don't be upset. Don't do that. And he just takes an axe off the wall and he he's going for the cat. Now, you would think she would be smart enough to know, like, that's not going to work.

[44:02-44:32]

But whatever, whatever. We we need to make this story happen. Right. So or maybe she's just really gullible. and not using full logic um but yeah he accidentally strikes her and instead of calling an ambulance or being like what have i done he's like oh well gonna have to get rid of her Like, very much like that cat that he hung earlier in the story. Ooh, it's got no eye.

[44:32-44:49]

What have I done? Well, gonna have to get rid of that. And that's kind of his, like, problem-solving skill is if I can't handle it, if I don't want to deal with it, I'm going to literally have to bury the problem. Destroy it and bury it. And he does this, right? He does it with the cat.

[44:49-45:26]

He does it with his wife. One could even say he tries to do it with the alcohol. What are my problems in life? Destroy and bury. Just bury them, get rid of them. he is boastful in the end because the cops searched all up through that place. And just like in the Telltale Heart, when one's own conscience gives them away, in this case, it's not the feeling of guilt that gets the narrator caught, but it's his boastfulness in terms of, Well, I sure tricked them.

[45:27-45:49]

And he just had to knock on that wall. And, of course, the cat screeches. And then they realize, let's take another look. Let's rip down that wall. And so he says, you know, I walled the beast up. I entombed the beast or something to that effect.

[45:49-46:20]

and that is very much representation of him trying to bury his problems. You bury them all inside, and you can go about your life pretending like everything is good, but at some point, you might find yourself in a situation, you will find yourself in a situation where you were just too proud, too boastful, and your entire house of cards will fall. And you'll bring your own downfall.

[46:20-46:43]

You'll be the cause of your own downfall. And so Ultimately, your own death. Just a little thought. I wonder if he felt a little responsible for his wife's death. I mean, she's fairly young when they got married. She was 13, I think, and he was 24. Oh, he was 27. Wow.

[46:44-46:59]

OK. And so she passed away at the age of 24. OK, so she was sick for 5 years. This story comes out one year after she is has been sick.

[46:59-47:25]

She's been sick for a year when this story comes out. So I'm wondering if. If he is thinking, partly blaming his own alcoholism, his own disease on her disease and how he feels defenseless in doing anything to help her and how maybe it makes him angry and what he wishes he can get rid of it.

[47:25-47:45]

I wonder, I wonder. And how he, you know, or maybe her illness is also kind of like the cat. He can't stand it and he tries to attack it and tries to bury it, but it won't go away. It's ever present.

[47:45-48:05]

I don't know. That was just a little thought that came to my head. But no, he did not try to kill his wife with an ax. That was not something he did. So he loved his wife. One could say he loved that cat. I don't know. And so what do we learn? We learn that you should not be boastful.

[48:05-48:25]

You can't escape your past mistakes. Yeah. Booze be bad. Alcoholism is a disease. You'll do crazy things if you're a drunkard. So don't do that. Don't be a drunkard. And maybe don't murder cats. Maybe not. Maybe not that last one.

[48:25-48:46]

But yeah, we definitely also learn that just because someone does bad things doesn't mean that they were always bad. So from his childhood, he was not a bad person. All right, my friends. Well, that is our literary analysis wrap-up.

[48:46-49:08]

I hope you found it interesting, if not a bit entertaining. I hope you enjoyed this story and do come back for another Gothic Tale.