The Repressed Superstition of Black Cats 

“Time spent with cats is never wasted”- Sigmund Freud 

  Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis is often linked to Edgar Allen Poe and his works, specifically his short story, “The Black Cat”. Utilizing Freud’s ideas, a psychoanalytical perspective is able to reveal the deeper meaning of the key symbols in the story. In this case this is shown throughout the short story through the motifs of alcohol, the narrator’s wife and the black cat respectively.  In the story, the ideas of displacement and condensation can be seen through the Freudian lens in the narrator’s perception of his emotions and the actions he acquires. Condensation and displacement can apply to the overall meaning and representation of the cat. Pluto is seen as a “friend,” and the narrator receives the loyalty that is lacked from his wife and others.  

In the story the narrator is an alcoholic who finds pleasure in abusing and punishing animals. Through the Freudian lens, a hidden meaning behind the actual black cat can represent obstacles and conflicts in the author, Poe’s life, such as the narrator’s drinking problem or his ill wife. This can be inferred to latent content, since the narrator turns his imperfections into those that are out of the ordinary. Condensation is also applicable to the representation of the cat as a whole. The narrator looks upon Pluto as a friend, as he is treated with the loyalty and kindness he does not have from others. “Pluto -this was the cat’s name-was my favorite pet and Playmate. I alone fed him, and he attended me wherever I went about the house. It was even with difficulty that I could prevent him from following me through the streets” (Poe, 32). Whenever he drinks it can also be seen as a sense of repression in which he unconsciously sees himself in the cat. His mind sees himself in a different manner towards the actions of Pluto. His outburst of anger causes him to change his feelings towards Pluto as it shifts from him being his friend to being his enemy. He puts the blame on Pluto for the cause of his actions such of committing murder. “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. The Fury of a demon instantly possessed me” (Poe). The cat represents his own being which is known as Condensation which Freud utilized and discussed in his lecture.  The narrator puts his moral beliefs towards the cat and seemingly projects his abandoned moral beliefs (his dispositions) onto Pluto, his wife and their other animals in which he abuses and punishes. 

Displacement can also be seen in the narrator’s illogical behavior shown through his violent and impulsive actions which is developed by his drinking problem. This is turn causes him to displace his anger onto both his wife and his pets. “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.” (Poe). The narrator knows what he is doing is wrong and feels a sense of remorse, but yet he still acts upon it in the sense that he may be unhappy or angry with his life and his marriage but feels he is unable to do anything about it. Due to this repression of emotions, there was no way for these emotions to discharge other than onto the actions of him leading to eventually displacing his anger and killing his wife. According to Freud, the Manifest dream does not directly represent the emotions of the dreamer, but instead displaces these emotions onto someone or something else as the narrator did upon his wife and pets. But with the violent actions enforced by the narrator, the displacement of his repressed emotions never left his mind, instead it manifests in him and makes him not only kill his pets and his wife, but he himself commits suicide.  

Once again, we are dealing with a short story containing an “unnamed narrator”. This can possibly be inferred towards Poe and his personal life as it is a possibility this a symbol of the struggles and conflicts Poe faced himself in his personal life.  In “The Black Cat,” the narrator acted violently and impulsively towards the things that loved him and cared for him without a reason, which depicts the factor of a wishful impulse. It seems as if he pushed away and got rid of the things- his wife and his cat- that were loyal to him stating, “I married early, and was happy to find in my wife a disposition not uncongenial with my own.” (Poe) and “My pets, of course, were made to feel the change in my disposition. I not only neglected but ill-used them (Poe). It seems he had never had a serious relationship before, so he took his repressed feelings and emotions harming his wife and his pets without a purpose or reason.   

As the narrator talks about his life and the progress of it, it can be inferred that many conflicts have occurred with him. The story depicts that towards the beginning of his life, he was not known as a bad person, however his misleading factors throughout his life caused him to change into an aggressive man who commit’s violent and unthinkable things. In the story, the ideas of displacement and condensation can be seen through the Freudian lens in the narrator’s perception of his emotions and the actions he acquires. Overall, we can analyze “The Black Cat” through a psychoanalytic view of Sigmund Freud and how the narrator himself is a walking glance of repressed and displaced emotions.