The Transformation of The Narrator’s Identity in "The Black Cat"

Irrational behavior is often met with confusion, though one never fully understands the reasoning behind it. It intrigues creators and scientists who depict and study these lapses of judgement as it often happens unwittingly. As such, Edgar Allan Poe explores this phenomenon of the unconscious mind through his short story, The Black Cat, as the narrator’s irrational behavior and declining sanity ultimately lead to his demise. The narrator also struggles with alcoholism, influenced by Poe’s own background of alcoholism, and is pivotal in his overall inhibition. Created in 1845, the concept of insanity was studied by psychiatrists by founding asylums for the rise of people deemed insane. Moral insanity, during the time, was still unknown terminology which psychiatrists began to focus their attention on, particularly towards individuals who “displayed particularly cruel and violent forms of behavior without suffering from any clear mental pathology” (Lorettu, Nivoli, Nivoli, 2017). This can be understood in reference to Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory as these individuals were dominated by their pleasure-seeking id, without the presence of their moral superego and control of their ego. In the same way, the narrator in Poe’s work has an imbalance in these three fundamental structures of the human mind: id, ego, and superego. Thus, the transformation of one\'s identity and descent into madness can be seen in Poe’s The Black Cat through psychoanalysis, specifically in unraveling how the id was pursued, the return of the repressed superego, and the realization of the ego.

At the beginning of the narrator’s life, his ego maintained the balance of his id and superego, caring for multiple animals with his wife. However, as he “began to drink too much wine and other strong drinks,” he developed an addiction to alcohol. This addiction led to a quick temper, increase in violence, and inhibited senses; and with this, his superego was inhibited as well. There was possibly already an unconscious struggle between the three elements before the events occurred, characterized by his love towards animals and inability to connect to humans, seen in the line: “There is something in the love of these animals which speak directly to the heart of the man who has learned from experience how uncertain and changeable is the love of other men.” This conflict in his unconscious mind between the id, superego, and ego, led to alcoholism providing a gateway for his id to gain control over his persona with a desire to satisfy its animalistic urges; this had a role in the change in his personality. The id has no comprehension of objective reality and is selfish in nature, and this amplified the anger and violence he had towards his wife and his pets to satisfy his primitive desires. His change in behavior instilled fear in his pets, even his beloved cat, Pluto. When it ignored him, it triggered him to act impulsively, cutting out one of the cat’s eyes and then later on, hanging it. He tried to rationalize his behavior with the id’s primary process thinking, saying: “Who has not, a hundred times, found himself doing wrong, doing some evil thing for no other reason than because he knows he should not?” This unravels the persona’s rational and sane behavior, his pursuit of the id manifesting into this perverseness.

With the id domineering over the persona, the superego and feelings of guilt were repressed, slowly emerging as the months went by and the persona confessed to himself, “I could not drive the thought of the cat out of my mind.” His unconscious guilt was only implied and its physical manifestation emerged as the black cat, representing his decay and descent into insanity. Its supernatural presence was felt as the superego regaining its balance with the id, also haunting the persona for the sin he had committed as seen in the lines, “Wherever I went, it was always there. At night I dreamed of it. And I began to hate that cat!” The black cat tempts the id to act impulsively to give the superego a way to make the persona guilty of his crimes, running under his feet to trigger his rage and leading him to murder his wife. Its “revenge” was revealed when the persona, in the company of the police, saw “On the body’s head, its one eye filled with fire, its wide open mouth the color of blood, sat the cat, crying out its revenge!” The vocality of the cat only increased upon the murder of his wife, symbolizing the return of persona’s superego and conscience.

The ego struggled to maintain and regain its control as the id and superego acted as two competing forces. It mediated between the two elements based on the reality principle, operating on both the conscious and unconscious; this works to satisfy the id’s desire with the superego’s moral standards. To balance the uncertainty he had with humans and the conflict between his id and superego, the ego may have resorted to alcoholism as a coping mechanism in an attempt to inhibit both elements. But as this had been left unresolved since the narrator’s childhood, the id was pursued and his outbursts of violence were extreme and perverse. As the id took control of the persona, however, the ego took silent measures against it as a defense mechanism. It gradually appeared and regained its control, as seen in the line: “because I knew that my doing so was a wrong so great, a sin so deadly that it would place my soul forever outside the reach of the love of God!”. His conscience was surfacing and with this, the ego guided the id’s brash and overconfident behavior in the end to act in accordance to the superego’s wishes in order to unconsciously confess to his crimes, stating that “I felt myself driven by some known inner force to let them know, to make them know, that I had won the battle.” The ego represents reason and sanity, and as it regained control over the two forces, the narrator regained his sanity as well.

The conflict of the three fundamental structures of the human mind and their struggle for control transformed the narrator’s identity in accordance with Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory. However, with the black cat being a manifestation of the narrator’s superego and guilt, the reality of others being able to physically see and hear it is unlikely. In particular, the innkeeper and the narrator’s wife being able to acknowledge the black cat, and the police hearing its “cries” at the end of the story. Combined with Edgar Allan Poe’s choice of creating a short Gothic novel, it becomes a supernatural element added to the story. These unexplainable events create an unreliable narrator which are also often used in Poe’s works; although this could be understood as the narrator experiencing psychosis from his alcohol abuse and extreme perverseness. The narrator’s reality portrayed his unconscious mind and provided an explanation for his irrational behavior.

As conflicts emerged from the narrator’s temptation of the id, his repressed superego and guilt manifested as the black cat, which then allowed the ego to regain its control and bring back order to the chaos the id and superego caused. These characterize the narrator’s gradual transformation and descent into insanity. In Edgar Allan Poe’s works, the nature of individuals are portrayed as inherently evil, and capitalizes on the negative emotions that come with it. “The Black Cat” is no exception, portraying how insanity and the temptation of the id will cause one’s own demise. It portrays the mental pathology of those deemed insane, and provides an explanation for which to explain his cruel and violent behavior.