The Misdirection of Unconscious Motives in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat”

Abstract:Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” (1843) offers an intriguing account of the role that unconscious conflicts play in what appears to be senseless human violence. The story presents an unnamed convict’s efforts to narrate a series of uncanny experiences which culminates in his killing of his wife. Although one might at first assume that a person who awaits the hangman has no reason to lie, this essay argues that the narrative as a whole is an elaborate attempt at misdirection intended to shift the blame for murder away from one unconscious agency onto another which resides in the same psyche. Using psychoanalysis, this essay further seeks to unveil the psychological motives behind such a seemingly futile exercise at a moment when the protagonist waits for his execution.