The Black Cat Narrator

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The Black Cat Essay The short story “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe, is a dark and deeply disturbing tale that is told to us by a narrator who displays clear psychopathic tendencies. We are introduced to a man who at first seems to have quite a normal life, however, after he turns to alcohol we start to see his hidden psychopathic traits. The definition of one becoming psychopathic is suffering from a mental disorder displaying behaviours such as having a complete disregard for the feelings and rights of others, a lack of guilt and impulsive and irresponsible actions. The narrator shows signs of all these traits throughout the story such as when he kills his wife, or cuts out the eye of his cat, and he displays no sign of conscience and a total lack of remorse. The narrator shows psychopathic behavior throughout the story through both his thoughts and actions. At the start of the story the narrator explains that he will share with us "a series of mere household events" (Poe 1) displaying his lack of conscience over the gruesome happenings.. He goes on to say "In their consequences, these events have terrified - have tortured - have destroyed me." (Poe 1) These words show another characteristic of psychopaths, as they are often egocentric and fail to accept responsibility for their actions. We learn that he was a kind and quiet child and he now has a caring wife and a love for animals. As the story teller becomes older he starts to become an alcoholic, he calls alcohol "the Fiend Intemperance"(Poe 6), he is blaming alcohol for his bad behaviour. This is interesting because psychopaths often fail to accept responsibility for their actions. His temper becomes more and more aggressive, "I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others." (Poe 6) and he began to feel the effects of his disease becoming more
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