Question

In "The Black Cat," where is the narrator as he writes this story?

Accepted Answer

In “The Black Cat,” the narrator is sitting in a prison cell as he writes his story. He's been tried and convicted for the murder of his wife, and he is awaiting execution for this abominable crime.

Answer

The unnamed narrator in Edgar Allan Poe's “The Black Cat” is sitting in a prison cell, awaiting execution for the brutal ax murder of his wife. He killed her in a fit of rage, probably induced by a toxic combination of alcohol and mental illness.
When the police come around to his house, the narrator taps against the wall to assure them that there are no bodies buried behind it. All of a sudden, a blood-curdling scream emanates from behind the wall. Once the police have torn down the bricks, the corpse of the narrator's wife is discovered, with a missing cat sitting on top of her head.
The narrator is clearly guilty. He may try to blame the cat for his misfortunes, but the judicial system clearly didn't buy that explanation, and so he was convicted of his wife's murder and sentenced to death. The method of execution will be hanging, which is particularly appropriate given that that's how the narrator killed his cat, Pluto.
As he awaits his imminent execution, the narrator has a lot of free time on his hands. Therefore, he decides to use his brief remaining time he has left on Earth to tell the not-very-reliable story of how he came to be in such a sticky situation.

Answer

The narrator in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Black Cat” is sitting in a prison cell, presumably on death row, waiting to be executed for the crime of murder. In the story’s opening paragraph, the narrator notes that “tomorrow I die,” which, by itself, is not necessarily significant in terms of identifying his whereabouts. As the story progresses, he relates how he was driven insane by the presence of a black cat in his home, one of many pets owned by him and his wife. Over time, he succumbs to alcoholism, which sours his previously upbeat disposition, as he states, " . . . my general temperament and character—through the instrumentality of the Fiend Intemperance—had (I blush to confess it) experienced a radical alteration for the worse.” He develops a murderous rage with respect to the cat, named Pluto.
As Poe’s story continues, the narrator describes his growing disdain for his wife as well as for a newly-arrived and very mysterious black cat and the white splotch of fur on this new cat’s breast that assumes disturbing shapes. It is during his discussion of the peculiar characteristics of this new black cat that the narrator references “this felon’s cell,” providing definitive proof of his whereabouts as he describes his final descent into a murderous rage, that results in the death of his wife, his decision to entomb his wife’s remains behind a wall that he dutifully constructs, the visit by the police, and the horrifying screeches of the cat, which he had inadvertently imprisoned behind the newly constructed wall along with his wife’s body.
While it is established that the narrator is telling his story from the confines of a prison cell, the final paragraph of “The Black Cat” provides another clue that he is, indeed, on death row and is awaiting his execution by hanging (“consigned me to the hangman”). The answer to the question regarding the narrator’s location as he tells his story, then, is a prison cell.

Answer

The man could, perhaps, be in a confessional, providing the details of his sins so that he can be absolved of sin before he dies. He does mention in the first paragraph that he knows he will die tomorrow and that he desires to "unburthen [his] soul." The fact that the narrator is concerned with the state of his soul likely has to do with the fact that he has committed a sinful act that will very much impact what happens to his soul when he dies. 
In fact, he says in the penultimate paragraph of the story, "may God shield and deliver me from the fangs of the Arch-Fiend," a sort of nickname for the Devil, so the narrator is obviously concerned about where he'll be spending eternity. In this line, he conveys his hope that God will not send him to Hell after he dies, and so it seems quite possible that he is confessing his sins now so that he can be absolved and forgiven before that happens.

Answer

To answer this question, it helps to look really closely at the text, and especially at the very beginning and ending of the story.
Let's take a look at the ending of the story first, to get an idea of what probably happened to him after the story's events occurred.  At the end, the police had torn down the wall and discovered the remains of his murdered wife; at this, we have to conclude that the man was arrested and taken to jail.  Now, look at the beginning paragraph--in it lie confirmations of that assumption.  The narrator states in that opening paragraph that he is going to tell us a story, that he really wants us to believe.  Why is he so motivated to tell the tale?  He states,

"Yet, mad am I not—and very surely do I not dream. But tomorrow I die, and today I would unburthen my soul."

He states that he is going to die tomorrow, and hence wants to unburden his soul from the weight of his awful act.  He wants the entire world to know the true story, the awful details of the event, even if they do sound strange.  He wants the truth out before he leaves this world.  So, why would he be dying?  Most likely, he is in prison, and received a sentence of death, and he is condemned to die the next day.  That is the logical conclusion that one can draw from the hints given.  So, the narrator is telling his story from the walls of his prison, on the day before his execution.
I hope that those thoughts helped to clear things up!  Good luck!

The Black Cat

In "The Black Cat," where is the narrator as he writes this story?

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