Student Question
How does the cat's "sagacious" description contribute to the meaning of Poe's "The Black Cat"?
Quick answer:
The description of the cat as "sagacious" in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat" highlights its exceptional wisdom and judgment, setting it apart as a unique and insightful character. This characterization underscores the cat's ability to perceive the narrator's growing cruelty due to alcoholism. Initially loyal, the cat becomes wary, reflecting its discernment and foreshadowing its pivotal role in the narrator's downfall. This sagacity emphasizes the cat's significance in the story's progression and themes.
The opening paragraphs of the "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe reveal valuable information about the narrator, his animals, and his relationship with his animals just by the language the narrator uses. For example, he tells us he is going to die tomorrow for something that he has done, something he describes as "nothing more than an ordinary succession of very natural causes and effects." From these words we understand both that he is unreliable and that we should pay attention to his words.
So, when he describes his beloved black cat, Pluto, we should pay close attention to his words--especially given the title of the story.
This [cat] was a remarkably large and beautiful animal, entirely black, and sagacious to an astonishing degree. In speaking of his intelligence, my wife, who at heart was not a little tinctured with superstition, made frequent allusion to the ancient...
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popular notion, which regarded all black cats as witches in disguise. Not that she was ever serious upon this point--and I mention the matter at all for no better reason than that it happens, just now, to be remembered.
It is no accident that the narrator describes Pluto as sagacious (being wise and having good judgment) and intelligent.
Pluto's ability to both outsmart his owner as well as recognize him for what he is--a cruel, capricious, and selfish man--is demonstrated throughout the story. When the man's character begins to change because of the "Fiend Intemperance" (alcoholism), Pluto, who once followed the man everywhere he went, now stays away from him after he has been drinking. That is, of course, a wise decision; however, one night the animal does not move away quickly enough and the man grabs him and, in a rage, cuts one of Pluto's eyes out of its socket.
From then on, the sagacious cat runs away "in extreme terror" whenever the man comes near him, another wise move on the cat's part. While the man at first understands the cat's reticence to be near him, soon the man gets infuriated again at Pluto for not being as friendly and accommodating to him as he was before the cutting. Smart cat.
But then Pluto, who has been an excellent judge of character so far regarding the man, makes a fatal mistake because the man tricks him. The cat has learned to avoid the man when he is in a rage, but one day when the man does not seem enraged at Pluto he manages to do a terrible thing.
One morning, in cool blood, I slipped a noose about its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree;--hung it with the tears streaming from my eyes, and with the bitterest remorse at my heart;--hung it because I knew that it had loved me, and because I felt it had given me no reason of offence;--hung it because I knew that in so doing I was committing a sin--a deadly sin that would so jeopardize my immortal soul as to place it--if such a thing were possible--even beyond the reach of the infinite mercy of the Most Merciful and Most Terrible God.
Once the man started drinking, Pluto knew he was capable of awful things. Unfortunately, he was unable to avoid the effects of the the man's alcohol-driven cruelty forever, and he is killed. Perhaps there was something to the man's wife's early assertion that black cats are connected to witchcraft, as well, because that is not the end of Pluto. The eerie image of the hanged, one-eyed cat appears over and over in the man's life. In fact, it is indirectly responsible for the man's demise, making Pluto a most wise and discerning (sagacious) creature.
In "The Black Cat," how does describing the cat as "sagacious" affect the story's meaning?
The Merriam-Websterdictionary defines "sagacious" this way:
of keen and farsighted penetration and judgment.
The dictionary definition also uses the word "discerning" at some point. Basically, a sagacious person, or cat, is an organism who could be described as "wise." He or she is someone who is able to sift through a lot of incoming information and make an appropriate decision based on that information. This isn't necessarily someone who is going to win Jeopardy!, but it is someone who would be good to have on a business/marketing team. In this particular Poe story, the narrator tells readers that the cat is sagacious. It is a form of direct characterization, because we are explicitly told about a particular characteristic. If I'm honest, it is an odd way to describe a cat, and the narrator points this fact out as well. He has no problem saying dogs are sagacious; however, the narrator seems surprised to find the trait in a feline.
To those who have cherished an affection for a faithful and sagacious dog, I need hardly be at the trouble of explaining the nature or the intensity of the gratification thus derivable.
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This latter was a remarkably large and beautiful animal, entirely black, and sagacious to an astonishing degree.
It's an important bit of characterization because it specifically calls attention to this cat being special and unique, and readers should begin immediately wondering how this cat is going to impact the story and/or the narrator. This is especially true if the reader remembers the story is titled "The Black Cat."
In his 1843 short story The Black Cat, Edgar Allan Poe’s narrator describes himself as an animal lover, with a particular affinity for certain of his and his spouse’s many pets. Among those he considers particularly discerning is a large black cat named Pluto. In explaining his affinity for animals, the narrator uses as an example of the way in which the bond can form between a human and his or her pet the loyalty the animal has to its owner. As he states early in the story,
“To those who have cherished an affection for a faithful and sagacious dog, I need hardly be at the trouble of explaining the nature of the intensity of the gratification thus derivable.”
In the case of the narrator, it is not a dog with whom he develops a special bond of mutual admiration and respect, it is the cat. Once again, as Poe’s narrator explains his relationship to the cat, he emphasizes its apparent gift for discerning quality in a human:
“[The cat] was a remarkably large and beautiful animal, entirely black, and sagacious to an astonishing degree. 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.”
The repeated use of the word “sagacious” in describing the qualities of favored pets is almost certainly intended to emphasize the significance of the cat’s later transition from loyal and loving to suspicious and fearful. This transition, as the narrator attests, occurs in the context of his increasing consumption of alcohol and the dramatic mood changes that result:
“I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others. . . My pets, of course, were made to feel the change in my disposition.”
While he points out that his changing temperament with regard to those with whom he shared a residence – wife and pets – had caused a deterioration in his relationships, he does note that his feelings for the cat had not similarly changed. That the cat, however, changes its attitude towards the narrator is a direct reflection of its sagacious nature: it senses the narrator’s growing hostility to all those around him and reacts accordingly, thereby alienating itself from its master.