In "The Black Cat," what is the relationship between the narrator and the black cat?
We are given no clear answer to this excellent question. Rather, the text seems to tantalise us by pointing towards a supernatural explanation of the relationship between Pluto and the narrator, and what transpires with the black cat's apparent reappearance after his murder and how the black cat makes sure that the narrator pays the price for his crime. Note what the narrator tells us about the black cat towards the beginning of the story:
In speaking of his intelligence, my wife, who at heart was not a little tinctured with superstition, made frequent allusion to the ancient 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.
The casual way with which this fact is narrated perhaps underlies the subtlety...
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of the supernatural suggestion that it gives rise to. The way in which the black cat reappears, even after being murdered, and the other apparently supernatural events that accompany it, would indicate that the narrator's wife was right in her suggestion that is so quickly dismissed by the narrator. The black cat was a witch in disguise that determined to make the narrator pay for his act of murder.
Why did the narrator in "The Black Cat" initially restrain from maltreating the cat?
It is strange that he begins maltreating any of the animals at all, because in the beginning of the story he goest to great lengths to explain that he was "especially fond of animals...With these I spent most of my time, and never was so happy as when feeding and caressing them." However, later, he says that he develops a fondness for alcohol, and it altered his behavior for the worse. He states that he starts behaving badly towards his wife, even using "personal violence" against her. Then, he starts abusing the animals. Initially, Pluto, his cat, is spared this abuse. The narrator states, "For Pluto, however, I still retained sufficient regard to restrain me from maltreating him, as I made no scruple of maltreating the rabbits, the monkey, or even the dog, when by accident, or through affection, they came in my way." So what keeps the narrator from maltreating the cat-at first-was that he cared for the cat too much; he still had "sufficient regard" for him. In the end however, even that affection was not enough to keep the cat from being the victim of the narrator's awful abuse.
Why does the narrator mistreat the cat in "The Black Cat"?
The narrator in this story is suffering alcoholism. He becomes intoxicated and becomes hideously violent toward all in his presence. It started as he began mistreating and ill-using them. This held true for all his pets except for Pluto. This is strange considering his early description of himself in youth as being "noted for the docility and humanity of my disposition." Now he tells us that he is abusing his pets. Alcohol is to blame for the condition that he was in the night of the attack on Pluto. He returned home very drunk that evening and "fancied that the cat avoided [his] presence". He proceeded to snatch Pluto up and cut out his eye. All for his drunken feeling of being avoided. This seems a turning point for the narrator as well.