also relates that the cat's fondness for him is the main inspiration for his feelings of bitter hatred towards it. Furthermore, the new cat is also missing an eye, much like the first one (which he killed after gouging its eye out). By this point, we are led to question the narrator's judgment, never mind his memory of events. We wonder how an affectionate animal can inspire such hatred in a human being.

Later, the narrator begins to see the definite shape of a gallows in a white patch of hair on the cat. At this point, we begin to suspect that the narrator is hallucinating. Certainly, he has become extremely paranoid. As the story concludes, we discover that the narrator has murdered his own wife in a fit of rage and also unwittingly buried her corpse with the cat in the displaced false chimney.

The narrator concludes that it is the black cat, with the "red extended mouth and solitary eye of fire," that has "consigned" him to the hangman. Ironically, he makes no mention of whether his wife's corpse incriminates him. This is bizarre and disturbing on many levels. By the end of the story, we are truly led to doubt the veracity and credibility of the narrator.

The narrator of "The Black Cat" could be considered unreliable for a number of reasons. First, he tells us that he is not "mad," but he very well could be. This is a person who tells us that he tortured animals, including cutting the eye out of a once-beloved pet cat, and he actually hanged this cat by the neck until it died. Thus, the narrator might literally not be in his right mind, and this would make him unreliable.

Second, the narrator confesses to becoming an alcoholic, to succumbing to what he calls "the Fiend Intemperance." He suggests that his alcoholism made him violent toward his animals as well as, eventually, toward his wife. It caused him to "maltreat" his pets, even when they approached him seeking affection. He was often "intoxicated," and so it is possible that his memory of the events he reports is not accurate. This is another way in which he could be seen as unreliable.

Third, the narrator's character is clearly deeply flawed. He abuses animals and, eventually, murders his own wife because she sought to keep him from killing their pet cat. He kills her and expresses next to no remorse for the murder; in fact, he conveys his deep happiness that the cat seems to have disappeared. Such a person as this might seek to be deliberately deceptive, as we know that he manages to deceive the police officers who come to investigate him for the disappearance of his wife.

There are several reasons why the narrator of "The Black Cat" would be considered unreliable. The first is that he is recounting the story the night before he is sentenced to die. This kind of duress would make anyone unreliable and would make almost any recitation of events leading up to it unreliable.

One more reason to distrust the narrator is, by his own admission, his penchant for drinking and the terrible alcoholism that afflicts him. One side-effect of addiction is often a willingness to distort the truth as much as possible to hide or excuse the addiction. The narrator describes the frequency and depths of his pursuit of alcohol and this makes him even more unreliable.

One more possible reason to distrust the narrative is the trauma that results from his violent and gruesome murder of his wife. This is particularly damaging given the powerful love he felt for her prior to his descent into addiction and arguably madness.

One of the simplest ways Poe does this is by having the narrator admit he's fond of drinking.  The narrator may be in a chemically altered state when committing or recounting some of his deeds.

Poe also starts off the story indicating that it is not to be believed and that most who read the story will not believe it.  Poe is also great at using his words and language to build larger-than-life descriptions and hyperboles--similar to when fishermen tell stories and each time the fish gets bigger and bigger.  Same with the cat--he's more and more evil (theoretically) each time the narrator tells the story.

In storytelling the reader knows no more than what the storyteller tells him. Here what destabilizes the most is the contradictory nature of the narrator: he wants absolution but has no remorse; he seeks credibility but his tale is far-fetched; he insists he is not insane but admits to drunkeness and a bent to cruelty ("perversion").

The "listener's" sympathy is solicited, as the storyteller will hang the next day.  He feels obliged to continue, the narrator's offense banalized as a sort of domestic problem rather than being a crime. His curiosity is also solicited as how someone can be condemned to die over something so insignificant.

The storyteller discusses his own "perverseness," a certain depraved pleasure acquired in inflicting pain. He goes on to explain his own self contempt after gouging out his cat's eye while in a drunken stupor. He also makes frequent religious allusions to divine wrath and dread of the punishment he knows is coming. He sees himself as a victim to an impulse within he cannot control. 

In the end the "listener" is aware the story is told by a madman but cannot walk away totally unscathed. There is some kind of vicarious identification going on here. After all, he did stay to "hear him out," didn't he? Fascination with mental illness and acts of the depraved, isn't this a kind of morbidity in itself? Poe leaves the reader to wonder.