The unnamed narrator of “The Black Cat” describes himself as “moody,” “irritable,” and increasingly “violent.” He is an alcoholic with an ever-worsening temper; he lashes out at his wife, “offers her personal violence,” and verbally abuses her with “intemperate language.” His poor behavior is apparent early on, but it only worsens. When his beloved black cat, Pluto, bites him, the narrator cuts the cat’s eye out. Much of the story focuses on the narrator’s guilt about this act—and the more violent acts that follow—and how his guilty conscience ultimately leads him deeper into alcoholism and abuse. He explains: “I experienced a sentiment half of horror, half of remorse … but it was, at best, a feeble and unequivocal feeling.” To quiet this feeling, he drinks to excess. Despite his claim that he does not regret his actions, his actions after each act of violence indicate that he must feel a sense of guilt.

Unable to stand Pluto’s continued presence, he hangs the cat by a noose. Though the act is reprehensible, it is, perversely, an act of guilt. By murdering Pluto, the narrator is no longer haunted by the specter of his misdeeds. But this does not quiet the narrator’s guilt and, in fact, only worsens it. He begins to hallucinate, his deep-seated remorse buried beneath layers of alcohol and manifesting as visual apparitions. The narrator sees “the figure of a gigantic cat” with “a rope around [its] neck” on the only wall remaining after his house catches fire. A reasonable explanation for how an image of the cat arrived there cannot override the “deep impression” the event makes.

His guilt leads him to attempt to replace the cat, which had once been his close companion. The replacement cat, however, prefers the narrator’s wife; the narrator develops an inexplicable sense of rage toward the creature. When he discovers the cat is also missing an eye—the same one he carved from Pluto’s face—he “long[s] to destroy it.” To extinguish this new reminder of his guilt, the narrator attempts to kill the new cat with an ax. When his wife prevents him, he kills her instead. 

The narrator’s reaction to killing his wife is remarkably calm, though it might be suggested that the narrator’s burial of his wife is an attempt to hide not only his crimes but also his guilt. Moreover, his unspoken desire for the policemen to find his wife’s body suggests his subconscious guilt. The black cat’s screeching leads the investigators to discover the wife’s body; it stands on her corpse, a reminder of the narrator’s guilt and inability to escape it.