Edgar Allan Poe: “The Black Cat,” and Current Forensic Psychology

Author(s): Vicki Hester and Emily Segir

Source: The Edgar Allan Poe Review , Vol. 15, No. 2 (Autumn 2014), pp. 175-193
Published by: Penn State University Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/edgallpoerev.15.2.0175

REFERENCES
Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/edgallpoerev.15.2.0175?seq=1&cid=pdf-
reference#references_tab_contents
You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

Penn State University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
The Edgar Allan Poe Review

This content downloaded from

74.200.159.2 on Wed, 28 May 2025 13:35:55 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Edgar Allan Poe
“The Black Cat,” and Current Forensic Psychology

Vicki Hester and Emily Segir

Abstract
In “The Black Cat,” Poe created a narrator who lacks remorse, empathy, and
a conscience, a character who deceives and manipulates those around him
because of an impulsive, egocentric personality known as psychopathy. In the
beginning, the narrator explains that he will die the next day for murdering
his wife; however, readers soon understand he has no living relatives who care
about his guilt or innocence, calling into question audience and purpose. While
readers might wonder if he hopes for a stay of execution, this thought will soon
pass because he admits to the murder and provides grisly, perverse details of
the crime. When readers juxtapose the narrator’s words and actions with cur-
rent forensic research on psychopathy—especially with the research of Robert
D. Hare, audience and purpose become clear. Moreover, Hare’s research—when
compared and contrasted with literary scholars such as Richard Badenhausen,
Susan Amper, Joseph Stark, and John Cleman—also highlights Poe’s political
and scientific acumen along with his literary skill at creating a character that
readers during the 1840s would have understood in light of the legal debates
concerning the insanity defense. Poe created a textbook psychopathic personal-
ity, leaving out none of the traits, even though the currently accepted definition
of psychopathy was not agreed upon until the early 1990s. Through this narrator,
Poe reveals the inner workings of a criminal type that public defenders of Poe’s
time, along with scientists and the public, agreed should not be held accountable
for their crimes.

Keywords
free will; determinism; psychopath; narrator reliability; “The Black Cat”; psychopathy

the edgar allan poe review, Vol. 15, No. 2, 2014

Copyright © 2014 The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA

EAPR 15.2_03_Hester-Segir.indd 175 01/11/14 7:07 PM

This content downloaded from

74.200.159.2 on Wed, 28 May 2025 13:35:55 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Black Cat,” first published in the August
19, 1843, issue of the Saturday Evening Post, is a chilling story written through
the eyes of a man awaiting death for the murder of his wife. For over 170 years
the narrator of this story has captivated critics and readers with his allusions to
ethos, pathos, and logos—as he says that he places “before the world, plainly,
succinctly, and without comment”1 an unsettling account of the events sur-
rounding the murder of his wife and his abuse of the family pets. The narra-
tor declares that he will state his case candidly, all the while creating nothing
more than a pretense of frankness and objectivity. He titillates readers with
details about the horrendous murder of his wife and his first cat—if, in fact, any
cats were actually killed in the making of this story.2 He also may leave read-
ers wondering about his purpose for writing. The story cannot save him from
the noose. He has no progeny and mentions no living relatives who might care
about his guilt or innocence, so the story serves little purpose for the writer,
leaving readers to wonder who might be the intended audience and what might
be the story’s point.
Readers return to this story, perhaps, because of the narrator’s ability to
lure audiences into believing large parts of the tale. Susan Amper writes, “In
weighing the statements of someone accused of a crime, our common sense
leads us to the following guidelines: (1) We accept incriminating information
as likely to be true, since the suspect would have no reason to invent it;
(2) we give less credence to exculpatory details.”3 So when the narrator con-
fesses his guilt in the opening and offers incriminating information, readers
may at first think the narrator offers a confidential and unique version of his
predicament. However, when the narrator later blames the cat for everything
that has gone wrong or when he begins to contradict himself, readers will
question narrator reliability. It is true that readers often encounter unreliable
narrators in literature, but the dissembling in this story actually points to an
important aspect of Poe’s work as the numerous inconsistencies and decep-
tions direct readers away from the story and toward an assessment of the
narrator and his behavior.
Many of the narrator’s deceptions and behaviors suggest Poe created a charac-
ter that fits into current scientific definitions of psychopathy. According to Robert
D. Hare—who developed the “Psychopathy Checklist,” published in Without
Conscience: The Disturbing World of Psychopaths Among Us—psychopaths lack
qualities that allow people to live together successfully. Hare describes the psy-
chopath as “self-centered, callous, and remorseless,” as well as “profoundly lacking
in empathy and the ability to form warm emotional relationships with others, a
person who functions without the restraints of conscience.” Hare also says that the

176 Hester and Segir

EAPR 15.2_03_Hester-Segir.indd 176 01/11/14 7:07 PM

This content downloaded from

74.200.159.2 on Wed, 28 May 2025 13:35:55 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 acts of psychopaths “result not from a deranged mind but from a cold, calculating
rationality combined with a chilling inability to treat others as thinking, feeling
human beings.”4
In “The Black Cat,” the narrator “offers” his wife personal violence,
admits that he becomes “more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of
others” (851), deliberately cuts one of the cat’s eyes from its socket, and killed
his wife, all for no apparent reason. Through this narrator, Poe accurately
deconstructs and reconstructs the dark personality of a psychopathic killer,
not surprising in light of current research by Joseph Stark and John Cleman5
who discuss famous debates brewing during the 1840s in Europe and the
United States over the insanity defense. Both Stark and Cleman suggest that
Poe undermines the insanity defense by creating a narrator who is “sub-
ject to ‘perverseness,’”6 a claim that differs little from the medical defense of
temporary insanity. Stark agrees with Cleman, who says the narrator pres-
ents this defense as a “logical, ‘philosophical’ explanation that voids overtly
immoral acts of their moral implications.”7 The narrator’s attempt at a scien-
tific, objective interpretation of the events in this story suggests a perverse
mind at work—a mind that glosses over all personal accountability for his
criminal behavior, a mind that treats his victims as meaningless, material
objects. The narrator’s purpose for writing remains unclear until his work
is juxtaposed with Hare’s clinical research on psychopathy, at which point
possible explanations for the narrator’s purpose begin to unfold. In addition,
Hare’s work supplements and further clarifies the works of Stark and Cleman
and other discussions on the insanity defense in addition to highlighting
Poe’s political and scientific acumen, matters of which this essay will address
in what follows.

Psychopathy and Rationality

Hare defines psychopathy as “a dark mystery with staggering implications

for society” (2, 33–34),8 a mental disease that is finally revealing itself after
decades of research. “The most obvious expressions of psychopathy—but
by no means the only ones—involve flagrant criminal violation of society’s
rules.” However, unlike other mental disorders, Hare also says, “psychopaths
are not disoriented or out of touch with reality, nor do they experience the
delusions, hallucinations, or intense subjective distress that characterize most
other mental disorders. Unlike psychotic individuals, psychopaths are ratio-
nal and aware of what they are doing and why” (2, 22). In other words, they
do not hear voices as do psychotics, who slip in and out of reality. To further
clarify, Hare provides a checklist of the more salient features, and divides the

Edgar Allan Poe 177

EAPR 15.2_03_Hester-Segir.indd 177 01/11/14 7:07 PM

This content downloaded from

74.200.159.2 on Wed, 28 May 2025 13:35:55 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 main symptoms of this syndrome into two categories, “Emotional/Interper-
sonal” and “Social Deviance”:

emotional/interpersonal social deviance

Glib and superficial Impulsive
Shallow emotions Adult antisocial behavior
Egocentric and grandiose Poor behavior controls
Deceitful and manipulative Early behavior problems
Lack of remorse or guilt Need for excitement
Lack of empathy Lack of responsibility (Hare, 34)

The emotional/interpersonal attributes of a psychopath describe how they

“think and feel about themselves and others. . . . But this is only one facet of the syn-
drome. The other facet . . . is a chronically unstable and aimless lifestyle marked by
casual and flagrant violations of social norms and expectations. Together, these two
facets—one depicting feelings and relationships, the other social deviance—pro-
vide a comprehensive picture of the psychopathic personality” (Hare, 57).9 Accord-
ing to Hare, “Because the . . . factors are substantially correlated, it is important to
examine the combined effects of elevations on both of these factors.”10
Katherine Ramsland says that Hare spent over thirty years developing
the above checklist, now used as a standard assessment by the World Health
Organization and in forensic settings. “He [Hare] addresses international audi-
ences on every facet of psychopathy, from personality assessment to risk factors
to psychopaths among us. While psychopaths may appear to be normal mem-
bers of society, they’re anything but normal. In fact, Hare believes, they are soci-
ety’s most destructive and dangerous type of person.”11 Because psychopathy as
assessed by Hare’s psychopathy checklist is accepted among psychiatrists as “the
most reliable and well-validated diagnostic category in the field of personality
disorders,”12 the following sections refer to his checklist as a basis for discussion.

Glib and Superficial/Impulsive

According to Hare’s research, people who encounter psychopaths will find

them, first of all, “witty and articulate,” and they can be good at telling stories.
To some people, however, “they seem too slick and smooth, too obviously insin-
cere and superficial. Astute observers often get the impression that psychopaths
are play-acting, mechanically ‘reading their lines’” (34–35). Psychopathic indi-
viduals also demonstrate a low concern for establishing or maintaining cred-
ibility with their audience.13 In Without Conscience, one interviewer wrote about

178 Hester and Segir

EAPR 15.2_03_Hester-Segir.indd 178 01/11/14 7:07 PM

This content downloaded from

74.200.159.2 on Wed, 28 May 2025 13:35:55 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 a psychopathic physician convicted of killing his wife and children: “I found him
to be extremely glib. . . . He was describing events of consummate horror. . . .
I have never in all of my experience encountered someone who could describe
an event like that in the almost cavalier manner” (37–38).
In “The Black Cat” Poe created a character as superficial, cavalier, and
overconfident as any real-life psychopathic subject described in Hare’s book, a
narrator with the ability of storytelling as well. Throughout the story, the nar-
rator persuasively articulates and holds reader attention by including maca-
bre descriptions of torture and murder. He glibly begins the story by saying,
“I neither expect nor solicit belief,” suggesting he doesn’t care what readers
think (849). He then continues his narrative, which includes a discussion of
the gruesome torture of his household pet and the killing of his wife as though
describing weekly chores such as yard work. He also suggests that we, readers,
would all do the same, given the same circumstances: “Who has not, a hundred
times, found himself committing a vile or a silly action, for no other reason
than because he knows he should not?” (852). As the narrator refers to the cut-
ting out of the cat’s eye with a penknife as a silly action, he calls attention to his
own glib and superficial nature. By classifying all people in the same murder-
ous category with him, the narrator also invites reader response. However, he
remains oblivious to the effects of his invitation, a perhaps unconscious disas-
sociation between reader and narrator.
In “Fear and Trembling in Literature of the Fantastic: Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The
Black Cat,’” Richard Badenhausen provides a possible reason why the narrator
fails to see himself as detached from society and, hence, from his readers:

Instead of embracing, before his execution, the opportunity for

redemption of the self by authenticating the “I,” the narrator chooses
to address his final captive audience (the reader) with a hearty denial
of his situation. In fact, he refuses even to acknowledge a disengage-
ment from the human race by suggesting that his murderous actions
differed in no way from the normal, everyday occurrences of the
domestic realm; indeed, he preposterously calls the events of his tale
“a series of mere household events” (597) . . . with the reader playing
role of attentive jury, the narrator adopts the language of defense attor-
ney. . . . Poe accentuates the effect by allowing his narrator to concen-
trate not on the murder itself (described in two short sentences) but
on the grotesque methods considered for eliminating the body (seven
sentences, including discussions of decapitation, burning, and bury-
ing) and achieving a final solution (11 sentences). The horror in Poe’s

Edgar Allan Poe 179

EAPR 15.2_03_Hester-Segir.indd 179 01/11/14 7:07 PM

This content downloaded from

74.200.159.2 on Wed, 28 May 2025 13:35:55 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 tale originates not from the descriptions of murder or decomposing
corpses (they are delivered with scientific precision, appropriate to the
narrator’s detachment from those acts), but from the reader’s realiza-
tion that the narrator is aggressively arguing his case and that given
a last opportunity to humanize the self through a confrontation with
death, he still flees in its face.14

Because the narrator insists on calling the murder an “everyday” event, readers
will likely distance themselves from him. This need for distance, however, may
originate from the readers’ growing knowledge of the narrator: his superficial
and impulsive nature, his need for immediate gratification, his lack of empathy,
and his lack of understanding concerning the consequences of his behavior.
Psychopaths seek immediate gratification to satisfy whatever the desire, with-
out any thought of future consequences. Hare says, “More than displays of tem-
per, impulsive acts often result from an aim that plays a central role in most
of the psychopath’s behavior: to achieve immediate satisfaction, pleasure, or
relief. The psychopath is like an infant, absorbed in his own needs, vehemently
demanding satiation” (58).
In the opening of “The Black Cat,” the narrator says of his wife, “Observing
my partiality for domestic pets, she lost no opportunity of procuring those of
the most agreeable kind” (850). Based on the number and the variety of pets,
one might wonder if his wife had either an obsessive personality disorder or
a desperate need to please her husband, someone with whom she had trouble
living. She procured “birds, gold-fish, a fine dog, rabbits, a small monkey, and
a cat” (850). Readers soon learn that he “offered” his wife “personal violence,”
all because of the “Fiend Intemperance” or alcoholism, he says. Perhaps the
wife procured the animals not so much because of his partiality to the animals
but because when he was occupied with the animals, he left her alone. The
number and variety of unusual animals suggests something out of the ordinary
(especially the small monkey), a mystery solved by the sixth paragraph when
the narrator admits to neglecting and ill-using all of the pets, as well as his wife.
According to Hare, evidence exists that psychopaths constitute “a significant
proportion of persistent batterers” (94). In addition, psychopaths consider the
damage they inflict on their spouses very minor even when police reports indi-
cate a string of tales that include black eyes and broken bones. Also, notice that
this story should actually focus on crimes of domestic abuse and murder, which
the narrator does not address as such.
Though he does briefly mention his wife and her murder, he directs more
attention toward himself and his cat. For several years, the narrator said he

180 Hester and Segir

EAPR 15.2_03_Hester-Segir.indd 180 01/11/14 7:07 PM

This content downloaded from

74.200.159.2 on Wed, 28 May 2025 13:35:55 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 remained kind to his favorite pet, Pluto, the black cat. However, “at length even
Pluto, who was now becoming old, and consequently somewhat peevish—
began to experience the effects of my ill temper” (851). One night, he imagines
that the cat avoided his presence so he grabbed him. When the cat scratched
him, he was infuriated to the point that “my original soul seemed, at once, to
take its flight from my body; and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nur-
tured, thrilled, every fibre of my frame” (851). At this point, he took out a knife
and “grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes
from the socket!”(851). According to forensic psychology, Hare says, “psycho-
paths are unlikely to spend much time weighing the pros and cons of a course
of action or considering the possible consequences. ‘I did it because I felt like
it,’ is a common response” (58).
While it is true that the narrator says that he felt remorse the next morn-
ing when he was sober, his remarks about these feelings contradict them-
selves: “I experienced a sentiment half of horror, half of remorse, for the
crime of which I had been guilty; but it was, at best, a feeble and equivocal
feeling, and the soul remained untouched” (851). Then, he tells us that the
cat, his playmate and friend, heals over time only later to be killed—for no
good reason. “I felt it had given me no reason or offence” (852). Again, psy-
chopaths do things because they feel like it, or as the narrator says, the soul
longs “to vex itself . . . [or] to do wrong for the wrong’s sake only” (852). In
other words, he acted on impulse.

Narrator and Shallow Emotions/Adult Antisocial Behavior

According to Hare, in addition to their superficial and impulsive behaviors,

psychopaths experience emotions on a level termed as little more than “proto-
emotions: primitive responses to immediate needs” (53). Lab experiments indi-
cate that psychopaths lack an emotional awareness of fear and apprehension
along with the unpleasant bodily sensations that accompany these emotions.
For most people, fear and apprehension lead to sweating, pounding of the
heart, dry mouth, muscle tenseness, weakness, trembling, and so on. A normal
person often describes fear in relation to the body: “I was so terrified my heart
leapt into my throat” (Hare, 55–56). People find they can’t speak or move when
fear is great; however, a psychopath lacks “emotional awareness of the conse-
quences that impel most people to take a particular course of action” (Hare, 54).
Throughout “The Black Cat,” the narrator clearly demonstrates “a kind of
emotional poverty”(Hare, 52) that Hare describes, for instance in the way the
narrator relates the police investigation: “Some few inquiries had been made,
but these had been readily answered. Even a search had been instituted—but

Edgar Allan Poe 181

EAPR 15.2_03_Hester-Segir.indd 181 01/11/14 7:07 PM

This content downloaded from

74.200.159.2 on Wed, 28 May 2025 13:35:55 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 of course nothing was to be discovered. I looked upon my future felicity as
secured” (52). Again on the fourth day after the “assassination,” the police
came to investigate. “Secure, however, in the inscrutability of my place of
concealment, I felt no embarrassment whatever. . . . I quivered not a muscle.
My heart beat calmly as that of one who slumbers in innocence. . . . I folded
my arms upon my bosom, and roamed easily to and fro” (858). Because the
narrator does not suffer from guilt or regret, his only concern is with getting
caught. On the other hand, most people who find themselves feeling guilty
will experience the concomitant bodily responses such as sweating, blush-
ing, and shaking.
The narrator’s extremely shallow emotions as well as his monomaniacal
focus on himself reveal his antisocial personality. Individuals with antisocial
personalities “tend to antagonize, manipulate or treat others either harshly or
with callous indifference. They may often violate the law, landing in frequent
trouble, yet they show no guilt or remorse. They may lie, behave violently or
impulsively, and have problems with drug/alcohol use.”15 Several times in “The
Black Cat,” the narrator refers to his “intemperance,” showing the above charac-
ter issues while seldom mentioning his wife or neighbors. At the same time, he
shows an unusual focus on household pets from which he derived his “principle
sources of pleasure.” He also contrasts the “unselfish and self-sacrificing love of
a brute” to the “paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere Man” (850),
revealing an unbalanced, pernicious attitude toward humankind. While the
narrator visits the local pubs around town, he does not speak of friends but only
himself. He also discusses his relationship with his wife in terms of himself: “I
married early, and was happy to find in my wife a disposition not uncongenial
with my own” (850). In another one of the narrator’s discussions concerning his
cat and his wife, his antisocial behavior becomes even more apparent: “I grew,
day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of oth-
ers. I suffered myself to use intemperate language to my wife. At length, I even
offered her personal violence” (851). While psychopaths display indifference
toward others, this does not suggest emotional indifference toward themselves.
According to H. J. Martens, “Like anyone else, psychopaths have a deep wish
to be loved and cared for. This desire remains frequently unfulfilled, however,
as it is obviously not easy for another person to get close to someone with such
repellent personality characteristics. Psychopaths are at least periodically aware
of the effects of their behavior on others and can be genuinely saddened by
their inability to control it.” As a result, they become socially isolated over time,
more and more moody, and “loneliness and associated emotional pain in psy-
chopaths may precede violent crime.”16

182 Hester and Segir

EAPR 15.2_03_Hester-Segir.indd 182 01/11/14 7:07 PM

This content downloaded from

74.200.159.2 on Wed, 28 May 2025 13:35:55 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Egocentric and Grandiose/Poor Behavior Controls

Hare says that “psychopaths often come across as arrogant, shameless braggarts—
self-assured, opinionated, domineering, and cocky” (38). Toward the end of the
story when the police question the narrator about the disappearance of his wife,
he says that “the glee at my heart was too strong to be restrained. I burned to say
if but one word, by way of triumph, and to render doubly sure their assurance of
my guiltlessness. . . . I said at last, as the party ascended the steps, ‘I delight to have
allayed your suspicions. I wish you all health, and a little more courtesy. By the
bye, gentlemen, this—this is a very well-constructed house’” (858). So sure he had
escaped suspicion, so caught up in his own pride of success, the narrator tapped
the basement wall exactly where he had buried his wife, causing the cat, who was
accidentally buried with his wife, to let out a howl, giving away the hiding place.
The very character flaws that weaken his character, his egocentricity and grandiose
behavior, cause him to both commit and reveal the crime. For instance, the narra-
tor reveals his egocentricity and lack of self-control as he describes several violent
encounters with the cat and his wife. As Hare says, a psychopath’s egocentrism can
lead to poor behavior controls when the individual sometimes reacts inappropri-
ately and aggressively to “perceived insults or slights” (59). In this case, the narrator
could not tolerate the cat scratching him nor could he abide his wife’s attempt to
save the cat. Likewise, at the end of the story, the narrator was so sure of his skill at
deception that his egocentric behavior led him to tap on the basement wall.
To continue analyzing the narrator as psychopath, readers can juxtapose
his words and actions to see the various discrepancies between the two. For
example, the narrator says he liked his wife and favorite pet, yet his actions belie
his claims. Most people cannot imagine inflicting the kind of physical harm
described in the story on a worst enemy, much less on loved ones and pets. After
inflicting such harm, the narrator shows concern with guilt or innocence only,
rather than the consequences of pain and death that he caused his victims. Hare
says that the speech of psychopaths is often inconsistent and contradictory: One
reason for the failure to produce a consistent and coherent whole is that psycho-
paths use language in a two-dimensional sense, without reference to emotion/
connotation. For most people, words include both dictionary and emotional/
connotative meanings. “Psychopaths may play mental Scrabble, but they some-
times do it badly because they fail to integrate the pieces of their conversation
into a coherent whole; their truth line is fragmented and patchy, at best. . . . Their
‘mental packages’ are not only small but two-dimensional, devoid of emotional
meaning” (Hare, 36–37). For instance, a psychopath may see nothing wrong
with expressing love to a person just after beating the person (Hare, 137).

Edgar Allan Poe 183

EAPR 15.2_03_Hester-Segir.indd 183 01/11/14 7:07 PM

This content downloaded from

74.200.159.2 on Wed, 28 May 2025 13:35:55 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Deceitful and Manipulative/Early Behavior Problems

On a first or second encounter with the text, some readers may find the asser-
tions of this self-proclaimed “wild, yet most homely” narrator credible—even
the claim that he has real feelings. In the first paragraph, the narrator writes, “In
their consequences these events have terrified—have tortured—have destroyed
me” (849). The vague reference to consequences may lead some readers to
assume “consequences” refer to either consequences the victims suffered or to
portentous events yet to be described, but a rereading suggests the narrator
refers to the literal and impending destruction of his own life by the noose
rather than the feelings of anyone else.
In fact, the narration is filled with misdirection and misrepresentations,
even concerning information about the murder and about the torture and kill-
ing of the cat or cats. According to Amper, the burial of his wife in the basement
was a reburial after the fire.17 The narrator did not describe the cat’s image on
the wall as “remarkably large,” but as “gigantic,” as the image might be relative
to a dead woman’s body. According to Amper, when the narrator sees the shape
on the wall of his bedroom after the fire, “It is not the specter of the victim that
frightens him; it is the threat of exposure.”18 Amper also describes the second
cat as a fiction, positing that only one cat, Pluto, exists in this narrative. The
narrator writes:

But I am detailing a chain of facts—and wish not to leave even a pos-

sible link imperfect. On the day succeeding the fire, I visited the ruins.
The walls, with one exception, had fallen in. This exception was found
in a compartment wall, not very thick, which stood about the mid-
dle of the house, and against which had rested the head of my bed.
The plastering had here, in great measure, resisted the action of the
fire—a fact which I attributed to its having been recently spread. . . . I
approached and saw, as if graven in bas relief upon the white surface,
the figure of a gigantic cat. The impression was given with an accuracy
truly marvelous. (853)

Amper notes that a large cat will not leave a gigantic impression and readers
should wonder why the narrator recently spread a wall of plaster while offering
no explanation. Amper says a “jury must have already made a similar attempt at
sorting out the facts.”19 So the narrator provides misinformation, leaving readers
to fill in the blanks about what really happened. In response to Amper, Joseph
Stark says readers must “take his testimony with a grain of salt.”20 Stark writes,

184 Hester and Segir

EAPR 15.2_03_Hester-Segir.indd 184 01/11/14 7:07 PM

This content downloaded from

74.200.159.2 on Wed, 28 May 2025 13:35:55 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 When he blames his crime on human depravity, we are skeptical of this
solution, simply because he offers it. . . . Other potential motives arise in
the text, but none of these satisfy either. The most obvious next culprit
is his alcoholism. Again, one difficulty with this solution is that the nar-
rator himself puts it forward as a possibility. . . . As T. J. Matheson notes,
the two murders (of cat and wife) occurred while he was sober. Only the
gouging out of the cat’s eye happened while he was drunk. . . . Hence,
though alcohol may have been a contributing factor to his crime it cannot
be described as the ultimate cause.21

Stark says that if readers assume the narrator was an alcoholic, mocked in
childhood by classmates because of his sensitive nature, then readers may also
believe that every effect has a cause and that the narrator is, in some way, a
victim. If readers believe the narrator’s conclusions about causal relationships,
then “all things can be explained by simple cause and effect. If such a conclusion
is true then all human actions have an irrational determinism at their core.”22
The narrator tries desperately to make readers view him as the victim,
going so far as to write, “It was this unfathomable longing of the soul to vex
itself—to offer violence to its own nature—to do wrong for the wrong’s sake
only—that urged me to . . . consummate the injury . . . upon the unoffending
brute” (852). To the list of causes, he blames his own black soul, suggesting he
lacked free will. According to Hare, psychopaths never accept responsibility
for their actions: “Be aware of who the victim is. Psychopaths often give the
impression it is they who are suffering and that it is the victims who are to
blame for their misery” (215–16).
The narrator also describes himself as a victim during his childhood. He says
that he was known from childhood for his “tenderness of heart” and for his “docil-
ity and humanity,” characteristics opposite of what he demonstrates in the nar-
rative. However, according to Hare, “Most psychopaths begin to exhibit serious
behavioral problems at an early age. These might include persistent lying, cheat-
ing, theft, fire setting . . . violence. . . . Early cruelty to animals is usually a sign
of serious emotional or behavioral problems. Interestingly, however, the media
frequently report that witnesses and neighbors are taken completely by surprise
in reaction to some senseless crime. . . . Reactions of this sort reflect not only psy-
chopaths’ power to manipulate others’ impression of themselves but the witnesses’
ignorance of their early history” (66–67). Note that the narrator does not explain
how his house caught on fire, and knowing that the narrator lies, readers need
not stretch their imaginations far to wonder about his childhood, to doubt that
he suddenly turned into this person who neglected and “ill-used” the family pets.

Edgar Allan Poe 185

EAPR 15.2_03_Hester-Segir.indd 185 01/11/14 7:07 PM

This content downloaded from

74.200.159.2 on Wed, 28 May 2025 13:35:55 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Narrator’s Lack of Remorse or Guilt/Need for Excitement

Related to the narrator’s lack of reliability and his refusal to acknowledge his
responsibility, readers will also notice he lacks feelings of guilt. “Psychopaths’
lack of remorse or guilt is associated with a remarkable ability to rationalize their
behavior and to shrug off personal responsibility for actions” (Hare, 40–42). In
his account of the murder, the narrator speaks of his wife’s unfortunate death in
this way:

Uplifting an axe, and forgetting, in my wrath, the childish dread which had
hitherto stayed my hand, I aimed a blow at the animal which, of course,
would have proved instantly fatal had it descended as I wished. But this
blow was arrested by the hand of my wife. Goaded, by the interference,
into a rage more than demoniacal, I withdrew my arm from her grasp and
buried the axe in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot without a groan.
The hideous murder accomplished, I set myself forthwith, and with
entire deliberation to the task of concealing the body. I knew I could not
remove it from the house. . . . At one period I thought of cutting the
corpse into minute fragments. (856)

The above passage, in addition to demonstrating the impulsive behavior of a

young child who must have his own way, the narrator shows no moment of hes-
itation, regret, or contemplation. He now speaks of his wife as “it,” “the body,”
“the corpse.” He does not call his wife’s death an accident but refers to the death
as “the hideous murder accomplished,” then says he set himself “forthwith and
with entire deliberation to the task of concealing the body.” The narrator shows
no signs of empathy or remorse, no signs of anything that relates to concern
other than for himself—his main concern of getting rid of “the corpse” and
his own dread and desire to get rid of his “tormentor,” the cat. He refers to the
murder as an “assassination” and says, “My happiness was supreme! The guilt
of my dark deed disturbed me but little” (858). When the search party returns
to the cellar where the narrator buried his wife, he also shows no remorse in the
presence of the police just as he shows no remorse for the murder: “At length,
for the third or fourth time, they descended into the cellar. I quivered not in a
muscle. My heart beat calmly as that of one who slumbers in innocence” (858).
Along with lack of remorse or guilt, and the need to lie, Hare says that psy-
chopaths also have a persistent and intense need for excitement—something the
narrator may be accomplishing through his writing. According to Badenhausen,
this story “accords nicely with those critics who posit a fear-based . . . fantastic

186 Hester and Segir

EAPR 15.2_03_Hester-Segir.indd 186 01/11/14 7:07 PM

This content downloaded from

74.200.159.2 on Wed, 28 May 2025 13:35:55 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 literature.”23 The story achieves the effect of fear or horror or curiosity by allowing
the narrator “to tell his tale remorselessly if not to evoke a final response that gives
him pleasure before death.”24 Badenhausen continues,

If we find ourselves, as McElroy suggests, consciously identifying with

Poe’s narrator in any way, our response might be to shudder upon that
recognition, to deny the identification, or to fear what that says about
ourselves. If we sympathize with the narrator and recognize the existen-
tial underpinning of his situation, we replace the fear with alarm, over his
missed chance for redemption. If we find the entire sequence of events
simply difficult to comprehend . . . the only recourse is nervous laughter
and the hope that we did not miss a joke understood by the rest of the
audience.25

As he tells this story, the narrator does achieve the effect that Badenhausen sug-
gests—of fear, horror, or, at the very least, curiosity.

Narrator’s Lack of Empathy/Lack of Responsibility

Hare says that a psychopath “can torture and mutilate their victims with about
the same sense of concern that most people feel when carving a turkey for
Thanksgiving dinner” (45). Psychopaths see people as objects. “The weak and
the vulnerable . . . are favorable targets” (Hare, 44). In “The Black Cat,” the nar-
rator tells of the abuse of his wife and the family pets, the weak and the vulnera-
ble. At no point does he discuss the impact of his actions on his wife or examine
his relationship with her beyond mentioning that she was a compatible mate.
He devotes some space in his story to his relationship with the black cat, but he
keeps the focus on himself. “Pluto—this was the cat’s name—was my favorite
pet and playmate. . . . Our friendship lasted, in this manner, for several years,
during which my general temperament and character—through the instru-
mentality of the Fiend Intemperance—had (I blush to confess it) experienced a
radical alteration for the worse. I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable,
more regardless to the feelings of others” (851). Truth be told, the narrator pays
no attention to anything other than circumstances that influence the outcome
of his life (and impending death) in some way, demonstrating his complete lack
of empathy. At no point in the story does he mention the consequences of his
actions toward others.
Connected to the idea of the missing empathy is the narrator’s tendency
to avoid responsibility for his actions. “Obligations and commitments mean

Edgar Allan Poe 187

EAPR 15.2_03_Hester-Segir.indd 187 01/11/14 7:07 PM

This content downloaded from

74.200.159.2 on Wed, 28 May 2025 13:35:55 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 nothing to psychopaths. . . . The irresponsibility and unreliability of psycho-
paths extend to every part of their lives” (61–63). Though the narrator tries
to blame alcohol, on the one hand, he ultimately blames Pluto for his violent
behavior. In the final paragraph of the narration, as the police and the narra-
tor look at the ghastly scene before them, the narrator disconnects from the
victim and his own actions. He looks at the cat, and says he “had seduced
[him] into murder, and whose informing voice has consigned me to the hang-
man. I had walled the monster within the tomb!” (859). In essence refusing to
take responsibility for his actions, the narrator says the cat both caused and
revealed the murder.

On Poe, Free Will, and Personal Accountability

While Poe may not have a scientific/medical definition for the psychopath,
readers may ask if he toyed with the idea that the narrator meets the legal stan-
dards for sanity because he seems capable of understanding the rules of soci-
ety and the conventional meanings of right and wrong. Hare says that these
criminals know the rules and have the ability to reason, suggesting they can
also be held accountable for their actions (145). In the beginning of the story,
the narrator writes, “mad I am not—and very surely do I not dream” (849).
Stark says that “by depicting a motiveless murderer whose actions cannot be
sufficiently explained, Poe “‘place[d] before the world . . . without comment’
difficulties in both scientific and religious thought and ironically upheld the
mysterious nature of the human will in a time dominated by intellectual ratio-
nalism.” Stark also argues that in “The Black Cat,” we find ourselves “without a
thorough explanatory cause.”26 According to Cleman, Poe studied the workings
of the criminal mind, and we see that Poe questioned rationality and culpability
of the criminal mind. Cleman writes:

Poe’s familiarity with the scientific/medical accounts of insanity of his

day has been well established, and his awareness of the issues of the
insanity-defense controversy can be linked to two specific cases in which
the defense was employed, both occurring in the environs of Philadelphia
where Poe resided between 1838 and 1844, and both featuring the same
attorney, Peter A. Browne. . . . In the first of these, James Wood was
acquitted on the grounds of insanity of the deliberate murder of his
daughter. Lengthy accounts of the trial appeared daily in the Philadelphia
Public Ledger from 24 to 30 March 1840, and a comment at its conclusion
appearing in the 1 April 1840 issues of Alexander’s Weekly Messenger has
been attributed to Poe.27

188 Hester and Segir

EAPR 15.2_03_Hester-Segir.indd 188 01/11/14 7:07 PM

This content downloaded from

74.200.159.2 on Wed, 28 May 2025 13:35:55 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 According to Cleman, “Poe’s fascination with the stories of crime, sometimes
gleaned from contemporary newspaper accounts, is obvious enough.”28
That Poe understood and characterized the psychopath so clearly, includ-
ing the narrator’s deceitfulness, lack of conscience, egocentricity, and manipu-
lative behaviors, further supports the idea that Poe was more than a titillating,
phantasmagoric, Gothic writer. Now, added to the long list of characterizations
of Poe’s narrator, it seems that readers can also add psychopath. What is most
interesting, Poe does not simply portray a few of the characteristics of a psycho-
pathic killer, but illustrates all pertinent features of this social deviant—clearly,
concisely, and creatively through the narrator.
By creating this narrator, perhaps Poe wanted to show the inner workings
of an individual who has no empathy, no conscience, who lies, who is violent
and guilty of murder—a person who shows no interest in, or hope for, redemp-
tion or rehabilitation. Poe and Hare share the view that psychopaths are not
mad. In addition, Hare says that emotion is central to reason and an essen-
tial part of the conscience. This very central element is exactly what is miss-
ing in psychopaths. “The powerful motivating, guiding, and inhibiting effects
of emotion play little role in their lives, presumably not so much by choice
as because of what they are. In effect, their internalized rulebooks are pale,
abridged versions of those that direct the conduct of other individuals.”29 Hare
also approaches psychopathy as a physical, neurological disorder, related to
“structural or functional anomalies in the brain mechanism and neural cir-
cuitry.” Hare says, “Studies indicate that damage to these regions can produce
a dissociation of the logical/cognitive and affective components of thought.”30
According to Larry J. Siever, who reports on numerous genetic, language, and
neurological studies, some evidence exists that “psychopaths appear to have
problems processing affectively charged words in the right hemisphere, and
shift this function to the left hemisphere.”31 Siever also says that “perhaps the
most convincing data for altered cortical function in psychopaths comes from
studies evaluating the language of psychopaths and their processing emotional
words. . . . Emotion is like a ‘second language’ to psychopaths. . . . Their use
of language without underlying deep affect has prompted an analogy to their
‘knowing the words but not the music.’”32
If Poe understood the psychopathic mind and if their condition is untreat-
able, readers may still be left wondering if Poe would agree that these criminals
should be held accountable, according to legal and psychiatric standards, or if
he thought they should be treated as mental patients (and take the risk that they
would soon con doctors into believing they are cured and be released to the
public). Hare says that psychopathy should not be viewed as a mitigating factor

Edgar Allan Poe 189

EAPR 15.2_03_Hester-Segir.indd 189 01/11/14 7:07 PM

This content downloaded from

74.200.159.2 on Wed, 28 May 2025 13:35:55 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 for criminals because forensic scientists agree that there is little evidence that
psychopaths respond to treatment. Hare writes,

In a well-known study, Rice, Harris, and Cormier . . . retrospectively

scored the PCL-R from the institutional files of patients of a maximum-
security psychiatric facility. . . . They then compare the violent recidivism
rate of 166 patients who had been treated in an intensive and lengthy ther-
apeutic community program. . . . The violent recidivism rate for treated
psychopaths was higher (77%) than was that for untreated psychopaths
(55%). How could therapy make someone worse? The simple answer is
that group therapy and insight-oriented programs may help psychopaths
to develop better ways of manipulating, deceiving, and using people.33

Poe seemed to understand the legal issues of his time and that this type of crim-
inal was permanently impaired. The attorney Peter A. Browne, who worked on
those two famous murder cases in Philadelphia during Poe’s residence there,
was well-known for his research concerning insanity. Brown posits that the test
of sanity should not be the presence or absence of free will or choice but the
individual’s ability to use them.34 According to Cleman,

Browne cites numerous legal and medical authorities, mostly from the
late eighteenth century and so on, to demonstrate that the equation
between rationality and moral responsibility is not absolute. An indi-
vidual may display considerable powers of intellect on a wide range of
subjects, including the planning and execution of his crime, and still not
be responsible for his actions. Even the knowledge of good and evil, he
insists, is an inadequate test of insanity, for it does not answer the crucial
question, whether or not the accused was “incapable of exercising free
will.” For Browne, the only test of exculpable lunacy is fairly clean cut:
“A lunatic is one ‘who has lost the use of his reason,’” not totally
lost or “deprived of his reason” but “one ‘who hath lost the use of his rea-
son,’ which includes those who still having intellect cannot use it because
either their affections or their will are deranged.”35

Unlike Browne who helped with the acquittal of a brutal murderer in 1840,
based on the insanity defense, Poe sends his narrator to the hangman.
Perhaps in creating such a detailed account of this narrator, Poe was hop-
ing to enlighten his contemporary readers so they would better understand
the criminal type who describes brutality as “nothing more than an ordinary

190 Hester and Segir

EAPR 15.2_03_Hester-Segir.indd 190 01/11/14 7:07 PM

This content downloaded from

74.200.159.2 on Wed, 28 May 2025 13:35:55 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 succession of very natural causes and effects” (849). Hare mirrors the narrator’s
words when he writes, “In most cases, they see their aggressive displays as natu-
ral responses to provocation” (60). Even though scientists better understand
psychopathy today, and regardless of the possibility that this disorder may be
physiological, Hare still holds that society must hold psychopaths accountable
for their actions: “If psychopathy was to be used as a defense for a criminal act,
this would be disturbing for society because this syndrome remains untreat-
able” (195–200). In the final analysis Poe’s narrator, when juxtaposed with Hare
and other forensic scientists, would find himself in the same predicament today
even though he might find himself better understood. Today’s courts would
declare him sane; he would remain unqualified for the insanity defense.
In light of the fact that the narrator of “The Black Cat” possesses the char-
acteristics of a psychopath as defined by current empirical research, and con-
sidering that this currently accepted definition of psychopathy was formally
established only within the last few decades, Poe’s story may represent yet
another example of raw genius. Poe’s ability to observe and pull together intri-
cate and various personality traits to form a character type demonstrate liter-
ary talent at producing an authentic character, and the story also demonstrates
Poe’s awareness of the legal and scientific issues of his day.

Notes

1. Edgar Allan Poe, “The Black Cat,” Tales and Sketches, ed. Thomas Ollive Mabbott
(Urbana: Illinois University Press, 2000), 849. Further references to “The Black Cat” will
be from this edition and noted parenthetically.
2. Susan Amper, “Untold Story: The Lying Narrator in ‘The Black Cat,’” Studies in
Short Fiction 29, no. 4 (1992): 475–85. Amper suggests the narrator has only one cat, the
one that was buried alive with his wife, who was the original and only victim in the story.
The splotch in the shape of the gallows on the “second” cat could be a result of burns
from the house fire. Amper says the gallows could signify a guilty conscious, though this
essay will later argue against the idea of the narrator’s ability to feel guilt.
3. Ibid.
4. Robert D. Hare, Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of Psychopaths Among
Us (New York: Guilford Press, 1999), 2, 5. Further references to Hare’s text will be noted
parenthetically.
5. See Joseph Stark, “Motive and Meaning: The Mystery of the Will in Poe’s ‘The Black
Cat,’” Mississippi Quarterly 57, no. 2 (2004): 255–63; John Cleman, “Irresistible Impulses:
Edgar Allan Poe and the Insanity Defense,” American Literature 63, no. 4 (1991): 623–40.
6. Stark, “Motive and Meaning,” 262. Calvinism includes a belief in original sin, in
the natural depravity of the soul. The narrator repeats the idea that he could not help but
do evil because of the spirit of perverseness at his core which led him to that moment
when he killed his wife, though he said that he aimed to kill the cat rather than his wife.
In one breath, he said that it was the cat’s fault and in another, the fault belongs to nature.

Edgar Allan Poe 191

EAPR 15.2_03_Hester-Segir.indd 191 01/11/14 7:07 PM

This content downloaded from

74.200.159.2 on Wed, 28 May 2025 13:35:55 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 He was simply born with a perverse nature. The narrator tries to have it both ways:
accident and insanity plea/perverseness. A reader could get whiplash as the narrator
provides multiple and simultaneous defenses for a premeditated murder while, at the
same time, argues the murder was not premeditated.
7. Ibid.
8. Though Hare does not encourage armchair psychoanalysis, two things should be
noted. First, the aim of this essay is to discuss a fictional character for the purposes of
understanding the depth and breadth of Poe’s knowledge of the criminal mind. Hare
also says he is writing to those who want to understand and avoid predatory personality
types that fall into the distinctive cluster of behaviors found on his checklist. Hare warns
readers not to label people but to use the knowledge from his book only to protect them-
selves from con artists, also known as the psychopaths who live in our midst. In other
words, not all psychopaths turn violent but many operate in the general population.
9. For more information regarding Hare’s research, see the following source: Kath-
erine Ramsland, “Dr. Robert Hare: Expert on the Psychopath,” Crime Library, n.d.,
http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/psychology/robert_hare/index.html.
According to Ramsland, Hare developed the Psychopathy Checklist and its revision, the
Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, for the reliable and valid assessment of psychopathy.
Even though the revised checklist is considered the most accurate instruments available
concerning the risk for violence, this essay is not concerned with criminal recidivism
and will use the original, shorter version rather than the revised version. This essay
does mention, however, a few factors on the revised checklist that pertain to the story,
such as lying. The issues not discussed—juvenile delinquency, revocation of conditional
release, and promiscuous sexual behavior—do not pertain to the arguments in this essay
because the narrator gives no information on these topics and will never be released
from prison.
10. Robert Hare and Craig S. Neumann, “Psychopathy: Assessment and Forensic
Implications,” Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 54, no. 12 (2009): 794.
11. Ramsland, “Dr. Robert Hare.”
12. Thomas A. Widiger and Donald R. Lynam, “Psychopathy and the Five-Factor
Model of Personality,” Psychopathy: Antisocial, Criminal, and Violent Behavior, ed. The-
odore Millon, Erik Simonsen, Morten Birket-Smith, and Roger D. Davis (New York:
Guildford Press, 1998), 185. Also see Hare and Neumann, “Psychopathy,” 795. Since Hare
developed the psychopathy checklist, PCL, he also developed the psychopathy checklist-
revised PCL-R, as well as the PCL-SV used in forensic populations, the PCL-YV used
with adolescents, and others.
13. Ibid., 35. Readers will notice that many of Hare’s categories overlap. According to
Widiger and Lynam, “Psychopathy and the Five-Factor Model of Personality,” 179, many
of Hare’s descriptors appear on three or more items of the checklist, items such as impul-
sive behavior and poor behavior controls. In this essay, though readers will see overlap
in discussions among categories, one category will always dominate.
14. Richard Badenhausen, “Fear and Trembling in Literature of the Fantastic: Edgar
Allan Poe’s ‘The Black Cat,’” Studies in Short Fiction 29, no. 4 (1992): 487–98.
15. S. S. Smith and J. P. Newman, “Alcohol and Drug Abuse-Dependence Disor-
ders in Psychopathic and Nonpsychopathic Criminal Offenders,” Journal of Abnor-
mal Psychology 99 no. 4 (1990): 431. These writers examined the relationship between
substance abuse and the Psychopathy Checklist, establishing that psychopaths often
engage in alcohol and substance abuse, even to the extent of becoming addicted. Also
see Joachin Knop, Per Jensen, and Erik Lykke Mortensen, “Comorbidity of Alcoholism
and Psychopathy,” Psychopathy: Antisocial, Criminal, and Violent Behavior, ed. Theodore

192 Hester and Segir

EAPR 15.2_03_Hester-Segir.indd 192 01/11/14 7:07 PM

This content downloaded from

74.200.159.2 on Wed, 28 May 2025 13:35:55 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Millon, Erik Simonsen, Morten Birket-Smith, and Roger D. Davis (New York: Guildford
Press, 1998), 321: “The interrelationship of psychopathy and substance use disorders has
been an established fact for decades. . . . The two diagnostic entities are so closely inter-
related that a clinical study on psychopathy will always include some consideration of
the subject’s alcohol and other substance use and vice versa.”
16. H. J. Martens, “Hidden Suffering of the Psychopath,” Psychiatric Times,
August 25, 2006, http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/psychotic-affective-disorders
/hidden-suffering-psychopath-0.
17. Amper, “Untold Story.”
18. Amper, “Untold Story.”
19. Amper, “Untold Story.”
20. Stark, “Motive and Meaning,” 260.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid., 260–61.
23. Badenhausen, “Fear and Trembling.”
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid.
26. Stark, “Motive and Meaning,” 255.
27. Cleman, “Irresistible Impulses,” 623.
28. Ibid., 632.
29. Robert D. Hare, “Psychopaths and Their Nature: Implications for the Mental
Health and Criminal Justice Systems,” in Psychopathy: Antisocial, Criminal, and Vio-
lent Behavior, ed. Theodore Millon, Erik Simonsen, Morten Birket-Smith, and Roger D.
Davis (New York: Guildford Press, 1998), 205.
30. Ibid., 204.
31. Larry J. Siever, “Neurobiology in Psychopathy,” Psychopathy: Antisocial, Criminal,
and Violent Behavior, ed. Theodore Millon, Erik Simonsen, Morten Birket-Smith, and
Roger D. Davis (New York: Guildford Press, 1998), 234.
32. Ibid.
33. Hare, “Psychopaths and Their Nature,” 202.
34. Cleman, “Irresistible Impulses,” 629.
35. Ibid., 628–29.

Edgar Allan Poe 193

EAPR 15.2_03_Hester-Segir.indd 193 01/11/14 7:07 PM

This content downloaded from

74.200.159.2 on Wed, 28 May 2025 13:35:55 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms