Internal Conflict In The Black Cat

Edgar Allan Poe uses internal conflict in the short story, “The Black Cat” to show how the narrator slowly plunges into madness. In this story we observe a person fighting with himself because he does things he knows is morally wrong. The narrator first shows signs of insanity, when he mentions his changing mood: “I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others” (1). This shows the reader that he is unstable and unreliable. He also begins talking about inflicting pain on his pets: “I not only neglected, but ill used them” (1). Throughout the story the narrator struggles with a disease, a disease that will slowly take over his life: “But my disease grew upon me – for what disease is like alcohol” (1). His first act of impulsive violence caused by alcoholism is towards his cat, Pluto. Pluto was his favorite pet, but the narrator begins to think of the car as a disturbance. He cuts his eye out in a drunken rage, but afterward feels remorse for his actions: “…I experienced a sentiment half of horror, half of remorse” (2). We can take from this quote that he acts in haste. After killing the cat he puts a noose around
After the fire he becomes morose and depressed: “…I resigned thenceforward to despair” (2). When you lose all of your possessions it feels like you’ve lost a part of yourself. He comes back to the dilapidated house to find a wall still standing of an imprint of Pluto on it. This discovery sends him over the edge. He begins losing sleep, and we can infer this because he states “For months I could not rid myself of the phantasm of the cat…” (3). He begins to obsess over the cat, but this time he did not feel remorse:”…there came back into my spirit a half-sentiment that seemed, but was not, remorse” (3). This contradicts the feelings he has the first time when he injures the cat. This tells the readers the narrator is unpredictable and that his emotions change