Odalis Espinoza
FIQWS: Literature & Psychoanalysis
10 October 2018
Married to the Black Cat
Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, introduced theories that help to understand the individual within society in literature. The short story “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe demonstrates a variety of psychoanalytic concepts presented by Freud in “On Dreams”. “The Black Cat” illustrates an alcoholic husband and his homicidal tendencies against his cats and his wife as an effect of his repressed emotions. These unconscious desires of the narrator are presented through the repetitive physical abuse of his pet cats and later murder of his wife. Unknowingly, the narrator of Poe’s “The Black Cat” demonstrates the Freudian symptoms of condensation and displacement, to conceal the unacceptable hatred he feels towards his wife.
The narrator describes himself as an animal lover, past and present; one who even “was especially fond of animals, and was indulged by my [the narrator’s] parents with a great variety of pets” (Poe, “The Black Cat”). Through the insight on the narrator’s childhood, the sincere and wholehearted love he’s always had for his pets can be seen. The drastic change in personality the narrator experiences can be witnessed after the atrocious act committed against the cat. The first black cat’s eye was removed when “I [the narrator] took from my [his] waistcoat-pocket a pen-knife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket” (Poe, “The Black Cat”). In contrast to the characterization the narrator brings upon himself describing his immense love for animals since infancy, his change of heart is extremely misleading. Not only does the narrator stop after the removal of his cat’s eyeball but he goes on to take the life of the cat. The narrator described this account when he said, “I [the narrator] slipped a noose about its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree” (Poe, “The Black Cat”). The narrator put the cat through unimaginable physical pain and proceeded to take its life. These actions do not correlate with the initial characterization of the narrator and can be explained by Freud’s theory of displacement within the dream-work. Freud introduced this concept of displacement as transference and defined it as the “content seems[seeming] to have a different center from its dream thoughts” (Freud, “On Dreams”), simply meaning the transference of inappropriate emotions from one subject to another. Displacement as explained by Freud occurs in dreams but can also been seen in the awake-life, as seen in Poe’s work. Freud’s idea of displacement is demonstrated in the literature previously discussed, with the narrator’s wife and the cat. The anger and the hatred felt by the narrator is directly aimed at his black cat, but unconsciously aimed at his wife. This unconscious feeling of hatred towards his spouse goes against societal norms making those emotions presented by the narrator, unacceptable. The narrator displaced his inappropriate feelings of hatred onto the black cat because of the direct affection his wife feels towards the animal, as well as the pressure society puts upon them as a married couple. The societal norms of marriage impede him from publicly hating her, resulting in his hatred of the black cat.
Moreover, condensation as described by Freud is also present in Poe’s short story. Condensation is the accumulation of memories present in dreams represented by symbols. The unconscious hides the meaning of dreams with condensation, to protect the individual’s personality. According to Freud’s “On Dreams”, “every situation in a dream seems to be put together out of two or more impressions or experiences” (Freud, “On Dreams”). Condensation can be found within the story with the cat being the prime symbol. Like displacement, condensation is also present in the awake-life. When Poe wrote, “During the former the creature left me no moment alone; and, in the latter, I started, hourly, from dreams of unutterable fear, to find the hot breath of the thing upon my face, and its vast weight — an incarnate Night-Mare that I had no power to shake off ” (Poe, “The Black Cat”). It leaves the reader perplexed as to who the narrator is referring to, his wife or the cat. The theory of condensation is also demonstrated after the murder of the narrator’s wife. After hiding the corpse, the narrator mentions his lack of remorse and emphasizes on the relief he feels. “Once again I breathed as a freeman. The monster, in terror, had fled the premises forever! I should behold it no more! My happiness was supreme! The guilt of my dark deed disturbed me but little” (Poe, “The Black Cat”). Scarcely touched by the murder, the narrator instead shows happiness with the departure of the “monster”. Substituting the words “monster” and “creature” by the word “wife” uncovers the hidden feelings of the narrator throughout the story. In the former quote the narrator is feeling uncomfortable with this subject that sleeps with him, with the weight it brings upon him physically, and the constant bother it is throughout the day. This description fits the spouse because she sleeps with him and involves in physical contact during the night. The narrator doesn’t fail to include the responsibility he has to his wife, as well as to his cat when he says, “incumbent eternally upon my heart” (Poe, “The Black Cat”). The black cat serves as a representation of the wife proving the condensation within the story.
The murder of the narrator’s wife and his cat serve as examples of a repressed emotion looking for an outlet. Poe’s narrator of “The Black Cat” demonstrates Freud’s theories of dream-work found in the awake-life, solely focusing on displacement and condensation. The repressed hatred the narrator has is released onto the black cat, but it is clear who it is intended to. The transference of emotions from his spouse onto his cats, as well as the symbolism of the cat, prove the Freudian ideas of displacement and condensation.
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