136
PARTISAN REVIEW
living in his unconscious in all their primitive strength, to blossom
in the mighty shoots of his art.
The doomed man then compares the love and faithfulness of
animals with the "paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere
Man."
"I married early," he continues,
"and was happy to find in my wife a disposition not uncongenial with
my own. Observing my partiality for domestic pets, she lost no op–
portunity of procuring those of the most agreeable kind. We had
birds, gold fish, a fine dog, rabbits, a small monkey, and
a cat."
We know already that Poe, like the hero of this tale, married young,
was fond of birds, and shared with Muddy and Virginia a special
preference for Catterina, the cat.
Like Catterina, the cat in the tale was "a remarkably large and
beautiful animal" and, like it again, was possessed of astonishing
sagacity. "In speaking of his intelligence," says the author,
"my wife, who at heart was not a little tinctured with superstition,
made frequent allusion to the ancient popular notion, which regarded
all
black cats as witches in disguise."
Unlike Catterina, which was a tortoiseshell cat, this creature is "en–
tirely black." Another and more cardinal difference is that the latter
is a tom, and named Pluto. These divergences in sex and coat we shall
treat of later.
"Pluto," the narrator continues,
" .. was my favorite pet and playmate. I alone fed him, and he
attended me wherever I went about the house. It was even with
difficulty that I could prevent him from following me through the
streets."
Let us leave for a moment the question whom this cat, bearing the
name of the god who rules the underworld, represents: this cat which
seems like a witch in disguise. Doubtless, certain readers will already
have guessed its identity.
But the real drama is about to begin.
"Our friendship lasted, in this manner, for several years, during
which my general temperament and character, through the instru-
