PARTISAN REVIEW
however, the hero of
The Black Cat,
which occupies us here, is
seized in his turn, like that of
The Tell-Tale Heart
or
The Imp of the
Perverse,
with the form of
perverseness
represented by the exhibition–
ist and self-punishing confessional urge, we shall first see him fall
victim to the more primitive aspects of that same perversity which
drives men to commit evil before they confess it; the evil which is the
evil, first and foremost, done to others.
In our tale, that other is the black cat. "This spirit of perverse–
ness" . . . continues the animal's master, "came to my final over–
throw. It was this unfathomable longing of the soul
to vex itself'
(evi–
dently, here, through the pleasure, the remorse, of previously "vex–
ing" others) "-to offer violence to its own nature" (his moral
nature, that is, violated by instinct), "-to do wrong for the wrong's
sake only"-(the familiar lure of forbidden fruit which, to Poe,
primarily spelt sadistic aggression), "that urged me to continue and
finally to consummate the injury I had inflicted upon the unof–
fending brute." And now follows the account of his second
crime
against the cat.
"One morning, in cool blood, I slipped a noose about its neck and
hung it to the limb of a tree;-hung it with the tears streaming
from my eyes, and with the bitterest remorse at my heart i-hung it
because
I knew that it had loved me, and
because
I felt that
it
had
given me no reason of offence;-hung it
because
I knew that in so
doing I was committing a sin-a deadly sin that would so jeopardize
my immortal soul as to place it-if such a thing were possible–
even beyond the reach of the infinite mercy of the Most Merciful
and Most Terrible God."
A son who had murdered his mother could hardly speak more
strongly.
The next night, while he is asleep, the murderer's house catches
fire. He, his wife and servant manage to escape. The house, however,
is burnt to the ground and, with it, all his worldly wealth. "I am
above the weakness," he assures us, "of seeking to establish a sequence
of cause and effect, between the disaster and the atrocity." Yet, this
is just what one feels he believes with
all
his being, and we shall see
that he is right.
"On the day succeeding the fire, I visited the ruins. The walls,
with
one exception, had fallen in.
This
exception was found in a com-
