The Black Cat

[cyberghostface]

 

Here's another story from Creepy to showcase Berni Wrightson's art in light of his retirement.

For those not familiar with the original story by Edgar Allan Poe, I'll preface this with a heavy warning for depictions of animal cruelty.

Our narrator tells us that from an early age he has loved animals. He and his wife have many pets, including a large, beautiful black cat named Pluto.



 

From that moment onward, the cat flees in terror at his master's approach. At first, the narrator is remorseful and regrets his cruelty. "But this feeling soon gave place to irritation. And then came, as if to my final and irrevocable overthrow, the spirit of perverseness."  He takes the cat out in the garden one morning and ties a noose around its neck, hanging it from a tree where it dies. That very night, his house mysteriously catches fire, forcing the narrator, his wife and their servant to flee the premises.

 

The next day, the narrator returns to the ruins of his home to find, imprinted on the single wall that survived the fire, the apparition of a gigantic cat, with a rope around the animal's neck.

 

 

Then, one day when the narrator and his wife are visiting the cellar in their new home, the cat gets under its master's feet and nearly trips him down the stairs. Enraged, the man grabs an axe and tries to kill the cat but is stopped by his wife.

              

Comments

[angry_marmot]

I've always thought of this as a fable about alcoholism. Drunkenness and the gradual change in the narrator's personality are explicit in the original; Poe's father and at least one of his siblings died of drink. Poe himself was an animal lover, and the murder and mutilation of an affectionate cat and loving wife are about as horrific a betrayal as one could imagine. (I'm one of those who believe Poe died of rabies, and not from booze or laudanum.)

[cyberghostface]

Heh it's nice that while they were messed up Lovecraft and Poe both loved animals (or at least cats with the former).

[lamashtar]

I sure hope it was meant to be a metaphor. The mentality seems totally random. I assumed 'Pluto' was death at first (when we're young, we don't fear it, etc), but then he starts talking about SHAME and HORROR because a pussycat rubbed at his legs. I mean, dude. Gonna have to assume some kind of sexual hangup at that point.

[lamashtar]

Feels these are connected!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtI1pWkHto0

Looking this up, this song is over a hundred years old. The full lyrics are grisly comedy. And yes, the cat definitely comes back as a ghost. :)