Interpretation of Black Cat: a Perspective of Freud’s Psychoanalysis

Abstract

As a unique novelist in the history of American literature, his life filled with extraordinary twists and turns leaves unlimited imagination to future generations and space to explore. As one of the horror fiction of the Allan Poe, Black Cat, by some researchers, has long been examined.

Employing Freud’s Psychoanalysis theory as theoretical basis, this thesis aims to research the way Poe creates this masterpiece. There are close relations between this unique works and his miserable life, literary theory and deep exploration of human nature. Contradictory thoughts and actions of the hero of the short story, without exception, convey some information about the writer in a way, for example, his suppressed unconsciousness. Edgar Allan Poe creates a series of mysterious image and an atmosphere of terror in order to depict the hero’s abnormal psychological changes.

The hero's character developed from id to ego, and fell to id again. Due to alcoholism and the effect of id, he killed the cat cruelly; owing to his shame towards the black cat, he was enabled to strike a balance between the id and super-ego; similarly, evil thoughts broke the balance of his personality structure, and he eventually committed brutality under the control of the “do wrong” principle. From the point of view of psychoanalysis, these mysterious images take irreplaceable position. The black cat- Pluto symbolizes illusion of crime, and the white patch represents the external rule, and the cat's solitary eye reflects the conscience of the hero.


Key words: Black Cat, psychoanalysis, symbol