The original short story is told in first-person from the perspective of a man who's been convicted of killing his wife. He relays an account of his recent life, how he and his wife both loved animals and had several pets, including a black cat named Pluto. Things get dark, however, once the narrator becomes an alcoholic and begins abusing the very pets he once treasured. This causes Pluto to behave much more timidly around him, and in retaliation, the narrator mutilates Pluto and hangs him from a tree.
The narrator acquires a new black cat out of guilt, but he soon comes to distrust and despise that animal as well. When he tries to kill the cat, his wife intervenes, and he kills her instead, ultimately being caught, convicted, and executed.
Symbolically, the cat itself represents the narrator's deteriorating mental state. Poe himself struggled with heavy drinking throughout his life, though different historians disagree on the level of his alcoholism. In "The Black Cat," the narrator strikes out at his pets from a place of self-loathing, projecting the terrifying person he's become onto them and blaming their behavior instead of his. The cat's reappearance later within the walls of the house extends this metaphor. Though the man can try to ignore his problem, it will always come back to haunt him and make him lose control.
