The Black Cat - Abnormal MadnessIt seems that almost every Edgar Allen Poe story ever written has a much deeper, darker meaning hidden within its lines. Many of these pieces are quite insane even if the reader doesn't read "between the lines." “The Black Cat” is an example of this kind of story. In this morbid look into the narrator's mind, the reader follows the narrator as he does many disturbing things in his house. This story, like many other Poe plays, is an adventure in abnormal psychology where the narrator is completely insane, not only because of the horrible things he does to his cat and his wife, but because of his state of mind that shows the reader throughout the story. At the beginning of the story, the narrator presents the writing as "clearly, succinctly, and without comment, a series of simple domestic events" (p. 1495). As the story progresses, the reader discovers that this is clearly not the case at all. The events contained in the text of this story are undoubtedly the ravings of a madman who cannot seem to control his actions and continues to drift deeper and deeper into madness. In the first paragraph of the story, the narrator begins to defend himself by saying that he is not crazy. It seems as if he is trying to reassure himself more than the reader about his state of mind. This seems to be Poe's way of gradually showing the reader that this story is, in fact, an exploration of the abnormal psychology of the human mind. The narrator says that since childhood he has been considered a very docile person. He also mentions in the first part of the story that his “tenderness of heart was even so visible that it made me the joke of my companions” (p. 1495). By the time he says all of this in the story, it seems pretty achievable. However, as the reader continues to read the rest of the story, they discover that this is not the narrator's current attitude at all. Just by seeing what is obvious about the narrator and without even delving into his state of mind, the reader can understand that this man is probably not a reliable source of correct information..