English research paper

JOSEPH STARK University of St. Thomas

Motive and Meaning: The Mystery of the Wm in Poe's "The Black Cat" EDGAR ALLAN POE'S "THE BLACK CAT" presents the reader with a troubled tale of homicide, presumably given "to place before the world, plainly, succincdy, and without comment, a series of mere household events."' This baiting language of the narrator given in the first paragraph has provoked numerous critical speculations on the "natural causes and effects" of the story, with particularly plentiful psychological examinations of the narrator and author.^ Such contemporary analyses, however, may simply miss the point of the text, or better, indicate in their very strivings to provide answers that no sufficiently clear cause ior the narrator's murder of his wife and the cat may be found in the text. Indeed, when seen in its historical context, this conclusion, with all its troubling implications, posed significant challenges to increasingly influential scientific thought as well as to shifting evangelical theology. In other words, by depicting a motiveless murderer whose actions cannot be sufficiendy explained, Poe "place [d] before the world... without comment" difficuldes in both scientiflc and religious thought and ironically upheld the mysterious nature of the human will in a dme dominated by intellectual rationalism.

In "'The Murders of the Rue Morgue': Edgar Allan Poe's Evolu- donary Reverie,"* Lawrence Frank highlights some of the pressing sciendfic quesdons of Poe's day. As he explains, Poe's detecdve stories come in the context of an America dominated by "a resurgent evangelicalism and conservadve Natural Theology" but increasingly challenged by "a posidvist science that was to have its nineteenth-century culminadon in Charles

'Edgar Allan Poe, "The Black Cat," in SelecUd Tales, ed. David Van Leer (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 230.

^See Ed Piacentino, "Poe's 'The Black Cat' as Psychobiography," Studies in Short Fiction, 35 (Spring 1998), 154nl.

^Nineteenth-Century Literature, 50 (September 1995), 168-188.

Darwin's Origin of Species (1859)." Frank's thesis significantly exemplifies how Poe's time, especially during the writing of these short stories ("Rue Morgue" in 1841 and "The Black Cat" in 1843) was a tumultuous period in which religious tenets were both clashing and coalescing with more naturalistic convictions. In particular, the increasingly popular, but oft criticized, nebular hypothesis of creation suggested how the cooling of heated gas could form the stars and solar system apart from divine intervention. Though some theologians incorporated this theory into their theism, many saw it as an atheistic challenge to Christian orthodoxy concerning the origin of the universe (pp. 173-174). Moreover, "The Rue Morgue" itself portrayed the connection being made between irrational animals like the Ourang-Outang and supposedly rational humanity. As with Darwin's Origin of Species, combining observations about the Ourang- Outang's similarities to humans with the nebular hypothesis led to the troubling conclusion that the universe (and hence, all humanity) may be motiveless, irrational, and physically determined (pp. 178-183).*

Not only does Poe's time reflect increasing concern with naturalism and its implicit determinism, but it also entailed an intriguing shift in evangelical theology. Though the 1830s and 1840s in America were a significant time for Protestants (part of what Mark A, Noll calls the "Protestant Century") ,̂ the Reformed doctrines of the previous century were in significant decline. Even among purported Calvinists like Nathaniel Taylor, an heir of Jonathan Edwards's theology, traditional doctrines such as that of human depravity had been reworked sufficiently to lack resemblance to the teachings of their historic forebears. Taylor, for instance, argued that "sinfulness arises from sinful acts rather than from a sinful

""I should add that Frank's thesis with regard to "The Rue Morgue" strikingly complements my thesis concerning "The Black Cat." Frank similarly demonstrates how the Ourang-Outang's irrationality became a statement on the implications of prevailing scientific thought. As he writes, "In the figure of C. Auguste Dupin, Poe depicted the individual as a creature of history who must reconstruct the past even as he comes upon the fact of the contingency of certain events, without any reassuring knowledge of the future. It becomes a harrowing vision, centered upon the presence of the Ourang-Outang with its seemingly motiveless frenzy, introducing the terror of a history secularized and devoid of design" (p. 187).

^A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1992), p. 163.

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nature inherited from Adam" (Noll, p. 233). This view of human nature, by implication, ascribed greater freedom to the will by denying that the inherited disposition of depravity necessarily led one to sinful actions. Similarly, the revivalist Charles Crandison Finney denied the miraculous nature of revivals and advocated "the right use of the appropriate means" in bringing about conversions.® In so doing, he emphasized the power of the human will to overcome sin irrespective of any unique work of Cod. More traditional Calvinists like Archibald Alexander and Charles Hodge remained as active voices in American Protestantism, but in general, evangelicals ascribed greater power to the human will than their theological forefathers of the prior century (Noll, p. 233).

When we combine this religious context with Frank's observations about the scientific developments of the day, we discover that, in some ways, Protestant theology and scientific theories of human origin were intersecting as they crossed paths on different trajectories. Evangelicals emphasized the power of the human will to overcome sin and crime (culminating perhaps most dramatically in Finney's belief in perfectionism), while scientific examination narrowed the gap between the rational human and irrational animal, and thereby posited a kind of naturalistic deter- minism.

Our limited knowledge of Poe's religious convictions and interests makes it difficult to establish how clearly invested he was in Protestant theology and its debates on the issue, but there are signs of such interest, especially in the scientific aspects of the debate. In particular, his interest in physical determinism and the mysteries of the will are clear. The irrationality of "perverseness" forms the heart of "Imp of the Perverse," as the narrator inexplicably murders only to inexplicably confess his murder.' This confession, indeed, is opened with a discussion of phrenology, the study of how personality relates to the size of the skull (pp. 283-284). Of greater interest, however, may be his curious essay "Instinct vs. Reason—^A Black Cat," in which he discusses the mysterious line between the seeming

""What a Revival of Religion Is," in The American Intellectual Tradition, 2"'' ed., ed. David A. HoUinger and Charles Capper (NewYork: Oxford University Press, 1993), I, 195.

'Edgar Allan Poe, "The Imp of the Perverse," in Selected Tales, pp. 283-288.

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instinct of an animal and the reason of a human. Such instinct, he comments, "is referable only to the spirit of the Deity itself, acting directly, and through no corporal organ, upon the volition of the animal."^ Seen in the context of works which challenge human reason, such a statement indicates how Poe concerned himself with the mysterious relationship between divine providence and human volition. Moreover, he showed familiarity with Protestant writings on natural theology, specifically the Bridgewater Treatises, a series of essays in defense of Christianity. Notes in Poe's hand are contained in a copy of the first volume in the series On the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, as Manifested in the Adaptation of External Nature to the Moral and Intellectual Constitution of Man, by Scotch Calvinist Thomas Chalmer.^ Additionally, he wrote a critique of Peter Roget's treatise on physiology.'" When combined with what Poe considered his most important work. Eureka: The Material and Spiritual Universe, a natural and theological treatise of his own, all of these links at least indicate some investment in the subject of science and religion and their relationship to nineteenth-century discussions of the will ("Poe and Religion").

In view of the historical context, we can now turn to one of the most troubling and puzzling aspects of "The Black Cat," the question of motive. Numerous critics have taken this puzzle as an invitation to discern the narrator's motive, with a wide range of suggestions from pride" to repression of childhood peer abuse for effeminate qualities (Piacentino). Admittedly, the text encourages such analysis in the first paragraph when the narrator writes:

'Edgar Allan Poe, "Instinct vs. Reason—A Black Cat," Alexander's Weekly Messenger, January 29, 1840, p. 2, cols. 6-7, rpt. December 12, 1998, Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore online, August 8, 2003 <http://www.eapoe.org/works/essays/iwbcata.htm>.

""Poe and Religion," Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore onXine (January 8, 2000), August 8, 2003 <htttp://www.eapoe.org/geninfo/poerelig.htm>.

'"Edgar Allan Poe, "Roget's Physiology," Southern Literary Messenger, February 1836, p. 180, rpt. August 20, 1999, Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore online, August 8, 2003 <http://www.eapoe.org/works/criticsm/slm36021.htm>.

"Richard C. Frushell, "'An Incarnate Night-Mare': Moral Grotesquerie in 'The Black Cat,'" Poe Studies, 5 (1972), 43-44.

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Hereafter, perhaps, some intellect may be found which will reduce my phantasm to the common-place—some intellect, more calm, more logical, and far less excitable than my own, which will perceive, in the circumstances I detail with awe, nothing more than an ordinary succession of very natural causes and effects, (p. 230)

With this invitation, Poe the critic has ingeniously invited every critic since him to prove himself or herself an "intellect more calm [and] more logical." The ingenuity of such critics, however, better makes the story's point than the solutions they offer. These critics rightly divine that the narrator of the tale (or perhaps, better, Poe) has littered the story with "telltale clues" that disclose the text's secret.'^ The striking aspect of the story, however, is that there are so many clues. In fact, the diversity of the clues is one of the problems in the text, for they give rise to a variety of explanations.

The most prominent of clues and explanations brings us quickly back to the theological context referred to above, for the most straight- forward reading of the text indicates that the cause for this aberrant behavior is the answer of the early 1700s: human depravity. The narrator makes this point quite clearly soon after he begins his first assault on the cat: "I am not more sure that my soul lives, than I am that perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart—one of the indivisible faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of Man" (p. 232). His description of this perversity, in fact, could nearly be taken directly from Augustine's Confessions (a significant infiuence upon Reformed doctrine). As Augustine stole the pears solely for the joy of sinning, the narrator likewise claims to have killed the cat simply "because [he] knew that in so doing [he] was committing a sin" (p. 232). In this respect, the account accords well with orthodox Calvinism but contradicts the views of Nathaniel Taylor on the impotence of the human will. A person's choice to sin does not precede the existence of perversity; rather, the "spirit of PERVERSE- NESS" already in the heart causes the person to sin. Hence, in essence, the narrator offers a very traditional theological solution to the problem of motive; he assigns it to the perversity of the human heart.

Such a solution, however, fails to acknowledge the unreliability of the story's narrator as well as the insufficiency of the answer. Not only, for

''Susan Amper, "The Untold Story: The Lying Narrator in The Black Cat,'" Studies in Short Fiction, 29 (Fall 1992), 475. Piacentino makes the same point (p. 5).

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instance, is the narrator a confessed murderer, but his story also evidences a certain delusional paranoia. The narrator may be lying, as Susan Amper argues (cf. Piacentino, p. 5), or is simply insane. Regardless, we must take his testimony with a grain of salt. When he blames his crime on human depravity, we are skeptical of this solution, simply because he offers it. Having said this, we need not dismiss the idea outright to make the point. Even in the narrator's explanation of his perversity, he admits of a troubling mystery. Not only does philosophy fail to account for this possibility, but he himself offers no ultimate explanation for the cause behind the perversity. Hence, both in our skepticism and possible acceptance of the narrator's position, we find ourselves without a thorough explanatory cause.

Other potential motives arise in the text, but none of these satisfy either. The most obvious next culprit is his alcoholism. Again, one difficulty with this solution is that the narrator himself puts it forward as a possibility. He suggests that the original change in his character is due to the "instrumentality of the Fiend Intemperance" (p. 231). Moreover, this solution remains problematic for other reasons as well. For one, it still fails to account for what drove him into alcoholism in the first place. Was this simply an addiction begun at a young age, or was the narrator trying to hide some deeper troubles? No solution is immediately apparent. More insightful, however, is the observation that only one of his offenses occurs during a moment of drunkenness. As T. J. Matheson notes, the two murders (of cat and wife) occurred while he was sober. Only the gouging out of the cat's eye happened while he was drunk (qtd. in Piacentino, footnote 9). Hence, though alcohol may have been a contributing factor to his crime it cannot be described as the ultimate cause.

A psychological reading of the text, such as Ed Piacentino's, supplies a third explanation of motive, while also exposing the dangers such analysis bears. As with other critics, Piacentino takes the story as an invitation to solve the problem of motive within the text. He provides a solution by discerning the psychobiography of the narrator evidenced in the narration. Through his careful scrutiny, he infers that the narrator had a troubled childhood for his "tenderness of heart," a quality which his peers must have labeled effeminate. As he grew older, the narrator rejected this fault, even to the degree of assaulting his former affections (and representations of those affections, viz the cat!) until, in "the culmination

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of deep-seated and suppressed anxieties," he killed his wife (p. 5). Everi as Piacentino completes his article, the difficulties with this reading become apparent. Two sentences bear this out. Piacentino writes, "The narrator's motive for this cruel and violent crime is, as I see it, psychologically plausible" and "[Considering] 'The Black Cat' as the psychobiography of a demented narrator provides the key to discovering plausible meaning and explanation for brutal murder when seemingly none exists" (p. 7; italics mine). The qualifications Piacentino adds here are rather significant. While he sufficiently explains the plausibility of his solution, he fails to make it necessarily probable. Indeed, Piacentino's insistence upon this solution, even as he qualifies it, may indicate more about our longings as readers than about the evidence of the text. This longing, which at times looks like a grasping after the straws of Poe's multiple hints, indeed seems to be part of the game of the text. The narrator invites us to use our logic and discern "the ordinary succession of very natural causes and effects," when in reality no such succession can be found.

Moreover, in his psychobiographical reading, Piacentino demon- strates the pitfalls into which such an examination can lead us. Earlier in the article he writes, "When anxiety and frustration threaten a person's security and self-esteem, as in the case of Poe's narrator, such a combination of repression-displacement—though probably not to the extreme the narrator carries it—may be regarded as a predictable natural reaction" (p. 5, italics mine). Again, we see that Piacentino offers a significant qualifier to his thesis ("though probably not to the extreme the narrator carries it"). More striking, however, is his boldness. In essence, he argues that some childhood criticism led the narrator spontaneously to put an axe in his wife's head and then calls this act a "predictable natural reaction." Of course, anything might be deemed "predictable" in retrospect, but the idea that someone who was mocked as a child would "predictably" murder his wife is either frightening or laughable. Indeed, this statement itself plays most directly into the problematic conclusion towards which Poe baits his readers: all things can be explained by simple cause and effect. If such a conclusion is true, then all human actions have an irrational determinism at their core, indistinct from the behavior of the Ourang-Outang in "The Rue Morgue."

A more accurate solution may be what Piacentino and Amper so eagerly want to avoid: there is no clear explanation for the murderer's

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motive. The significance of this possibility is brought out rather vividly by John Cleman's intriguing article on "Edgar Allan Poe and the Insanity Defense." As Cleman makes clear, fervid debate was brewing in the 1840s in England and America over the legitimacy of the insanity defense for accused murderers. Significant to our purposes was how such debates centered around "a strongly deterministic view of human nature" and the problem of human culpability." Strikingly, during a Philadelphia case in 1843, the time and place in which Poe was writing, lawyer Peter A. Browne focused his insanity defense of Sydney Mercer (accused of murdering his sister's seducer) on the question of "whether or not the accused was 'incapable of exercising free will'" (Clemen, p. 629). The primary determinant of this, according to the defense, was whether or not one was "motiveless" in one's impulse to kill (p. 629). Cleman suggests, then, that "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Black Cat," and "The Imp of the Perverse" all represent forms of insanity defenses which ironically undermine the logic of that defense. In "The Black Cat," the means of undermining an insanity defense is esseritially to show that the narrator's claim to being subject to "perverseness" is little different from the medical defense of one's temporary insanity. As Cleman puts it, the narrator's use of "perverseness" to defend his actions, like those of the medical authorities, "is presented as a logical, 'philosophical' explanation thatvoids overtly immoral acts of their moral implications" (pp. 636-637). In this respect, Poe parallels Calvinist doctrine (from a detractor's perspective) with the insanity defense; the narrator suggests his culpability is minimized if the cause comes from spiritually wrought depravity, just as phrenologists and defense lawyers minimized culpability if the cause was physically wrought depravity.

Poe, however, still offers no alternative explanation. In other words, even as his text may be seen as an indirect criticism of Calvinism through his more direct criticism of the insanity defense, no clear explanation is given for motive. We are still unable to explain why the narrator killed his wife. This seems the more interesting aspect of the piece, for, in essence, Poe demonstrates the complexities of the theological, philosophical, and even medical debates of his time. To the phrenologists and lawyers seeking to defend murderers through the insanity defense, he raises the question of

""Irresistable Impulses: Edgar Allan Poe and the Insanity Defense," American Literature, 63 (December 1991), 625.

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how moral culpability can be dismissed simply because one appears "motiveless." To the revivalists and moderated Calvinists, on the other hand, he brings the question of how one might truly change from behavior which one hates. After all, even as his depravity continues, the narrator seems unable to turn away from the evil he knows he is perpetuating and recognizes as evil. He questions, in other words, the freedom of his will. In this sense, the text is radically ambivalent. It explores the issues of moral responsibility and the inexplicability of human evil but supplies no solution.

The "moral" of Poe's tale, then, may be more a statement on the insufficiency of human reason than the nature of the human will. Richard C. Erushell describes how the narrator "points up the disparity which exists between his puny rational attempts (his tale) to give form to extremely complex, shifting states of mind which precede or form life and death actions and the actual cause for such actions" (p. 44). Rationalistic and theological explanations, in other words, fail to account sufficiently for the horror of the event. Indeed, critical attempts to account for the crime may do more to prove this point than the story itself. Every investigative attempt to get to the heart of die narrator's crime operates solely within the realm of "plausibility" but cannot prove probable or conclusive. In this respect, Poe's work indicates the difficulty of the human condition, not only in our inexplicable propensity towards evil (in the case of the narrator), but also in our finitude. No one, it may be inferred, is so distinct from either the murderous tendencies of the narrator or from his inability adequately to explain such tendencies. In this regard, "The Black Cat" shows the limitations of both the human will as well as human accounts of the will.

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