Poe's "Black Cat" Was Pro-Temperance

                                   Poe’s Black Cat Was Pro-Temperance

                                              Illustration: From Victorian artist George Cruikshank's series "The Bottle," 1847 (7, 8).

    The crisis of character experienced by Poe's narrator in "The Black Cat" is multifaceted, and there is some historical context to explain the religious and moral panic he experiences. In the story, the narrator struggles on and off with alcoholism, and eventually begins abusing his pets and his wife. The moral downslide of a once-caring man is tragic and highly distressing for the man in question. He often makes reference to biblical concepts and language while he relates his tale. These elements and his distress make sense, given the social-historical trends of his time. 

    One cultural movement that took place around the time of Poe's "Black Cat" was The Second Great Awakening, during which a new wave of Protestant converts emerged from preaching circuits and camp meetings (3). Church sermons were attended like a big concert – highly popular and everyone was going. America already considered itself a largely Christian nation, but this movement inspired many people to fully dedicate their lives to Christianity. Camp meetings were known to attract "As many as 10,000 to 20,000 people," (6). This religious revival inspired further ripples of dedication to moral principles throughout society, including "...several moral and philanthropic reforms [as well as] temperance," (3). 

    The American temperance movement was anti-alcohol and sparked a lot of preaching against alcohol and its abuse, in pulpits and popular culture. Temperance was mainly championed by women, who noticed a concerning trend and began to fiercely protest "...the abuse of alcohol and how it caused men to commit domestic violence against women," (2). Women (and mothers) like Frances Willard and Carrie Nation spearheaded large factions of the movement (2). Tragically, spousal abuse laws were not erected in the US until 1871 in Alabama and Massachusetts (5). This oversight is made more outrageous with the knowledge that animal abuse has been outlawed in the US since 1641 (4). Perhaps this may help to explain the ferocity of women like Carrie Nation, known to use an axe to openly smash up bottles of alcohol (2). The temperance attitude about drinking was that it was not only deadly for the body and indicative of poor mental faculties, but that it would lead to the downfall of the soul (2). 

    The storyline of Poe's "Black Cat" reads like a Temperance-era pamphlet in the light of this information (7). Supporters of the temperance movement exclaimed that it only takes one drink to become an alcoholic and ensure one's ruin (2). Despite the narrator's best efforts, he cannot fully kick the habit, and it leads to him abusing and then killing his pets and his wife. The narrator's perceived helplessness to drink and the evil it leads him to do, is the horror and tragedy of the story. Perhaps upon reading it, many a young man would be turned away from the bottle with disgust and fear at its corrupting powers. There is no way of proving authorial intent with total certainty. But there is a strong possibility that Poe wished to warn the reader away from alcohol at all costs.

 

The climax of the story, where the narrator's murder is uncovered by police.

Image Source

Works Cited: 

1. “The 1840s Created a Decade of War, Invention, and Gold Fever.” ThoughtCo, www.thoughtco.com/timeline-from-1840-to-1850-1774038#:~:text=The%20years%20from%201840%20to%201850%20were%20marked. Accessed 14 Apr. 2023. 

2. The Mob Museum. “Women Led the Temperance Charge – Prohibition: An Interactive History.” Prohibition.themobmuseum.org, prohibition.themobmuseum.org/the-history/the-road-to-prohibition/the-temperance-movement/.

3. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Second Great Awakening | Description, History, & Key Figures.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 2019, www.britannica.com/topic/Second-Great-Awakening.

4. Davis, Janet. “The History of Animal Protection in the United States | the American Historian.” Oah.org, 2013, www.oah.org/tah/issues/2015/november/the-history-of-animal-protection-in-the-united-states/.

5. Trieu, Sarah. “History of Intimate Partner Violence Reform | Freedom and Citizenship.” Columbia.edu, 2019, freedomandcitizenship.columbia.edu/ipv-history.

6. “Camp Meeting | Religion.” Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com/topic/camp-meeting.

7. “The Surprisingly Complex Link between Prohibition and Women’s Rights.” Time, 16 Jan. 2019, time.com/5501680/prohibition-history-feminism-suffrage-metoo/?xid=tcoshare. Accessed 14 Apr. 2023.