the black cat

The Black Cat by Edger Allen Poe begins with an unidentified narrator that is to be executed for the brutal murder of his wife. As he awaits his own death, he finds it necessary to record the events which seduces him to murder. Both the narrator and his wife are animal lovers. Out of all their pets, Pluto, the black cat, is his favorite. Their friendship lasts for several years until the man's temperament begins …

…a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a stupid action for no other reason than because he knows he should not ( )?" Perverseness provides the rationale for his otherwise unjustifiable acts. Feelings of guilt about his alcoholism seem to be the narrator’s "perverseness" which causes him to kill the first cat. Guilt about those actions indirectly leads to the murder of his wife, who shows him the gallows on the second cat's breast.