Setting

Time and physical setting

Both the exact time and the setting of the story “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe are omitted. We do not know in which city, year, or month the events narrated happened. However, we can assume the author intended the story to be read as a contemporary one, taking place sometime in the 1840s. The fact that the story is not very exact regarding time and physical setting contributes to creating a sense of mystery fitting for a horror story.

The main events span over a few months, since the night the narrator first tortured Pluto, taking the animal’s eye out, until the police find his wife’s body together with the new black cat. 

Specific elements of the setting include the narrator’s initial house, which is burnt down, and the cellar of his second house. The first house the narrator lived in is depicted as having been filled with various types of animals, collected because both him and his wife are animal lovers: “We had birds, gold-fish, a fine dog, rabbits, a small monkey, and a cat.” (p. 1, l. 24). The house also has a garden with a tree which the narrator uses to hang Pluto (ll. 97-99). Particular attention is given to one of the walls of the house after it burns down, where an impression of the hanged black cat was preserved.

In the second house where the narrator lived, the focus is put on the cellar:

For a purpose such as...