Poe and Preacher: Toxic Masculinity and its Effect on Women

Edgar Allan Poe is no stranger to problematic depictions of women and his short story “The Black Cat” is no different. The minimal appearances the narrator’s wife appears in the story depicts a life of abuse by her husband’s hands. However, by comparing the events of the story with the concept album Preacher’s Daughter by Ethel Cain, the story can quickly be seen as a revenge tale by victims of abuse.

Ethel Cain’s Preacher’s Daughter follows self-titled character Ethel Cain throughout her life in the 1990s as she experiences abuse and mistreatment by the men in her life. She eventually runs away to the West with a mysterious man whom she eventually falls in love with. However, this love is doomed like all of Ethel’s other previous relationships and the album ends with the murder and cannibalization by her lover.

Ethel Cain’s demise closely reflects the demise of the narrator’s wife in “The Black Cat”: a victim of their partner’s rage due to a lack of obedience. And although not much is known about the narrator’s wife, as she is never given a name and makes very few appearances, we can at least look at her abusive relationship with her husband by analyzing her husband’s troubled masculinity. Although it seems at first the couple makes a perfect pair, as they both have a nurturing and kind nature, but this similarity turns into the narrator fostering an intense insecurity about his masculinity. This insecurity is outwardly shown through his abuse of his animals and wife. The continued abuse that the narrator inflicts on the second black cat (after hanging the first one) eventually leads to his wife’s death.

This is in no way meant to defend Poe’s portrayal of the narrator’s wife in the story, as she is described merely as a victim of abuse with little complexity added to her character. She is only important to the story because of her connection with her husband, and we see little of her beyond when her husband is mistreating her. Ethel Cain does a better job of creating a well-rounded character and describing how her fictional counterpart’s life experiences and abuse shapes her as a person.

The source text is: Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Black Cat.” Tales, Wiley and Putnam, 1845, pp. 37-46. https://www.eapoe.org/works/tales/blcatb.htm