lack Cat" is a supernatural force at work. There is some sort of orthodox witchcraft-taking place. The whole story revolves around the cat, Pluto, coming back to avenge its death. One cannot be sure how Pluto's rebirth takes place, but it is certain that a greater force has taken hold. The cat's appearance is altered when the narrator comes across it the second time. There is a white spot on the chest "by slow degrees, degrees nearly imperceptible...it had, at length, assumed a rigorous distinct outline...of the gallows" ("The Black Cat" 4). Foretelling the narrator's fate, an execution tool appears on the cat's chest. This also foreshadows the cat's confinement in the tomb. It reappears like a disease to take vengeance on a man that has committed horrid crimes. "I was answered by a voice within the tomb! --By a cry, at first muffled and broken, like the sobbing of a child, and quickly swelling into one long, loud and continuous scream, utterly anomalous and inhuman--a howl--a wailing shriek, half of honor and half of triumph ("The Black Cat" 6). Pluto is like Poe's reoccurring illness; it keeps coming back just when he thinks it is gone. This can be related to the ever-looming question of why people become afflicted with disease. Poe's intrigue in reincarnation may have been rooted in his own immortality.
             Metaphysical events take place in "The Tell-Tale-Heart". The perpetrator is driven by some unknown source to reveal his evil deed. The paranoia he feels is very real to him. "I fancied a ringing in my ears... became more distinct...I found that the noise was not within my ears...It is the beating of the hideous heart" ("The Tell-Tale-Heart" 3). Ringing is heard only in the man's head; but because an impetus has compelled him to believe otherwise, he is inclined to reveal his misdeed. The source of the man's "voices" is from a force within himself. One's soul is an unexplainable power, w...