This image of the cat refers to the moment in the story where the narrator cuts one of the eyes of the cat and the noose on the cat neck signifies that it had been hung. After the narrator kills the cat he “could not rid myself of the phantasm of the cat”. This shows how the narrator was linked to the cat and he actually hated animals and finally realized it only after he became an alcoholic. As the story progresses he finds another cat and believes that he became fond to the cat and vice versa. However, after bringing the cat home he has a feeling of “disgust and annoyance rose into the bitterness of hatred”. This proves that the narrator had been repressing his true feelings amongst animals since he was young but deep down he hated the animals unconsciously. This directly connects to Freud because in Lecture III, he talks about how the “repressed wishful impulse continues to exist in the unconscious”. This supports the idea that the narrator was repressing these cruel thoughts all along in the unconscious state of mind.
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