The Black Cat Trivia Quiz

Answer: Pluto

The story opens with Edgar Allen Poe dictating his most recent work to his wife, Virginia, as she lay in bed with her cat, Pluto. Poe finishes his story and Virginia calls it his best work yet, but as he goes to stroke her hair, Pluto claws at him. Virginia just says that Pluto must not like poetry while Edgar tosses the cat onto the floor.

The two of them proceed to make love, but while Edgar begins to kiss Virginia, she coughs onto her pillow. Edgar asks if she's okay and she insists that she's fine, blaming it on the cat hair.

When he looks over though, he finds blood on the pillow.

Answer: The Tell-Tale Heart

Poe speaks with his publisher about his most recent poems and the man doesn't quite take to them, saying he'll give Poe fifty cents apiece for each work, then print them near the back of the next issue, as most of the positive feedback from his poetic works have come from women.

He tells Poe to make more of his stories, as they are more successful for his publication, "The Tell-Tale Heart", for example, was exceedingly better-received. The man laughs and asks where he gets his wondrous ideas, but Poe gets off his seat, climbing over the man's desk and strangling him. Of course, this is just in Poe's imagination.

The man, alive and well across from his desk, ensures Poe that he'll have a spot in October's publication if he produces a short story, and Poe tells him that one is already in progress. Poe asks for a small cash advance, which he gets, and he spends it on wine.

Answer: His pocketwatch

Poe gets drunk that night at the bar and the barman is forced to kick him out of his place once he realizes that Poe has never paid him a single penny for the drinks. As Poe is dragged out he passes Rufus Griswold, another poet, who he asks for a small loan. Griswold denies this, saying that Poe destroyed his last work in a horrible review. Poe makes a deal with the bartender, saying that if he can stand on merely one finger, then he will get another bottle of wine, and if he doesn't he'll give up his pocketwatch.

The bartender agrees to this, and the patrons of the bar get excited for the wager. Poe has the man point to the location he wants Poe to stand on his finger to say that there will be no trickery involved in the task, but when he does this, he steps on the man's finger, claiming that he didn't say it had to be his own.

The barman throws him out of the bar. When Poe returns home, he discovers that his wife and a guest, Mr. Fordham have been waiting for him. Pluto greets him as well, walking around his feet, but he trips and falls over the cat, knocking over a birdcage in the process.

He apologizes, saying he was detained by admirers of his work.

Answer: Piano

Virginia tells Poe that Fordham is a musician, and that he is in their abode in order to discuss their piano, which they need to sell for money. Poe thinks about this then tells Fordham that the piano is his wife's and that it is not for sale. Virginia insists, saying that they need the money for their lives, but Poe says that he doesn't want her to give up the piano. Poe asks Virginia to play for their guest and himself to show her talent, but as she begins to sing she begins to cough. Virginia nearly completes the song before going into a coughing fit, and as she does so, blood begins to fall over her lips and they know that something is wrong. Before long, Virginia begins hacking blood onto the keys of the piano and Poe shouts for Fordham to get a doctor.

As blood drips from the ivory keys to the floor, Pluto prances to a small puddle and begins to lap it up.

Answer: Fish

The doctor arrives and Virginia is set into bed. The doctor tells Poe that her last hemorrhage could have been fatal, and she needs to remain calm in bed. He hands Poe a sedative to be administered judiciously and he tells Poe that if he values his wife, they must move to a warmer climate. He then tells Poe that he owes twelve dollars, but Poe mentions that he has no money at this point in time. The doctor doesn't let Poe forward the bill to his publisher, but he does tell Poe to seek another physician from now on.
Later that day, Poe takes an axe and smashes the piano, but while he does so, Pluto tries to climb a table to reach the birdcage that Poe nearly knocked over earlier. While Poe admires the bird, he turns to find the piano still standing as it was before he destroyed it, and Virginia cleaning the keys, saying they need the money from selling it. Poe puts her back to bed and gives her the sedative. She begs him to write for her and he decides to do this.
Going into their main room, Poe sits at the table and tries to write, but small things; the bird chirping, Pluto trying to eat the fish on the table, Virginia coughing in the next room; cause him to break his quill in frustration. He sharpens it with a knife, accidentally cutting himself, and when he looks up he finds that Pluto has eaten the fish. Frustrated, he goes to Virginia's room to find her soaked in blood, having coughed the entire time he left. He sits by her bed and comforts her.

Answer: Annabelle

Poe wakes up still sitting next to Virginia, but in another room he hears a clanging noise. Lighting a lantern, he proceeds to investigate and he finds the birdcage and table knocked over, and although the bird is still alive, its wing is pinned under the cage. Poe takes a drink from a bottle on the counter and returns to the bird, picking it up, apologizing, and then painfully squishing it in his bare hand. Poe is clearly shaken by what he has just done, but he is taken away from this by the yowling of the cat.

When Poe goes to Virginia's bedroom he finds the cat laying on top of her. Poe tries to pull the cat off but it rolls onto its side and claws at him, scratching him once across the hand. Poe finally picks it up, but it escapes his grasp in the next room. Poe picks his knife up off the table and searches for the cat, who alerts him of its whereabouts by walking on the piano. Poe picks it up, and with the knife, gouges its left eye out.

As he drops the cat though, Virginia appears in the doorway and asks him what he's doing.

Answer: The physician

Virginia finds Pluto under a desk and discovers that his eye is missing. When she inquires about the rest of the pets, Poe says that another cat, just like Pluto, came along and ate Phinneus, their fish, then killed Annabelle before fighting with Pluto and taking out his eye. Virginia asks him if he's been drinking, but he denies it. Virginia asks Poe why he didn't write anything for her and he says that he has had a horrible longing to be violent to those he loves. Virginia collapses shortly after, and although Poe says that he'll get a doctor, she tells him to stay with her before she passes away.
At the funeral, many speak of their situation. She was too young to die, he was too poor to take care of her, and both were cousins. Poe's publisher offers him an advance on his story payment so that Virginia can have a decent burial, but Poe doesn't take it, telling everyone to get out of his house.
When everyone departs, Poe pulls a length of rope out of a drawer and undoes his bowtie, ready to hang himself, but as he looks to Virginia's corpse, he finds his black cat lying on her chest. He blames the cat and uses the rope to strangle it, hanging it from the rafter beams of his house.

Answer: A white collar around his neck

Poe opens the oil basin of a lantern and dumps its contents on the floor before picking up a candle. He quickly drinks down the remains of Virginia's sedative before dropping the candle, sparking a fire in his house. As he stumbles over to Virginia's casket, he moves in to give her one last kiss but she opens her eyes and begins to breathe. Shocked, Poe embraces her and pulls her out of the casket, taking her out of the house to safety.
Days later, Poe is tossed out of the bar once more, but as he makes his way down the street, he is menaced by the sound of his wife's black cat. Walking down an alleyway, the shadow of the cat follows him along the walk until he reaches a townhouse where he and Virginia have taken residence.
Virginia wakes up in bed when Poe arrives and she tells him that she gets scared when he leaves. Poe vows that he will not drink anymore, or else heaven shall curse him. Both of them are startled then by a noise at the window. Virginia goes to check it out, but Poe tells her to stay back. Opening the window, she finds Pluto, who she says must have followed them to their new home. Poe says that it can't be, as Pluto died in the fire, but Virginia says it is him, but there's a white line around his neck, almost like a collar. Poe says it could have been more like a noose. She says that she could use a companion when he's off writing anyways and he storms out.
Poe rushes down the hallway to a cellar where he descends the stairwell and finds his way to a hidden crack in the wall. Reaching in, he pulls out a flask of alcohol. Telling the heavens to curse him, he downs the remnants of the bottle.

Answer: Behind a brick wall

As he finishes his drink, Poe hears the yowling of the black cat behind him, and he finds Pluto on a nearby table. Poe breaks his bottle on a pole next to him and advances on the cat but it escapes through an opening. Poe turns and picks up an axe before Virginia makes her way into the cellar.

She tells him that he's been crazy lately and that he needs to stop drinking because she loves him. He wonders why as he can't cure her, provide for her, or write, but she guides him to the stairs and tells him it'll be alright.

When the cat meows one more time, Poe snaps. He picks the axe back up and chases it around the room. Virginia tries to pick it up, protecting it, but Poe accidentally swings the axe anyways, hitting her in the forehead. Both of them scream and Virginia pulls it out, but she dies soon after. Poe cries, but when he hears the sound of curious people upstairs, he rushes to lock the door. Spying a shovel in the corner of the room, Poe picks it up and decides to bury her, but instead, he takes the axe once more and knocks down a portion of the brick wall where he hid the alcohol, opting to hide her corpse there instead. Cementing the wall shut, Poe bids his angel farewell.

Answer: False

Poe attempts to write once more, but finds that he is unable to. He turns to the bottle again and takes a swig, but after he does this a nearby rocking chair starts to move. As it finally stops, Poe is interrupted by a knock on the door from two constables from the local police headquarters. Evidently, numerous people have noted that screams were heard from his house two days earlier, and last time the police stopped by, he didn't answer the door. Poe claims he was writing the entire time, but humours them by letting them in for a look. They both depart, finding nothing of interest, but as they leave, Poe tells them that they never checked the basement.
Here, the men say that there is still nothing of interest to them, but Poe insists that the walls are constructed well. As they leave, they soon hear screaming, and though Poe is confused by this, he realizes when the constables knock down the wall that it is not Virginia screaming, but the horrible black cat, who they find making the screaming noise, resting on Virginia's corpse. Poe runs from the cellar and down the hall to his room, and as he crashes to the other side, he hears coughing. Looking into the room next to him, Virginia rises from her bed and greets him, asking if everything is alright. Poe is delighted to see her, and as Pluto walks into the room, he sees that he is no longer maimed as well. He finally realizes and tells Virginia that he can finally give his publisher what he wants.
Soon after, Poe finishes his latest work, which he calls "The Black Cat".