Yeah No, Pluto Definitely Did Not Die From Suicide. At Least, I Don’t Think So.

Yeah no, Pluto definitely did not die from suicide. At least, I don’t think so.

The world of Nevermore is very, very influenced by Edgar Allen Poe. For example, Prospero. In the original Edgar Allen Poe short story “The Masque of Red Death”, he was a prince, which could explain how prim and proper he acts in Nevermore, and he died from the Red Death, which at the beginning of the story is stated to be a plague. I wonder whose spectre is a plague doctor. Also, Fortunato, Duke’s stage name, was a character in the short story The Cask of Amontillado, who dies from being trapped in a wall. Sounds familiar? Anyways, my point is, a lot of names and deaths and details are inspired directly from Edgar Allen Poe.

Now, Pluto. Our beloved British catboy. Coincidentally, the name of a cat from my favorite Edgar Allen Poe story; The Black Cat.

The Black Cat is not one of the cuter stories of Edgar Allen Poe’s works. It starts with a man; he loves animals and finds a wife who loves animals too, and they both adopt a plethora of animals together. One of them in particular takes a liking to the man: a black cat, named Pluto.

The man’s life begins to go downhill when he starts becoming an alcoholic. He begins to abuse his animals just for the perverseness of it, and he becomes a lot more mean-spirited than the person he was before. One day, he comes home, and thinks that Pluto is ignoring him. In his annoyance, he forcibly picks up the cat, causing the cat to bite him slightly on the finger. This small inconvenience causes the man to become so enraged that, in his anger, he takes a knife, and gouges out Pluto’s eye.

Obviously, after this, the cat is positively terrified of the man. He avoids him as much as possible, but after about a week, it seems his eye injury has healed and is doing him no harm.

Then, just for the pleasure that doing the wrong thing gives him, one morning, the man takes it upon himself to finish the deed and hangs the poor car in cold blood.

That’s the end of the relevant section. If you want to know the rest of the story, I would recommend reading it-just search up The Black Cat by Edgar Allen Poe online and you can easily find it for free.

Anyways, what does this have to do with our beloved Nevermore Pluto?

Well, besides from the obvious similarities that Pluto shares with the Edgar Allen Poe cat, what stood out to me the most was the nature of the man. In episode whatchamacallitimtootiredtofinditrightnow, it is revealed the Pluto’s father is an alcoholic. Not only that, but enraged that Pluto wants to leave home and see the lights, he gouges out his son’s eye. Again, very close to the story. I wonder what the man did next to Pluto in that story?

I suppose it could be implied suicide due to the fact it was awakened in Pluto when he felt relieved, but remember in the story how Pluto’s eye injury had finally healed before the man killed him? It may be a far cry, but I believe that Pluto could have finally thought he was free from his father and that he made it out of his house before his father found him again and hung him. Finally relieved before it is yanked away from him. After all, that’s what he did in the story, and when he experienced the flashback of his death, he didn’t think or feel the thoughts of a relieved suicidal person (as memories of the time seem to slightly return during those flashbacks), but rather panic and fear, which would be odd if it was a suicide that made him feel finally relieved.

Also, he died wanting to go beyond the binds of society and what humanity deems is possible. If he had such a strong dream that he absolutely wanted to make happen, even present while dying, why would he kill himself and destroy his opportunity?

Honestly, I would also find it odd at this point if that wasn’t what happened. After all, the authors have been very accurate to the poems and stories of Edgar Allen Poe for the characters ripped from them. Again, Prospero and Duke, Eulalie has lavender eyes as described in her poem, and Berenice has a very heavy teeth theme like in her story. Not only that, but after following the story of the Black Cat for so long in Pluto’s backstory, I would find it odd if they changed the one thing that both Plutos were killed by if they were so accurate with Duke.

But who knows?

Perhaps I ramble like a madwoman.