What is the significance of this quote from "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe? "There is something in the unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a...

This
statement made by the narrator in at the beginning of the story is important because it
foreshadows events that later happen in the story. Pluto, the black cat, loves the narrator and
follows him everywhere he goes. Before the change in his temperance, the narrator alone fed the
cat. Later on, after a change in behavior which he claims was brought on by his overindulgence
in alcohol, the narrator develops a great dislike for the black cat, a dislike that pushes him
to cut out its eye and finally hang it on a tree.

The narrators actions
totally contradict those of a loving, docile and tender of heart pet owner. In fact, instead
of being touched by the cats unselfish and self-sacrificing love, the narrator loathes the
animal even more. The narrator is full of contradictions. He says that he is not mad, yet
displays insanity through his perverse actions. He says that nothing equals the unselfish love
of a pet, yet loathes his pets for loving him....