the white cat summary by Joyce Carol Oates
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His hatred for the cat was all the more ironic, and puzzling, in that he himself had given the cat to his wife as a kitten, years ago, when they were first married. And he himself had named her—Miranda—after his favorite Shakespearean heroine.
It was ironic, too, in that he was hardly a man given to irrational sweeps of emotion. Except for his wife (whom he’d married late—his first marriage, her second) he did not love anyone very much, and would have thought it beneath his dignity to hate anyone. For whom should he take that seriously? Being a gentleman of independent means allowed him that independence of spirit unknown to the majority of men.
Julius Muir was of slender build, with deep-set somber eyes of no distinctive color; thinning, graying, baby-fine hair; and a narrow, lined face to which the adjective lapidary had once been applied, with no vulgar intention of mere flattery. Being of old American stock he was susceptible to none of the fashionable tugs and sways of “identity”: He knew who he was, who his ancestors were, and thought the subject of no great interest. His studies both in America and abroad had been undertaken with a dilettante’s rather than a scholar’s pleasure, but he would not have wished to make too much of them. Life, after all, is a man’s primary study.
Julius Muir is a lapidary man in his fifties, with a young wife and a gifted cat that cannot stand him. His wife is unhappy, and though he certainly seems to subconsciously suspect and extramarital affair with a fallow actor and friend of hers, he won't let himself think it. He comes to the conclusion that the capricious cat, Miranda, is the source of his marital difficulties. She will not come near him, and loves his wife too much, and he needs to kill her. His methods are subtle and sophisticated; first poison, and then failing that, he attempts to run the horrid cat over with his car. But the cat is a stubborn creature, and refuses to die and haunts Mr. Muir in his waking hours and steals his breath as he sleeps. Or perhaps another beautiful pure white persian with beautiful but capricious golden eyes (the cat is often described with the word capricious) shows up each time. Which is more likely? Julius finally snaps and seems to try to kill his wife/cat by driving off a cliff with one, or perhaps both in his car. He wakes up with much less of his mind, paralyzed and seemingly mostly content to coexist with both cat and wife. A strange ending fit for a strange tale.