Who is the protagonist in "The Black Cat," and who is the antagonist? Explain.

Interesting question! Poe enhances the perverse nature of this story by presenting the narrator as both. By his sordid actions, the narrator is evidently the antagonist; but he solicits the reader's attention, then sympathy, as if he were the protagonist. He even goes as far as to justify his acts as if he himself were a victim of circumstance.

This reversal of roles makes the reader an accomplice of sorts in his crimes, as if he naturally approved of the narrator's acts.