e "made frequent allusions to the ancient popular notion?(97), the narrator tries his best to show that the cat is like any other. The narrator gives the pet the name Pluto, which in Roman mythology means "god of the underworld.?By doing this, he further connects the black cat of his to something from the underworld. He also calls what he sees when he went back to check out the ruins of his house that burned down as an apparition (98) and a "phantasm of the cat?(98). An apparition is a ghost or spirit and by following what the narrator describes, his view of the black cat goes from a normal household pet to something that haunts him for months. The loss of the cat not only brought him remorse at what he did to the cat when he hung it on a rope, but also regrets at the loss of a fine pet.
             Another mention of the black cat as something of an underworld creature was made again when the narrator called it an "Incarnate Night-Mare that I had no power to shake off?(100). He feels so terrified of what he imagines to be the image of the gallows on the creature's chest. He even goes so far as to say that the black cat is "incumbent eternally his heart?(100), which means that the whole image of the "demonic? black-furred creature is permanently fixed in his mind and soul that whatever that is good within himself is gone. This is evident when it says in the story that "beneath the pressure of torments such as these, the feeble remnant of the good within me succumbed?(100). The narrator in the second half of the story starts to call the black cat a monster, which further emphasizes the change in his view of the animal. His happiness at getting rid of the black beast after murdering his wife was so evident when he says to him, "I should behold it no more! My happiness was supreme!?(101). Even though he views the murder of his poor wife as a hideous act which was brought on by a rage, which is "...