The evil of human nature is sometimes far beyond our imagination

      “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe published in 1845. The short story tells the story of a drunkard who first abused his cat to kill the cat and then killed his wife and hides the corpse. The suffocating atmosphere of terror and the anxiety of the narrator in the whole novel show the readers a shocking fear. Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” illustrates one or more psychoanalytic concepts from Freud, because the narrator of the short story has shown up the inner evil thought through repression, wishful impulses, condensation.

      Repression is one of the defense mechanisms. Selectively exclude memories that cause personal conflicts and intense experiences from consciousness. Freud believes that the repressed memory has not really disappeared, but has turned into the subconscious, often acting in a disguised manner. “From my infancy I was noted for the docility and humanity of my disposition. My tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make me the jest of my companions.”（Poe，1）During his childhood, he was ridiculed by other friends for his love of animals. So that a malicious seed was buried in the heart. This seed will grow and will burst at any time in his unconscious. Sustained repression must be unconscious; it will be awakened under certain conditions, and it will reappear unconsciously again and again.

Under the name of alcoholism, he abused animals to vented the mockery he had suffered in his childhood.

         Wishful impulses is a kind of biological force of the human unconscious.This evil idea is an impulse of human instinct. It is a primitive function or emotion, and the human character is determined by it. “I took from my waistcoat-pocket a pen-knife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket !”（Poe，1） Even the narrator knew that is wrong to cut the eye of his black cat. He will still do this. Because of anger, he instinctively wants to avenge the cat that hurts him. The strong evil thoughts are enough to make people produce extreme abnormal and distorted psychology in a state of madness, and make an incomprehensible terrorist incident.

     Condensation is combine one or more desire, feeling or impulsive together. Instinct drives the narrator to kill his wife, and he feels the pleasure from it. The narrator is not guilty of killing his wife, but also breathing like a free man again, which is relaxed. Because when he killed his wife, the black cat disappears. The wife and the black cat are one. When he kills his wife, he kills the black cat. That is to say, he gets rid of the fear brought by the wishful impulsive in the heart. “Pluto had not a white hair upon any portion of his body; but this cat had a large, although indefinite splotch of white, covering nearly the whole region of the breast.” （Poe，1）The white portion is similar to gallows. But the most frightening thing is that the black cat did not really disappear, it reappeared inside the wall and eventually put the narrator on the gallows to complete self-destruction.

       In mythology, “Pluto” is the god of death, therefore often represents the image of mystery and evil. The black cat named “Pluto” in the novel is also given a symbolic meaning, symbolizing the temptation to lead people to crime, representing the incarnation of the devil. It is because of the death impulse lurking in him that he named the black cat Pluto, then loved him more than ever. This is actually his infatuation for death. And the desire to destroy me through the black cat. The black cat becomes the external materialization of the death instinct of the narrator in the symbolic sense. The abuse of him to black cats is essentially an act of self-abuse and self-punishment, and an instinctive escape from death. The fear he feels when he faces the black cat is the fear he feels when he faces death and irrationality. This fear grows with each passing day. Finally, he tried to end the evil with the ritual of killing, but this is the ultimate realization of evil.

      The most impressive feature of “The Black Cat” is its horror aesthetics. The plot is mainly driven by the psychology of the characters. Psychoanalytic criticism can better clarify the seemingly disordered psychological phenomena. Freud’s psychoanalysis, as a treatment of neurosis, has been applied in the field of literature. It is an important part of psychoanalysis criticism. His subconscious theory, personality structure theory, dream analysis and so on have brought new perspectives and operating modes to the criticism of literary creation.