Final answer:
The narrator responds to Pluto's avoidance with guilt, and to the biting with severe violence, which includes mutilating and eventually killing the cat. Pluto is an allusion to the Roman god of the underworld.
Step-by-step explanation:
The narrator's actions towards Pluto in Edgar Allan Poe's short story 'The Black Cat' begin with avoidance and escalate to violence. Initially, after Pluto starts to avoid the narrator due to the narrator's abusive behavior, the narrator feels a mix of annoyance and guilt.
Eventually, when Pluto bites the narrator in an act of self-defense or fear, the narrator reacts with rage, leading to him gouging out one of the cat's eyes. The escalation of violence continues until the narrator hangs the cat from a tree.
Pluto, in this context, serves as an allusion to the Roman god of the underworld, also known as Hades in Greek mythology, which connotes the themes of death and the narrator's descent into moral darkness.