The Imp of the Perverse

“Induction, à posteriori, would have brought phrenology to admit, as an innate and primitive principle of human action, a paradoxical something, which we may call perverseness, for want of a more characteristic term.”

The narrator establishes credibility through his command of academic language—e.g., the term “a posteriori,” or through empirical experience, which the philosopher Immanuel Kant popularized. The narrator uses this credibility to buttress his main point, which is that the methodology of phrenology is flawed; it is so certain that human impulses must serve a rational purpose that it ignores the Irrationality and Perverseness of real human behavior.

“The phrenological combativeness has for its essence, the necessity of self-defense. It is our safeguard against injury. Its principle regards our well-being; and thus the desire to be well is excited simultaneously with its development. It follows, that the desire to be well must be excited simultaneously with any principle which shall be merely a modification of combativeness, but in the case of that something which I term perverseness, the desire to be well is not only not aroused, but a strongly antagonistical sentiment exists.”

The narrator refers to phrenology as a way of legitimizing his theories and uses the jargon of the popular pseudoscience, such as the trait “combativeness,” to support his theory of perverseness. In addition, the description of the “strongly antagonistic sentiment” foreshadows his self-destructive behavior.

“There lives no man who at some period has not been tormented, for example, by an earnest desire to tantalize a listener by circumlocution.”

Poe helps the reader engage with the disturbed thoughts of the narrator by including darkly comic aspects. Here, the narrator’s aphoristic statement is also self-aware, ironically referring, in part, to his own verbosity and “circumlocution” in the story thus far. However, the diction of the verb “tormented” implies a force out of one’s control, which seems to act on the narrator as he continues his tale.

“That single thought is enough. The impulse increases to a wish, the wish to a desire, the desire to an uncontrollable longing, and the longing (to the deep regret and mortification of the speaker, and in defiance of all consequences) is indulged.”

What began as a measured, academic illustration of “perverseness” gains momentum and seems to overtake the narrator. In a series of repeated words and short utterances, the quickened pace of this list reflects the narrator’s growing anxiety. The aside in parentheses intimates to the reader the serious outcome of the murderer’s ultimate confession and “the deep regret” of the narrator.

“The most important crisis of our life calls, trumpet-tongued, for immediate energy and action. We glow, we are consumed with eagerness to commence the work, with the anticipation of whose glorious result our whole souls are on fire.”

The narrator is employing the distance of academia through the use of “we” so as to keep the reader in suspense, but the emotive language betrays to the reader that he is most likely speaking from personal experience. The vivid imagery of “trumpet-tongued” and “souls on fire” elevate the Romantic ideal of human emotion and creativity.

“The clock strikes, and is the knell of our welfare. At the same time, it is the chanticleer—note to the ghost that has so long overawed us. It flies—it disappears—we are free. The old energy returns. We will labor now. Alas, it is too late!”

The short, staccato sentences and use of em-dashes and exclamations increase the anxiety and emotional intensity of the moment. The clock chiming symbolizes the moment of freedom from self-destructive impulses through a return of creative energy, but it is ironically too late to fulfill the creative impulse. Poe is allegorically discussing the paradox of the artistic process.

“We stand upon the brink of a precipice. We peer into the abyss—we grow sick and dizzy. Our first impulse is to shrink from the danger. Unaccountably we remain. By slow degrees our sickness and dizziness and horror become merged in a cloud of unnamable feeling.”

The symbol of the precipice and the abyss represents the narrator’s irrational fascination and fear of death or annihilation by falling into an abyss of “nothingness.” The transformation of disturbing emotions into a physical cloud reveals the mysterious power of the perverse and the unknowability of the mind itself, which is “unaccountable.”

“But out of this our cloud upon the precipice’s edge, there grows into palpability, a shape, far more terrible than any genius or any demon of a tale, and yet it is but a thought, although a fearful one, and one which chills the very marrow of our bones with the fierceness of the delight of its horror.”

The spirit of the perverse is made solid through the image of the cloud of “unnameable feeling.” This image evokes the Romantic concept of the sublime, in which natural beauty can evoke strong emotions, even horror. Poe plays with the intermingling of excitement with terror through juxtaposition in the phrase “fierceness of the delight of its horror,” concepts that seem to be at odds but can be experienced simultaneously.

“Examine these similar actions as we will, we shall find them resulting solely from the spirit of the Perverse. We perpetrate them because we feel that we should not. Beyond or behind this there is no intelligible principle; and we might, indeed, deem this perverseness a direct instigation of the Arch-Fiend, were it not occasionally known to operate in furtherance of good.”

The spirit of the Imp of the Perverse harbors potential for both creation and destruction—it can be used for good and evil. This duality is one of the key themes of the Romantics. Here, the narrator clarifies that there is no “God” or “intelligible principle” behind the Imp’s existence, but it is also not the devil.

“But I need not vex you with impertinent details. I need not describe the easy artifices by which I substituted, in his bed-room candle-stand, a wax-light of my own making for the one which I there found.”

Ironically, the details of the murder are not the subject of this tale. The focus of the narrator’s story is the perverse impulse that led to the confession, not his motivation for murder. The candle he made himself signifies the creative power of the perverse—it is impish and ingenious.

“In a fit of petulance, I re-modelled them thus: ‘I am safe—I am safe—yes—if I be not fool enough to make open confession!’ No sooner had I spoken these words, than I felt an icy chill creep to my heart.”

The repetition of “I am safe” emphasizes the narrator’s longing for security, which ironically is what led to his demise—this is his hubris, or fatal flaw. He obsessed about his safety until the thought overwhelmed and endangered him. The “icy chill” he experienced was a physical manifestation of the narrator’s perverse instinct to confess, signifying the growth of his obsession.

“Every succeeding wave of thought overwhelmed me with new terror, for, alas! I well, too well understood that to think, in my situation, was to be lost.”

Ironically, the power to think before acting, a rational quality, is rejected by the narrator, who mistrusts his own mind. Thoughts are metaphorically portrayed as “waves,” a powerful natural phenomenon that can overwhelm a person.

“For a moment I experienced all the pangs of suffocation; I became blind, and deaf, and giddy; and then some invisible fiend, I thought, struck me with his broad palm upon the back. The long-imprisoned secret burst forth from my soul.”

Perverseness here is personified and violent—but instead of prompting the narrator to commit an act of violence, it compelled him to confess—a moral act. His soul became a metaphorical prison for his secret, which “burst forth” from its confinement, indicating its destructive qualities.