Edgar Allen Poe's 'The Imp Of The Perverse'

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In Edgar Allen Poe’s The Imp of the Perverse, Poe explains through his narrator that the imp of the perverse is the urge or the want to act wrongly for the very reason that it is wrong. For example, if you were told not to picture an elephant the first thing you would do, would be to picture an elephant. Though the imp of the perverse can explain some of people’s actions, it cannot explain all aspects of some of those actions. At what point does a person decide that killing is too large of a wrongdoing, but stealing is perfectly acceptable? The answer is in the individual’s morals and the way their brain may work. A big example would be Poe’s short story called The Imp of the Perverse.
The narrator in Poe’s short story got away with the perfect murder and was able to live in peace for several years without worry until the thought of not telling his secret started to become the only thought on his mind. He knew that …show more content…

The narrator in Poe’s story must have known that murder is a crime because he wanted to keep it a secret. Though some people may think about murder I am not convinced that it becomes a desired action for people to preform just because they know its wrong. They stop because it is against their morals. Another example of this is one we discussed in class. You know you shouldn’t jump off a high cliff, but part of you want to do so. You do not jump because you value your life more than the want to do something you shouldn’t. So the imp of the perverse does not always win out, a person does not do something just because they know it is wrong. The imp of the perverse may win out if you were told not to read a certain book or see a certain movie, though. That action may not go against your morals, values, and ideals as much as murder or a more serious crime

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