The Imp of the Perverse

Abbey Smith Smith 1

Mrs. Clevenger

ENGL 1213

February 12, 2015

The Imp of the Perverse

“The Imp of the Perverse” is a short story composed by Edgar Allen Poe. He compares humanity as a whole to an imp because he strongly believes that humans are greedy and mischievous creatures. In the story, Poe states that even if a person has the option to do the right or wrong thing, they will often pick the wrong decision simply because they can. He refers to this psychological phenomenon as “prima mobilia.” Edgar Allen Poe’s stance in this short story reveals that he has little to no faith in humanity.

Poe believes that the “prima mobilia” is a satanic kink that is buried in all men. In the story it is noted that “with certain minds, under certain conditions, it becomes absolutely irresistible.” Therefore Poe is trying to convey the implicit meaning that the story is not only about the negativity of prima mobilia, but also the glamour and creative mechanisms that it holds. The tale is paradoxically entwined with both of the creativity and destructiveness of consciously making bad decisions, making this piece all of the more artistic.

The emotion that it portrays is arrogance because Poe assumes all of society is the exact same. Although, in some areas it is seen that Poe made an effort to make it somewhat comedic. At first, the imagined speaker is consciously circumlocutory and using a wide vocabulary; but only for a while, until circumlocution gets out of hand and overcomes him. Then later on, he mentions circumlocution once again and said: “There lives no man who at some period, has not been tormented, for example, by an earnest desire to tantalize a listener by circumlocution. The speaker is aware that he displeases; he has every intention to please.” This illustrates that he may have been trying to please the reader by swelling his paragraphs with bigger words, or was trying to add irony to the tale.

Another idea Poe focuses on is man’s...