m from his youth. In contrast to the success of the graduate student in overcoming his perverse inclination, the "chanticleer-ghost" petrifies the victim in Poe's illustration, until the striking of the hour designating that alas, "it is too late." (Poe 273) The third example places the victim on the brink of a precipice, where he begins to yearn for the "delight" in the horror of a "rushing annihilation" from such a height. What "would be our sensations?" (273) The narrator points out that it is the very loathsomeness and ghastliness of such a death which causes one to most vividly desire it. "If there be no friendly arm to check us, or if we fail in a sudden effort to prostrate ourselves backward from the abyss, we plunge, and are destroyed." (Poe 274) A similar account can be found on the Isle of Tsalal in Poe's novel, the Narrative of A. Gordon Pym, when the narrator is saved from a fall from a steep cliff only by the arms of Peters. Next, the reader discovers that he reads not an essay, but a tale of horror from a young man who has fallen victim to the spirit of perverseness he had so well portrayed. One can also bet that Poe had John Allan in mind when he formulated the plot for this episode. The narrator devises a scheme that will secure his fortune from his benefactor-to-be. He poisons the wax of a candle and exchanges it for the candle at his benefactor's bedside. Of course the benefactor suffocates; the evidence burns away; the taper is disposed of. The scheme is a success, as the crime goes undetected. For a number of years the narrator enjoys his good fortune. But he begins to mutter to himself, "I am safe," and finally, "I am safe--I am safe--if I be not fool enough to make open confession." At this suggestion, the narrator confronts his own double, his perverse self who reveals him "as the very ghost of him I had murdered...." (Poe 275) The narrator feels the pangs of suffocation, as if it were he who is now being poiso...
