nto ulterior elements. It is a radical, a primitive impulse-elementary. (Poe-163) Doing wrong for wrong's sake is both a motive and excuse in this tale. The narrator commits his sin by following this sort of logic but he is eventually betrayed by it. The perverse impulse to always do the wrong thing is the disease in which this character is plagued. He is not a moral man; he is both selfish, and greedy, and acts only to bring himself pleasure or peace of mind. His lack of morality prevented him from even thinking about the murder he had committed for years. He enjoyed the fact that he had gotten away with the crime and received many things from the murdered mans estate. "For a very long period of time I was accustomed to revel in this sentiment. It afforded me real delight than all the mere worldly advantages accruing from my sin". (Poe-166) However as with all of the characters that will be investigated the voice of the conscience started to make itself heard. Quietly at first it began to make him question his safety, "I would perpetually catch myself pondering upon my security, and repeating, in a low under-tone, the phrase, 'I am safe.'" (Poe-166) The inner struggle that began with that thought will torment the character until the truth is revealed. The years of living with the secret allowed it to gain strength, and voice, until it emerged, "The long-imprisoned secret burst forth from my soul". (Poe-167) Betrayed by his own logic of thought the man relates the story form his prison cell. The climax is common to both Poe and Hawthorne. When the inner struggle concludes the man is not the apparent winner. However the struggle is worse then any punishment that they might receive.The second character of Poe's is the narrator from The Tell-Tale Heart. The story is similar to The Imp of Perverse in many ways. The main characters both murder an innocent older man in their sleep and seemingly get away with. They bot...
