In “The Black Cat,” Poe exemplifies something
that he calls, in an essay/short-story called “Imp of the Perverse,” perverseness.
In “The Imp of the Perverse,” Poe explains that
perverseness is, a “radical, primitive,
irreducible sentiment”, something innate to the human nature that science and
philosophy haven’t considered or tried to explain. It is an impulse, an urge to
act against what is rational, what is correct, it is acting without a reason,
“In the sense that I intend, it is in fact a mobile without motive, a motive not motivirt”. As Poe puts it, “the wrong or error of any action is
often the one unconquerable force which impels us, and alone impels us to its
prosecution.”
He sets
out three examples where perverseness is in effect. The first one deals with
the willingness to do wrong, even though we know it to be so, as in knowing
that we displease, wanting to please but at the same time knowing that we can
induce rage in the other. The second example has to do with procrastination. We
have something to do in a deadline and we know that there will be consequences
if we don’t do it. However, along with the anxiety to do it, there is also an
irresistible urge to delay, until the deadline passes. Finally, there is the
example of the urge to plunge into a precipice, something that fights against
the rational side that keeps us from jumping.
All of these ideas are shown in “The Black
Cat” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.” The first thought in comparison has to do with
the notion that perverseness is a thoughtless, primitive impulse, that is
inbred within human nature and exists inside all of us. Just as the narrator in
“The Black Cat” injures and hurts the cat without any particular reason, other
than his alcohol-induced rage - “(…) to offer violence to its own nature – to
do wrong for the wrong’s sake only – that urged me to continue and finally consummate
the injury I had inflicted upon the unoffending brute”- the narrator in “The
Tell-Tale Heart” kills an old man because of his eye – “For it was not the old
man I felt I had to kill; it was the eye, his Evil Eye”.
Furthermore, these texts also show something
that is present in the first three examples given: that perverseness isn’t only
an impulse against others, it can also mean self-destruction. It isn’t very
clear if perverseness is what makes the characters in the tales commit the
crimes or if it is what ultimately causes them to confess. In Imp of the
Perverse, the narrator, who is in prison, tells how the mere thought that he
could accidentally confess and get caught led to him not being able to stop
himself from doing so – “as if the very ghost
of him whom I had murdered—and beckoned me on to death”. Something very similar
happens in “The Tell-Tale Heart,” in
which the narrator, also in prison, explains how he could not stop hearing the
beating heart of the dead old man, how it grew louder until it was unbearable
for him to keep his secret.
Perverseness is, for Poe, nothing more than a
characteristic of the Humankind. However, for Baudelaire, who translated Poe’s
work, there is a whole other universe of connections. Baudelaire translated "The Imp of the Perverse"
for "Le Démon de la Perversité".
What for Poe was an impulse, became for
Baudelaire a demon, a creature that possessed a person and was the sole cause
of all the wrongdoing. What for Poe was merely a “psychological” aspect, for
Baudelaire was clearly a religious matter. Baudelaire couldn’t accept Poe’s lack of a reason, so he
considered perverseness was caused by the devil: “l’impossibilité de trouver un motif
raisonnable suffisant pour certaines actions mauvaises et périlleuses, pourrait
nous conduire à les considérer comme le résultat des suggestions du Diable”1.
Furthermore, Baudelaire was an heir to Joseph
Maistre’s idea of salvation through blood, and he considered that because the
criminal’s worst crimes had been committed against themselves, there was a
possibility of redemption. Baudelaire saw in perverseness both the crime and
the redemption through self-destruction. Being so, Baudelaire frames Poe’s tales within
Catholicism, the crimes being committed under the influence of a possession by
the devil. He also introduces the idea of redemption, which Poe never defended.
He was simply explaining something as both natural and a fact of psychology.
1 prefácio
a Nouvelles Histoires Extraordinaires; translation: the impossibility of
finding a motive reasonable enough for certain bad and dangerous actions can
lead us to consider them as the result of the Devil’s suggestions”
Bibliography:
“The Black Cat,” anthology
“The
Tell-Tale Heart”: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/poe/telltale.html
“The Imp of the Perverse”: http://poestories.com/read/imp
Vale de Gato, Margarida, “Edgar Allan Poe em Translação: Entre Textos e Sistemas, visando as
Rescritas na Lírica Moderna em Portugal.” Dissertação de doutoramento
apresentada à ULisboa, 2008.
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