The Imp of the Perverse Literary Elements

Short story (Dark Romanticism)

America in the 1800's

First-person, unreliable narrator.

The tone is firstly philosophical and later descends into madness.

The protagonist is the narrator, and the antagonist is the imp

The major conflict is the narrator's act of murder.

The climax of the text is when the narrator tells us he is a murderer.

The narrator's statement that he is in prison foreshadows that his account will end with him being caught.

The narrator understates the immorality of his actions.

The narrator alludes to Arabian Nights: "As did the vapour from the bottle out of which arose the genius in Arabian Nights."

This story includes the imager of madness and descent into madness.

Poe describes perverseness as being a "paradoxical something"

The following passage is an example of parallelism:
"If we cannot comprehend God in his visible works, how then in his inconceivable thoughts, that call the works into being? If we cannot understand him in his objective creatures, how then in his substantive moods and phases of creation?"

N/A

Poe personifies perverseness in the character of the imp.