Many of Edgar Allan Poe's stories involve what is called the perverse little devil. The narrators of Poe's stories commit heinous crimes, even though they claim to be completely sane. Each narrator states that they could not help but commit the crimes, because they were overwhelmed by perversity. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” the narrator begins by informing the reader that, although he is nervous, he is not crazy. Although the narrator is a murderer, he is not without reason. The story then tells us how the narrator killed a neighbor, not for money or hatred, but because of his blue eyes. Although the man is dear to him, the narrator was struck by the idea of ​​killing the man, and thus his blue eye, and was unable to shake the idea. Once the thought of killing the man crossed his mind, he had no choice but to act on it. Therefore, the narrator observed the man at night while he slept for a week; on the eighth night the narrator crept carefully and furtively into the neighbor's room to kill him. He is meticulous in his actions, taking a full hour to enter the room, but the man wakes up and screams. The narrator pauses, waiting for the man to fall back asleep, but the man does not; the neighbor is terrified and can't control his heartbeat. As the sound of the man's heartbeat increases, the narrator attacks, dropping a pearl on top of the man, killing him. The narrator then dismembers the body, hides the pieces under the floorboards, and cleans up before the police arrive. The narrator greets the police officers warmly and shows them the house. He is overly confident that his crime is undetectable, almost to the point of arrogance. The narrator loses his nerve, however, when he hears the low thump of… in the center of the card… what is the Law, simply because we understand it as such? It is this same perversity that leads the narrator of "The Perverse Imp" to commit his murderous crime, confessing that he too is "one of the many countless victims of the Perverse Imp." While the perverse devil is an explanation for why each narrator committed their murders, Poe does not appear to use it as an excuse. Each narrator gives in to the consuming idea that he must be doing something wrong and is eventually found out. Each of them pays for their crimes. Poe's stories provided a better understanding of the natural personalities of human beings: we all, at least to some extent, have the desire to do things we know we shouldn't do. But while Poe's narrators feel they have no choice but to act on the sinful ideas that consume them, which is not the case; because enacting perversity ultimately leads to punishment.