The Imp of the Perverse

Romanticism, which spread to the US from Europe, dominated the American literary scene from the 1820s to the end of the Civil War and the rise of Realism. Reacting against the strict rationalism of the Age of Reason, Romantic texts focused on the importance of imagination, creativity, and emotions. Romantic writers were interested in the relationship of the inner mind to its external reality and used vivid sensory descriptions of nature or physical elements to convey an individual’s emotional state. The Romantic exploration of emotionality emphasized human fallibility and self-destructive impulses. Gothic literature and Dark Romanticism are closely related in their exploration of the darker aspects of the psyche, addressing feelings of guilt, apprehension, and fear. Poe’s fiction combines Romantic and Gothic elements.

Dark Romanticism’s use of vivid sensory description and focus on intense and destructive human emotions serves Poe’s poetic principles or purpose for writing. In Poe’s literary criticism, he emphasizes that didacticism, or moral lessons, have no place in art. In his own work, he applies a technique called the “unity of effect,” in which the writer’s primary purpose is to incite a particular emotional response in the reader.