Perverseness In The Black Cat

Crime and Punishment and The Black Cat offer a litany of examples and insights into the idea of perverseness. In the actions of the protagonists in relation to violence towards an old pawnbroker and a black cat, the respective authors depict a thesis of a human impulse that cannot be avoided. Perverseness, or the desire to do wrong for no greater reason than simple to commit an evil act, is a crucial argument of both pieces of work. Through illustrations depicted in both the works and outside opinions, the commonalities and deviances between the two authors’ examples of perverseness are on full display. The reader is introduced to two protagonists with almost compulsive desires to commit evil onto other beings. In both depictions the idea
Of this spirit philosophy takes no account. Yet I am not more sure that my soul lives, than I am that perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart- one of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of man. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a stupid action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not? Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgement, to violate that which is law, merely because we understand it to be such? This spirit of perverseness, I say, came to my final overthrow. It was this unfathomable longing of the soul to vex itself- to offer violence to its own nature- to do wrong for wrong’s sake only- that urged me to continue and finally to consummate the injury I had inflicted upon the unoffending brute” (Poe, p. 5-6). Throughout this quotation the protagonist does not seek justification or rationalization
While in The Black Cat it is a simple desire to learn if evil can be done out of no other reason than committing evil, Raskolnikov is also grappling with an experimentation in order to test the practicality of an idea of committing a crime that could lead to a greater humanitarian good. An analysis of the religious themes written by Wil Van Den Brecken, Christian fiction and religious realism in the novels of Dostoevsky, goes on to detail this combination of contributing factors. While describing the addition of the moral question to commit crime for a societal benefit he says, “It is about the question whether the difference between good and evil can be based on utilitarian ethics” (Van, 2011). This is in contrast to the protagonist of The Black Cat because although a desire to commit a crime simply to do so is present, with Raskolnikov it is also done in conjunction with the question of whether or not he has the high ground to commit a crime for the societal benefit. The implementation of this experiment is encouraged through a conversation of two fellow members of Raskolnikov’s community who go to great lengths to voice their displeasure with the victim of the crime. The two bar patrons are overheard exchanging remarks on the despicable nature of the woman and potential benefits that would arise from violence towards the woman.