"The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe (p. 513)

Spirit of Perverseness

I believe that the spirit of perverseness is when we are redirected away from doing something we would normally do that was right into doing something that we would normally deem bad or wrong.I believe this would most likely come from being under extreme duress or maybe with the help of alcohol or drugs.

A few years ago, my husband and I allowed his half-brother, Shane, to come ad stay with us. He had no where to go and even though we live in a small house with three children of our own, we can't turn anyone away if they ask us for our help. Things were fine at first which normally they are, but then we started notice things missing. The first of which was our rent money. We didn't say anything, because we had no proof and you can't just go around accusing people of things. We managed to make it through that and then my son came to me one day and asked me where his game-boy was. We searched high and low for it with no luck whatsoever. I just knew what had happened to it. I was beyond furious as I called my husband to let him know of the events that were about to take place. I was even more furious as I ended the call with my husband, as he wanted to let it go too. I wasn't having that. It's one thing to steal from me, but a whole other thing to steal from my kids. I called Shane at his workplace and dared him to come back to my house in not so many kind words. I packed his stuff being very dubious about what I had done with them. He was meticulous when it came to his teeth, he took care of them better than I believe a dentist would do to his own. I did all sorts of unholy things with his items from rubbing his clothes in the dirt to putting his toothbrush in the toilet and actually brushing the bowl. I know I would have never done any of those things if I hadn't been provoked by madness and I do know that it was wrong to do them. I don't necessarily think it made me a bad person but it was completely out of character for me. I have never felt bad about doing this though, in fact, I would love to know if he actually ever used that toothbrush again!