The Poisoned Candle Symbol Analysis

After his discussion of phrenology and the Imp of the Perverse, the narrator confesses to a murder—and he says he killed his victim by using a poisoned candle. The narrator describes ruminating for months over how to commit the perfect murder, and finally coming upon this ingenious idea in a French memoir. The narrator is familiar with his victim’s habit of reading in bed, as well as his poorly ventilated apartment, so he replaces the victim’s candle with a poisoned one (what kind of poison isn’t stated). The plan works, and afterwards the narrator is able to dispose of the “fatal taper” himself, removing the evidence of his crime.

In “The Imp of the Perverse,” the poisoned candle represents intelligence and knowledge being turned to evil ends. The victim uses the candle to read, using its light to seek truth and gain knowledge. The narrator, however, literally poisons this noble endeavor so that it becomes fatal. Similarly, the narrator himself has twisted his own intellectual gifts. Based on his elevated language and complex arguments in the story’s first paragraphs, he is an intelligent and curious man, but he uses his mind for evil purposes, researching ways to commit the perfect murder rather than trying to help others (or even to avoid actively harming them). Just as he poisons the candle that his victim reads by, he poisons his own gifted mind with greed.