Dark Romanticism: Poe Vs. Hawthorne

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. “Emerging from these conditions was an assertion of the value of the individual self, an intense concern with the inner workings of the perceiving mind, and an affirmation of emotion and instinct” (Robinson 1). Robinson defined romanticism as the value of the individual self and working with the mind which is what we see with our two male main characters. Nonetheless Poe and Hawthorne were involved with the Dark Romanticism. It has been said that Hawthorne is about morality within his dark romanticism whereas Poe focuses on the psychological aspect of it. “Melville exemplifies the turn in Romanticism that inverts the hero and disavows the quest for unity and understanding, replacing it with a growing recognition of chaos and darkness”

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