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Compare and contrast of nathaniel hawthorne and edgar allen poe stories
Compare and contrast of nathaniel hawthorne and edgar allen poe stories
Essay on nathaniel hawthorne by poe
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Comparison between “The Birthmark” and “Tell-Tale Heart” Shown by the dark, and emotional stories told in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” and Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Tell-Tale Heart,” similar writing styles become apparent. Edgar Allan Poe is known for his dark stories that are borderline psychopathic, whereas Hawthorne’s stories provide a sense of hopelessness, and are considered as depressing tales. Both writers have very vivid imaginations that translate into the stories they write. These tales are only two examples of extraordinary pieces of American Gothic Literature that can be compared between the two authors. “The Birthmark” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” are Hawthorne and Poe’s way of telling two different stories that share a common …show more content…
Aylmer is determined to remove the flaw, thus deciding that a medical procedure is necessary. He convinces Georgiana to participate in an experiment to remove the birthmark on her cheek. Aylmer is disgusted that a woman as beautiful as Georgiana would not be pure perfection. Aylmer is so obsessed with Georgiana’s face that would rather risk her life than be married to a woman with an ugly mark on her skin. Georgiana goes through with the tonic to please her husband, but the experiment goes terribly wrong. After taking the potion, Georgiana showed poisonous effects and became very sick. On her deathbed Georgiana tells Aylmer that he has rejected the best that he could ever have. Although the small scourge of sin was present upon her, Aylmer rejects the complete person of his wife in his effort to purge her of …show more content…
In the effort to purge their surroundings, they ended up killing their loved ones. This extreme effort to secure perfection and rid themselves of sin left no room for earthliness, for human error and weakness. They would both rather lead lives of complete perfection than lives where amounts of imperfection are tolerable. The younger man sees the sin in the eye of the older man and exudes a severe reaction of enraged sinfulness, where he himself takes on his own gruesome mortal sin and his own extreme imperfection in the act of murder. Similarly, Aylmer sees the sin in the birthmark of Georgiana and reacts with repulsed sinfulness, where he himself also takes on his own horrible mortal sin and his own severe imperfection in the act of murder. In the attempts of both men to purge themselves of sin, they invite even greater sin into their
The attempted removal of Georgiana’s birthmark by Aylmer signifies a desire to conquer nature and reveals a hidden quality within Aylmer. The first instance in which the reader sees Aylmer trying to conquer or control nature is subtle, it is near the beginning of the story and the narrator says “[Aylmer] persuaded a beautiful woman to become his wife” (211). The common belief is that love occurs naturally and cannot be forced. It seems as though the narrator chooses to state that Aylmer persuaded his wife, rather than fell in love with her, in order to indicate early on in the text Aylmer’s tendencies toward manipulating nature. Later in the
Edgar Allan Poe is known for some of the most horrifying stories ever written through out time. He worked with the natural world, animals, and weather to create chilling literature. Two most notable thrillers are “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”. Poe was infatuated with death, disfigurement, and dark characteristics of the world. He could mix characters, setting, theme,and mood in a way that readers are automatically drawn into reading. Both of these short stories have the same major aspects in common.
It is a reminder that any living thing will die. Aylmer is a smart man, but he forgets that he cannot make his wife immortal. He is only trying to make his wife’s blemish go away. Just like clearing acne, if you try too hard it gets worse or leaves a scar. His guts to push forward even though he knows the dangers lead him astray.
Edgar Allan Poe is one of the greatest authors of all time, and many critics and readers consider him a Horror genre type writer. Many of Poe’s stories could be considered some of the best of the horror genre, but his famous short story The Tell Tale Heart could be considered the best of his writing in horror. The Tell Tale Heart was first published in 1843, and was published in James Russell Lowell’s The Pioneer in January. The short story is of a man or women who is trying to convince his/her sanity to the readers while also describing a murder that he committed. Although, throughout the story the more the narrator tried to justify his/her actions by saying that the old man that he/she murdered had an eye that drove her crazy, and that was
In conclusion the theme of The Birthmark is expressed within the story. “The crimson hand expressed the ineludible gripe in which mortality clutches the highest and purest of earthly mould, degrading them into kindred with the lowest, and even with the very brutes, like whom their visible frames return to dust. In this manner, selecting it as the symbol of his wife's liability to sin, sorrow, decay, and death.” (Hawthorne 359). This story tells a lot about human nature, the most important one is that human beings are naturally imperfect creatures, trying
He failed to look beyond the shadowy scope of time,and,living once all in eternity, to find the perfect future in the present.” Basically saying the missing part of him, which was shown through Aminadab, was the key to see that he had everything he could possibly want. That is when he no longer fights with this inner struggle. What is even more tragic is that even with the passing of his wife, he is unable to learn from this experience because his own wife basically says, don't feel guilty it is going to be ok. This totally disturbs the possibility of learning from this horrible incident, because his wife eases the guilt. Aylmer does not incorporate his missing characteristics from Aminadab.
...ection. By removing the birthmark from Georgiana’s face, Aylmer has taken away her humanity thus leading Georgiana to her death. Georgiana cannot live anymore because she is no longer a human being. Therefore claiming that science has its limits over nature and if those limits are crossed the consequences could be fatal.
Out of love for her husband, Georgina agrees to go on with the experiment. Aylmer shows her that the elixir will cure her of her imperfection by putting it on a plant that was covered in spots and before their eyes, the spots on the plant disappeared. Right away, Aylmer gave his wife the elixir and, like magic, the birthmark disappeared. As the two were looking at what the elixir did to Georgina, they neglected to see the plant dying. Before they knew it, Georgina started to slowly die right in front of her husband’s eyes.
Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most recognized prose poets, short story authors, and literary composers of all time. His works contain trending themes such as love, time, death and the concept of “oneness.” Poe often expressed these themes according to events that he had experienced, and some of his themes intertwined with others. Take for instance, his love for beauty and perfection played a major role in his concept of oneness, or state of absolute fulfillment. However in his short story, The Tell-Tale Heart, Poe effectively explores the power of guilt, and leads his readers through a cynical plot to murder while enduring the struggle to silence a beating conscience by treading the lines of genius versus insanity, moral reasoning versus indifferent resolution, and meticulousness versus obsession.
The character of Aylmer can be seen as a sinister, mad scientist who constantly fights with nature in order to attain human perfection. From the beginning of the story Aylmer’s fight with nature can be seen. “We know not whether Aylmer possessed this degree of faith in man’s ultimate control over nature. He had devoted himself, however, too unreservedly to scientific studies ever to be weakened from them by any second passion” (Hawthorne 218). This shows Aylmer’s passion in trying to discover the secrets of nature and being able to master it. Aylmer’s obsession with perfection and defying nature can be seen again when he is discussing the mark on Georgiana’s cheek. “’No, dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature, that this slightest possible defect, which we hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty, shocks me, as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection’” (Hawthorne 219). This shows Aylmer is not trying to remove the mark as an act of love, but instead trying to remove the mark because it symbolizes a stain of imperfection by nature. Aylmer is obsessed in his efforts to remove the mark and his motivations are not to make Ge...
The tone adopted by Hawthorne from the inception of the narrative toward Aylmer urges the reader to respect Aylmer’s scientific ambition—directly his triumph of head over heart, but indirectly his objectification of Georgiana and subsequent attempts to fix something that she never thought was a flaw. Not only is Aylmer’s obsession with getting rid of her birthmark selfish in that he does it for “the sake of giving himself peace” (647) rather than any desire to make his wife happy, he also admits to feeling guilt over his tyrannical treatment of her. For example, his “horror and disgust” in response to her facial blight rarely escapes her notice, and when she reacts poorly to his “convulsive shudder,” he attempts to soothe her and “release her mind from the burden of actual things” (650) as if she is an empty-headed infant in need of a pacifier. Furthermore, in response to her desperate request for its removal, he isolates her from humanity, administers potentially harmful concoctions into her rooms and body without her knowledge, and ultimately—and rapturously—succeeds in shrinking the mark at the cost of her
“The Tell-Tale Heart is one of Edgar Allan Poe’s greatest fictional short stories. It is known for its repulsive and insane homicide; a very wild and thrilling tale. Likewise, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s well-known novel, The Scarlet Letter, is famous for its directness on sexual conflict. Both writings possess similarities with regards to modified characters, connected symbolism, and significant midpoints. Due to these comparisons, it is quite certain that Hawthorne found inspiration in writing The Scarlet Letter after reading “The Tell Tale-Heart”.
Edgar Allen Poe, one of the famous authors in the American literature, depicted dark romantic characteristics in his work. Poe’s vague style of writing helped him to signify the main character’s mental state. His ambiguity and lack of details of the setting and time helped Poe’s readers to mainly focus on the theme and the idea behind his writing. In “Tell-Tale Heart”, Poe wrote in first person and used romantic characteristics such as imagination, irony, and emotion to highlight the main character’s thoughts and mental state. Furthermore, in the beginning of “Tell-Tale Heart”, the main character shows his love for the old man as he states, “I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He have never given me insult” (Poe, pg.715). Clearly, reading from his perspective, the old man seems to ...
Every man before has always complimented Georgiana on her sweet imperfection. People would tell her all the time that true beauty was in that little blemish. Aylmer, being the man of Science wanted to change what nature had created. Typically, we all know better than to go against Nature, but not Aylmer. Georgiana finally agreed to let her husband remove the birthmark due to a frightening dream Aylmer had encountered. Aylmer started working on a potion to remove Georgiana 's birthmark. As soon as Georgiana sipped the potion, she suddenly falls into a deep coma-like state. The birthmark magically disappears from Georgina 's face. However, as the birthmark fades away, so does Georgina 's life. Hawthorne uses Georgiana 's character to symbolize beauty in this story. Georgiana is already made perfect in the eyes of Nature and all other men, expect Aylmer. Aylmer, representing Science, tries to change Georgiana 's beauty that Nature has created. Aylmer was successful in removing the birthmark, but unsuccessful in keeping Georgiana alive. Aylmer was too intertwined in Science to realize that Georgiana was perfectly made by Nature. Nature paid Aylmer back for trying to correct Georgiana 's face by taking the life of his beloved
In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”, Poe aims to reach into the stratosphere of mythological patricidal figures. Even though the main character of this story isn’t as ill-fated as Oedipus, or as godly as Cronus, his inner conflict is just as epic. The main character’s inner conflict is just as interesting as Poe’s actual life is. In particular, Poe’s relationship with his foster father may shed some light on the reason why the main character’s disposition is so hostile, murderous, and yet, oddly loving towards is father. Psychoanalytical criticism will help shed light on the repression, denial, and intellectualization of the main character and how it corresponds with Poe himself.