Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allen Poe
“To fear death, gentlemen, is no other than to think oneself wise when one is not, to think one knows what one does not know. No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they knew that it is the greatest of evils.” Socrates one of the greek philosophers in the 400’s BC, gives a reasonable question about the fear of death. Death affects people and characters very differently in life. In the world of literary works two very well known authors Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe present two works that both deal with the effects of this very thing the fear of death. Laid out in the next few pages we shall see that there are many connections to the works these two have done in the way that their characters are affected by the fear of death, how this is shaped by the authors life, and the way that their situations and fear of death affect the rest of their lives.
Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allen Poe were both american authors from the eighteen hundreds. Both were part of the romantic movement the two works that we are going to look at are considered part of the dark romanticism genre. The first work we are going to look at is “Young Goodman Brown” that Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote in 1835 and the other one is “The Fall of The House of Usher” that Edger Allen Poe wrote in 1839. The works depict the main character on a journey. They also share that the settings are dark or even that there is a persistent evil in the time frame. Have a feeling of death or dread that something is going wrong and that the place they are could hold something very supernatural that could affect the characters in a life altering way.
A summary of “Young goo...
... middle of paper ...
...s Young Goodman Brown." Explicator 65.3 (2007): 143-145. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Apr. 2014.
Predmore, Richard. "'YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN' Night Journey Into The Forest." Journal Of Analytical Psychology 22.3 (1977): 250-257. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Apr. 2014.
Rollason, Christopher. "The Character Of Phantasm: Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Fall Of The House Of Usher' And Jorge Luis Borges' 'Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius.'." Atlantis (0210-6124) 31.1 (2009): 9-22. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Apr. 2014.
Tritt, Michael. "'Young Goodman Brown' And The Psychology Of Projection." Studies In Short Fiction 23.1 (1986): 113. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Apr. 2014.
Zanger, Jules. "`Young Goodman Brown' And `A White Heron': Correspondences And Illuminations." Papers On Language & Literature 26.3 (1990): 346. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Apr. 2014.
Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne are considered two of the most influential writers in American history. ¨Although they never met face-to-face the two writers are inseparably linked because of the style of their works.¨(Velella) Their unique style was different then a lot of other writers which separated them from the rest. While Longfellow and many others wrote about happiness and spiritual connection with nature Poe and Hawthorne wrote about darkness and how they thought humanity was evil creation.
Hawthorne and Poe showcase a theme of darkness but differ in their approach to the setting. In Young Goodman Brown, the story primarily
Segura, Giberto. "The View of 'Young Goodman Brown.' " An American Literature Survey Site. September 1996. (31 March 1999)
Jewett, Sarah Orne. "A White Heron." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998. 131-139.
Throughout our history, we have repeatedly tried to exploit the environment (i.e. nature) in order to perfect our lives. We not only manipulated the materialistic and economic aspect of our world, but we have also struggled to use the moral and the spiritual in making progress within ourselves. Instead of relying on ourselves to accomplish this purpose, we have unfortunately sought help from society's traditional institutions. These institutions, in turn, have tired to manipulate us for their own good, resulting in more harm than help. During the nineteenth century, authors such as Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville, and Nathaniel Hawthorne recognized this and have tried to stop it through their writings. To this end, they have adopted Ralph Waldo Emerson's view that people choose to deny the power of reason, or their own mind. He believed that until people choose to see the "light" of reason, they will remain morally dead. With the achievement of reason, external institutions will remain useless and they will understand that the spirit they so vehemently desired is indeed within them and will without a doubt eliminate their moral darkness. Therefore, Emerson affirmed that the only eternal law is that of experience and that "the one thing in the world of value is the active soul-the soul, free, sovereign, active." This essay will discuss how these authors (Melville, Hawthorne, and Dickinson) composed writings that mimicked Emerson's view of life to accentuate individualism against subjugation.
Out of all the great authors and poets we have studied this semester I have chosen the three that I personally enjoyed reading the most; Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allen Poe, and Walt Whitman. These three Writers stand out above the rest for each has contributed substantially to bringing forth a newly earned respect for American Writers of Literature. Up until this point in time most literature had come from European writers. Hawthorne, Poe and Whitman brought not only great works of art to our newly formed nation, but also to the world in general.
When a writer starts his work, most often than not, they think of ways they can catch their reader’s attention, but more importantly, how to awake emotions within them. They want to stand out from the rest and to do so, they must swim against the social trend that marks a specific society. That will make them significant; the way they write, how they make a reader feel, the specific way they write, and the devotion they have for their work. Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgard Allan Poe influenced significantly the American literary canon with their styles, themes, and forms, making them three important writers in America.
Fear of the unknown, and fear of what is to come in our lives, has generations of people wondering what will our lives be like tomorrow or the next day. Death is always there and we cannot escape it. Death is a scary thing. Our own mortality or the mortality of our loved ones scares us to the point that we sometimes cannot control how we are dealing with such a thing as the thought of death. Why do we fear such a thing as death? We don’t know what happens after we don’t how it feels. The fear of death is different for most but it is most certain to come and we cannot hide from it. For death is just around the corner and maybe it’s will come tomorrow or the next day! We fear not death, but the unknown that comes from death, that is the
Poe's “The Fall of the House of Usher” is considered to be a Dark Romantic text. Dark Romanticism began in the mid-nineteenth century as a negative reaction to the popular Transcendental Movement, a rising force in literary circles. Authors like Poe found transcendentalism to be a laughable concept which was absurdly optimistic and unrealistic. The anti-transcendentalists made it a point to make a mockery of transcendental beliefs in their work; hence, the Dark Romantic genre began.(Quinn)
During the American Renaissance, writers were put into one of two categories. The categories were the Dark Romantics and the Transcendentalists. Some Dark Romantics include Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Washington Irving. The Dark Romantics stories included creepy symbols, horrific themes, and psychological effects of guilt and sin. The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving gives a few examples as to why life is meaningless to some people.Humans are not all good, there are some cruel people in this world. The Pit and the Pendulum tells you exactly why.
Hawthorn, Nathaniel. "Young Goodman Brown" The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Vol. I. Shorter Seventh Edition. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 2008. 620-629. Print.
The similarities and differences between Poe and Hawthorne both show a dynamic and intriguing method that has lasted through the times. They both show an inner personal look through their writing about their loved ones. The dynamic writing between both writers depict the idea that no matter how morbid the writing love can shine through any view. With both writers there is a vision of morbid curiosity along with a romantic nature for the audience; by depicting death of a loved one to show a sense of connection with the audience. Although both are gothic romantic writers you can easily see that both have a different sense of life and death, and to which one holds more value.
According to Ernest Becker, “The main thesis of this book is that it explains: the idea of death, the fear of death that haunts humans like nothing else; the mainspring of human activity designed to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny for man” (“Becker” ix). The author of this book describes and quotes many other psychological thinkers views on the different kinds of fear and what contributes to the fear of death in man. The author explores several topics like self-worth, heroism, fear, anxiety, depression and many other issues throughout this book.
Dark Romanticism was very popular in 19th century America. It is literary genre that emerged from Romanticism and Transcendentalism. Tenets of Transcendentalism included finding God in nature, and seeing beyond the physical world. Dark romanticism examines the conflict between good and evil and the psychological effect of sin and guilt in the human mind. One very famous Dark Romantic writer is Edgar Allen Poe. Poe is very well known for his many poems and short stories. He is also well known for the recurring theme of death in his stories and poems. In the short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe, setting is used to create the mood of the story, foreshadow future events, and to portray the characteristics of characters and show who they really are.
Intro : Introduce the concept of death, and how the concept of death is shown to be something to be feared