Popular Romantic writers of the 1800s focus their writing on many facets of human nature, both benevolent and malevolent. However, three aspects of human nature are key to Romantic literature: those being madness in the human mind, the forces of good and evil, and the result of guilt after sin. Hawethorn’s The Scarlet Letter incorporates all of those aspects, and various works of Poe’s do as well, creating multiple parallels in their stories. The first comparison of their works is in Usher in “The Fall of the House of Usher” and Chillingworth, the second is with the narrator of “The Tell Tale Heart” and Dimmesdale, and the third is with Montresor from “The Cask of Amontillado” and Puritan
Men and women walk around in the same neutral colored clothing, hand in hand with the lord and their Puritan values. However, these seemingly ordinary Puritans are all similar in one form— sin. In archaic theme-based literature, similarities can be distinguished between two stories and their attributes. Within the works of The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible, a plethora of correlative elements can be identified by the reader.
One of the most famous authors in American history is Edgar Allen Poe, thanks to his intricate and unsettling short stories and poems. One of the strongest aspects of Poe’s writing style is the allure and complexity of the narrator of the story. These narrators, ranging from innocent bystanders to psychotic murderers, add depth to such a short story and really allow Poe to explore the themes of death and murder which he seems to have an unhealthy obsession towards. Furthermore, he uses these narrators to give a different perspective in each of his many works and to really unsettle the reader by what is occurring throughout the story. The narrators, whether an innocent witness of death as in "The Fall of the House of Usher" or a twisted murderer as in "The Cask of Amontillado" are used by Poe to discuss the themes of death and murder within these stories and, depending on their point of view, give a different take on such a despicable act such as murder.
If Roderick Usher and Mr. Hooper have anything in common it is that they both share the burden of hidden sin. Both Poe and Hawthorne use gothic elements to emphasize the human mind that is put through anxiety and depression because of their guilty conscience. Through body language and social interactions the reader becomes aware of the internal conflict that is going on inside a mind that is hiding a secret sin. It is apparent that the authors wanted the audience to put secret sins in perspective by examining an individual in society that has a secret sin.
In the article, “The Question of Poe’s Narrators” James W. Gargano discusses the criticize in “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe and tries to help the readers understand why Poe writes the way he does and identifies some of the quotes in his work. According, to Gargano, other authors view’s Poe’s work as “cheap or embarrassing Gothic Style” (177). The author is saying that Poe’s work makes the reader look at themselves not only the work. The author explores three main points. Some author thinks that Poe’s life is reflected in a lot of his work, uses dramatic language to show his style in work, and explains how Poe’s work manipulates his readers to understand.
Guilt, shame, and penitence are just a few of the emotions that are often associated with a great act of sin. Mr. Arthur Dimmesdale, a highly respected minister of a 17th century Puritan community, is true example of this as he was somehow affected by all of these emotions after committing adultery. Due to the seven years of torturous internal struggle that finally resulted in his untimely death, Mr. Dimmesdale is the character who suffered the most throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Mr. Dimmesdale’s ever present guilt and boundless penance cause him an ongoing mental struggle of remorse and his conscience as well as deep physical pain from deprivation and self inflicted wounds. The external influence of the members of his society
The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a cult classic. And with good reason. Anyone who simply believes that the title of this book just signifies that the protagonist wears a scarlet “A” on her dress in punishment of her adultery is ignorant. Obviously this paper would not be required if such were true. Instead, The Scarlet Letter is extremely ambiguous. One can argue that the scarlet letter is a character itself. I intend to flesh this out in literary, historic, and symbolic terms.
The popular classic book “The Scarlet Letter”, A place in the Puritan world, which outlines the effect of injustice in a variety of methods. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story of “The Scarlet Letter” disputes between originality and conformity by using Hester Prynne to represent those who oppose hope as intact. Arthur Miller explores a comparable domain to the book “The Scarlet Letter” since in both book’s characters are discriminated against the region. The characters who include the devil, or act of adultery their punishment would be led to death. Arthur Miller’s purpose to indicate the cause for the Salem witch trials and the hysteria that we lean on to misplace our minds when it comes to fear.
Griswold, Rufus Wilmot. "The Scarlet Letter." The Library of Literary Criticism of English and American Authors. Ed. Charles Wells Moulton. Gloucester, Massachusetts: Peter Smith Publishing, 1989. 341-371.
'Young Goodman Brown,' by Hawthorne, and 'The Tell Tale Heart,' by Poe, offer readers the chance to embark on figurative and literal journeys, through our minds and our hearts. Hawthorne is interested in developing a sense of guilt in his story, an allegory warning against losing one's faith. The point of view and the shift in point of view are symbolic of the darkening, increasingly isolated heart of the main character, Goodman Brown, an everyman figure in an everyman tale. Poe, however, is concerned with capturing a sense of dread in his work, taking a look at the motivations behind the perverseness of human nature. Identifying and understanding the point of view is essential, since it affects a reader's relationship to the protagonist, but also offers perspective in situations where characters are blinded and deceived by their own faults. The main character of Poe?s story embarks on an emotional roller coaster, experiencing everything from terror to triumph. Both authors offer an interpretation of humans as sinful, through the use of foreshadowing, repetition, symbolism and, most importantly, point of view. Hawthorne teaches the reader an explicit moral lesson through the third person omniscient point of view, whereas Poe sidesteps morality in favor of thoroughly developing his characters in the first person point of view.
Reading Edgar Allen Poe’s works such as “The Cask of Amontillado” and “Tell-Tale Heart” are both written around 1840’s and written in the gothic style. Poe displays his horror short stories, in which the reader can differentiate his signature style. Although many of Poe’s significant works may have a similar theme, the reader can distinguish the themes through the characters in “The Cask of Amontillado” and “Tell-Tale Heart.”
Human nature is a conglomerate perception which is the dominant liable expressed in the short story of “A Tell-Tale Heart”. Directly related, Edgar Allan Poe displays the ramifications of guilt and how it can consume oneself, as well as disclosing the nature of human defense mechanisms, all the while continuing on with displaying the labyrinth of passion and fears of humans which make a blind appearance throughout the story. A guilty conscience of one’s self is a pertinent facet of human nature that Edgar Allan Poe continually stresses throughout the story. The emotion that causes a person to choose right from wrong, good over bad is guilt, which consequently is one of the most ethically moral and methodically powerful emotion known to human nature. Throughout the story, Edgar Allan Poe displays the narrator to be rather complacent and pompous, however, the narrator establishes what one could define as apprehension and remorse after committing murder of an innocent man. It is to believe that the narrator will never confess but as his heightened senses blur the lines between real and ...
Of the Romantic Movement, two of the most well-known Gothic literature writers were Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville. Gothic writers mainly wrote about themes that showed that they did not believe that people were ‘good’ by nature and the stories they wrote focused on the evils and flaws of mankind. These two authors presented their respective stories “Bartleby the Scrivener” and “The Minister’s Black Veil” as novels that explore the lives and behaviors of other human characters. Although the stories have different perspectives and settings, they both reveal more about how the other human characters are and what dark or unusual traits and motives they have.
For a Romantic writer, the subject matter of art should deal with the emotions of the character and the reader, and the greatest art was that which had a direct effect on the emotions. Throughout Poe’s works, his characters are usually dominated by their emotions. This characterization explains much of the erratic behavior of the characters in his stories. For example, in the “Fall of the House of Usher” Roderick Usher’s emotions are overwrought. He is hypersensitive to his surroundings and because of this, his behavior became erratic. Daniel Hoffman’s “Edgar Allan Poe: The Artist of the Beautiful”, provides insight into the life of the troubled writer and how he took inspiration from his own tormented life and embedded that in his own literary work. He discusses how Poe’s work explores darker periods in one life and transcends ideals that are widely shared. His own suffering speaks through his characters who are often characterized by: toxic affliction, terror, and mental instability. This article focuses on Poe’s history and how that shaped his writing. It is made apparent that Poe suffered from a troubled past and that greatly affected
In the mid 1800’s America was in full swing of the romanticism movement. During this time readers were entertained by the fresh new writing styles of the latest authors. There were several famous authors in this era such as: Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and William Cullen Bryant. One innovative author from this movement however, added a new dynamic writing style that still intrigues many readers today. Edgar Allen Poe, through his invention of detective stories, has become a house hold name to many. In his short stories “The Tell Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat,” Poe describes two heinous crimes committed by men whose motives can only be traced back to their deranged perception of reality, domestic relationships, and a soul whose thirst can only be quenched through violence.
The Scarlet Letter is a fictional novel that begins with an introductory passage titled ‘The Custom-House’. This passage gives a historical background of the novel and conveys the narrator’s purpose for writing about the legend of Hester Prynne even though the narrator envisions his ancestors criticizing him and calling him a “degenerate” because his career was not “glorifying God”, which is very typical of the strict, moralistic Puritans. Also, although Hawthorne is a Romantic writer, he incorporates properties of Realism into his novel by not idealizing the characters and by representing them in a more authentic manner. He does this by using very formal dialogue common to the harsh Puritan society of the seventeenth century and reflecting their ideals through this dialogue. The Puritans held somewhat similar views as the Transcendentalists in that they believed in the unity of God and the world and saw signs and symbols in human events, such as when the citizens related the meteo...