Kinsie Ali Mrs. Harmon American Literature Honors April 26, 2024 American Romanticism Movement In 19th century America, authors dared to explore the depths of guilt, sin, and the darkest aspects of human nature, sparking a literary movement that continues to be relevant to this day. Throughout the era, the complexity of guilt and sin influenced the character’s decisions by prioritizing feelings over reasoning. Throughout the American Romantic period, characters in literature exhibited two distinct characteristics, prioritizing feelings over reasoning and the negative effects of guilt and sin, which are still existent in modern works, showcasing the timeless relevance of these characteristics across different periods. Characters in American …show more content…
As Tom Walker navigates the consequences of his Faustian deal, he faces the ultimate price for his greed. The main character’s decision-making is severely influenced by his emotions. As displayed when he values his sense of relief and gratitude towards the devil over the loss of his wife by thanking the devil who killed her. When Irving writes, “Tom consoled himself for the loss of his property with the loss of his wife, for he was a man of fortitude. He even felt something like gratitude towards the “black woodman” (Irving 328), demonstrating Tom’s tendency to prioritize his emotional relief above mourning the loss of his wife. This depicts how characters in American literature place feelings over reasoning, leading to morally complicated situations. Similarly, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” also explores prioritizing one’s feelings over reasoning. In this unsettling story, the narrator descends into madness and violence. Poe is known for his eerie and compelling stories, which explore the dark sides of human nature, showcasing how uncontrolled emotions can lead to horrifying …show more content…
In Swift’s song “Speak Now,” she vividly portrays the characteristics of prioritizing feelings over logical thinking and the negative outcome this produces as the narrator urges someone to follow their heart, disregarding rationality and societal norms. Swift’s emotionally charged lyrics in “Speak Now,” a song influenced by a close friend of hers after the man she had fallen in love with since childhood married another girl, resonate with the Romantic era’s emphasis on individual emotions and desire when she sings, “and that guilt will follow you like a shadow.you should’ve said no, you should've gone home” (Swift). These lyrics portray a speaker who is urging the main character to prioritize their true desires over logic. The speaker does this by highlighting the repercussions of ignoring one’s heart, emphasizing the guilt one will face if not being true to their heart, and the importance of embracing emotional impulses even when they may conflict with reason, which continues to be a prevalent theme in modern literature and music that reflects the lasting influence of this
In “The Devil and Tom Walker,” written by Washington Irving’s, Tom Walker gives his soul to the devil for greediest. For example, in the story, it was said, “He accumulated bonds and mortgages, gradually squeezed his customers closer and closer and sent them at length, dry as a sponge, from his door.” This shows how greedy and selfish he was for not caring about what anyone else feels,
Soon he falls asleep and when he wakes up, he finds that he is on a table and a scythe is being lowered from the ceiling. The scythe is another symbol of death. As the scythe is coming down, he tries to find a way to get away from it. At the end of the story, he is saved at the last moment by " an outstretched arm caught my own as I fell, fainting, into the abyss." Washington Irving also talks about death and the devil in his short story "The Devil and Tom Walker." He writes more about the devil than he does death and he does not put himself in the place of the main character like Poe did. Tom, the main character, is a greedy person along with his wife. As he comes home one night, he goes through some woods and meets the devil. "Tom might have felt disposed to sell himself to the devil," but he was afraid to. On the other hand, his wife was not afraid and she disappears. Then Tom makes a deal with the devil, but soon "he thought with regret of the bargain he had made with his black friend, and set his wits to work to cheat him out of the conditions." He turns to religion and carries Bibles with him to keep the devil away, but it does
In Washington Irving’s short story, “The Devil and Tom Walker,” Tom revolves his life around his own selfish wants. Tom and his wife were not a right match for each other. The trouble in their relationship is they would seek out the others stash of treasures to take as their own. In their mind they cannot be happy with what they already have, but imbedded in each other is the need for more. Greed overshadows Tom’s inner conscience, and he goes to great lengths to satisfy his wants. On one ordinary day Tom decides to take a shortcut home, “Like most shortcuts, it was an ill chosen route. The swamp was thickly grown with great gloomy pines and hemlocks, some of them ninety feet high, which made it dark at noonday… (Irving 4).” Any typical human being would have enough common sense not to take a route through a dark, frightening swap. While resting in the swap, Tom met a strange “black man.” Tom’s wife fell into the trap many do, the idea of wealth caused her to fall into the hands of the devil. With his wife gone, he made a deal with the devil to open up a broker’s shop in order to ob...
Mr. Walker, known for greed through tout the town of Charles Bay , leads him to sell his soul to the devil in exchange for insignificant items. Mr. Walker exemplifies laziness , though he wants as many materialistic things,he is unmotivated to work for it. As said in the text,"Tom consoled himself for the loss of his property, with the loss of his wife, for he was a man of fortitude. He even felt gratitude toward the black woodsman, who, he considered, had done him a kindness,” this quote displays Tom’s twisted values, placing materialistic things above his wife exceedingly. Tom despises her to an extent to where
Tom Walker takes a shortcut through the swamp. Although, “the swamp was thickly grown with great gloomy pines and hemlocks, some of them ninety feet high; which made it dark at noonday,... It was full of pits and quagmires, partly covered with weeds and mosses; where the green surface often betrayed the traveler into a gulf of black smothering mud; there were also dark and stagnant pools,... and where trunks of pines and hemlocks lay half drowned, half rotting, looking like alligators, sleeping in the mire” (Irving), Tom ventured in anyway. Typically in Romanticism, nature has a positive effect on its visitor, acting as a mental and spiritual escape. Irving, however, takes a different approach: using nature to conjure up a negative situation instead of a positive, renewing one. Even when the devil approaches Walker in the swamp, he is not, “troubled with any fears of the kind” as he, “was a hard-minded fellow, not easily daunted, and he had lived so long with a termagant wife, that he did not even fear the devil” (Irving). This attitude will secure his unfortunate demise. The devil promises Walker wealth beyond his belief, on one condition: the devil takes ownership of Tom’s soul. After a lifetime of scamming innocent people out of their money, the devil comes back for Mr. Tom Walker, whisking him away into the forest just as he had entered it-
Written during the American Romanticism period, “The Devil and Tom Walker,” by William Irving, personifies the belief in the primacy of imagination. The period of Romanticism in America is often seen as the crucial period of American culture, as it was the central movement of the Renaissance period that moved into a more free-feeling and artistic approach to literature. American Gothic literature made its early appearance with William Irving, first with “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” in 1820, and carrying over to “The Devil and Tom Walker” in 1824, both of which use a macabre approach to establish a moral ending (Matterson). Told by a narrator known as Geoffrey Crayon, “The Devil and Tom Walker” takes on the tone of a legend or tall tale as the story describes the life of a greedy money lender by the name of Tom Walker, who sells his soul to the devil to gain wealth. Irving ultimately uses literary elements such as symbolism and character development, as well as themes such as greed and hypocrisy to establish a moral to the corrupt man’s tale.
Edgar Allan Poe is one of America’s most celebrated classical authors, known for his unique dealings within the horror genre. Poe was a master at utilizing literary devices such as point of view and setting to enhance the mood and plot of his stories leading to his widespread appeal that remains intact to this day. His mastery of aforementioned devices is evident in two of his shorter works “The Black Cat” and “The Cask of Amontillado”.
Throughout history, the effects of guilt on society have often prompted writers to express their emotions, beliefs, and ways they approach life through their literary works. While some authors use the concept of guilt to express their feelings and attract readers, other authors, like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe, use the convention of guilt to teach the society a lesson. Like in Hawthorne?s ?Dr. Heidegger?s Experiment? and Poe?s ?The Masque of Red Death?, both authors employ the theme of guilt to teach a common lesson to the society that one cannot escape guilt. While Hawthorne primarily focuses on the idea of initiation in his story to teach that people cannot forget their guiltiness from their past, Poe utilizes the concept of alienation to teach that people must overcome their guilt, or else their guilt will plague them for the rest of their lives. However, both these concepts of initiation and alienation will later converge into a unified theme and lesson of guilt.
Everyone hits rock bottom or hits that breaking point in their lives. For some people, it may be sooner than others. Our actions can be justified in some ways, where it depends on the person’s mental state, physical state, or emotional state. Additionally, we always try to find a reason why our actions may be perceived to be right in our own eyes. In “The Black Cat” and “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Edgar Allan Poe demonstrates the concept of morality through the state of madness, horrific narration and strong symbolism.
Furthermore, Poe’s plot development added much of the effect of shocking insanity to “The Black Cat.” To dream up such an intricate plot of perverseness, alcoholism, murders, fire, revival, and punishment is quite amazing. This story has almost any plot element you can imagine a horror story containing. Who could have guessed, at the beginning of the story, that narrator had killed his wife? The course of events in “The Black Cat’s” plot is shockingly insane by itself! Moreover, the words in “The Black Cat” were precisely chosen to contribute to Poe’s effect of shocking insanity. As the narrator pens these he creates a splendidly morbid picture of the plot. Perfectly selected, sometimes rare, and often dark, his words create just the atmosphere that he desired in the story.
Gargano, James W. “’The Black Cat’: Perverseness Reconsidered.” Twentieth Century Interpretations of Poe’s Tales. Ed. William L. Howarth. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1971. 87-94. Print.
Edgar Allen Poe is known for his dark theme poems and short stories. When one does read one of Poe 's works the reader gets a glimpse of Poe 's reality. His uses of metaphors and dark themes have made him very popular. He writing style has Gothic themes as well as suspense and horror themes as well. His use of very dark metaphors cast a dark and gloomy presence that shows the reader the mind and world of the narrator telling the story. Edgar Allen Poe 's use of dark themes in “Black Cat” helped him convey the very dark nature of his works in which helped him shape the reality of the stories.
A common theme that is seen throughout many of Edgar Allan Poe’s text, is madness. Madness that will make the whole world turn upside down and around again. Madness that takes over somebody’s life. Madness and eye imagery is present in both “The Black Cat” and “The Tell Tale Heart” by Poe where madness is at first a fairy tale but then ends with a crash back to reality.Both stories share components of murder and insanity, and are very similar, not at first glance but if looked at more closely.
Edgar Allen Poe’s short story The Black Cat immerses the reader into the mind of a murdering alcoholic. Poe himself suffered from alcoholism and often showed erratic behavior with violent outburst. Poe is famous for his American Gothic horror tales such as the Tell-Tale Heart and the Fall of the House of Usher. “The Black Cat is Poe’s second psychological study of domestic violence and guilt. He added a new element to aid in evoking the dark side of the narrator, and that is the supernatural world.” (Womack). Poe uses many of the American Gothic characteristics such as emotional intensity, superstition, extremes in violence, the focus on a certain object and foreshadowing lead the reader through a series of events that are horrifying and grotesque. “The Black Cat is one of the most powerful of Poe’s stories, and the horror stops short of the wavering line of disgust” (Quinn).
Edgar Allan Poe's classic tale, "The Black Cat," is a disturbing story that delves into the contrasts between reality and fantasy, insanity and logic, and life and death. To decipher one distinct meaning presented in this story undermines the brilliance of Poe's writing. Multiple meanings can be derived from "The Black Cat," which lends itself perfectly to many approaches of critical interpretation.