Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne were two authors who put a certain focus in their stories. They had a sense of how to craft and shape it that could mirror real life. They focused on creating characters that were not flat and two dimensional, but instead could represent actual issues and struggles that reflected reality. They wrote stories that placed these characters in different, and sometimes unusual, situations that would produce different results. They showed that while bending reality a bit, they could reflect the inside of the mind. Their characters often have to make difficult decisions, presenting a likeness to the types people have to make it real life. For Poe, a lot of his stories were crafted by mirroring the human psyche. …show more content…
Poe crafted stories by mirroring what different struggles a person could wage within them. Hawthorne would shape his stories similarly, but more having to do with human nature. He too could write about a man’s dark side, just like Poe. In his story “Wakefield,” his main character deserts his wife and watches her from a couple blocks over for two decades before revealing himself. The story ends ambiguously as he finally confronts his wife. Wakefield showed two different types of lifestyles: the responsibility to family and the want for freedom. Hawthorne presented the view of human nature in “The Minster’s Black Veil” with the minster spending years wearing the black cloth, without ever giving anyone a true inclination why. Reverend Hooper wearing the veil gives the impression that he could be hiding some sort of sin he committed. Hawthorne deliberately leaves this ambiguous, just like why Wakefield left and decided to come back, to mirror reality and the uncertainty of it. Both Poe and Hawthorne present characters who are complex and intricate. They are difficult and make odd (or maddening) decision, which realtes to just how complex and complicated reality
Symbols are objects that express a more profound importance or more noteworthy thought. They could be the sort of garments you wear, the music you tune in to, the auto you drive, your most loved games or anything obvious to other individuals which could make them conceivably judge you. A decent case of images and imagery is in Nathaniel Hawthorne 's story, "The Ministers Black Veil ". It is about a Reverend called Hooper that joins a new congregation with a puzzling dark shroud over his face, creating a significant buzz among his parishioners. He conveys a sermon on mystery sin and the things individuals cover up in their souls, "notwithstanding overlooking the Omniscient can recognize them."
This reaction reflects life, as many people judge others quickly without taking time to think about their actions. Throughout his writing, Hawthorne gets into the deep inner workings of people – how beneath the surface of every person, no matter who, they each have
Poe 's life had various hardships that inspired his work. Pursuers can obviously observe the association with Poe and the other individuals throughout his life to the characters in his words and stories. Huge numbers of Poe 's works may appear to be typical to begin with, yet quite often end in disaster, primarily as his life did. Poe acted more as a literary motivation for others. He did not seek any artistic works for motivation, instead he acted more from his creative ability and the interactions he experienced.
Similarities of “The Minister’s Black Veil” and “Young Goodman Brown” “The Minister’s Black Veil” and “Young Goodman Brown” are two short stories written by Nathaniel Hawthorne that share many similarities. In his writings, Hawthorne displays a fascination with the Puritanical beliefs and ideals associated with sin and wickedness. Such ideals serve as a common thread that weaves the stories together by using a religious base, symbolism, and a dark mood. First, Hawthorne’s meticulous usage of religion is the foundation of both stories.
The Dark Truth “The Raven”, by Edgar Allen Poe, and “The Minister’s Black Veil”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne are two stories that show the dark and twisted side of humanity. Edgar Allen Poe is best known for writing his stories about death and the darkness of death. This in turn makes all his seem to be this style where as “The Raven” is a creation of humans seeking hope in a situation that is hopeless. Hawthorne writes about the good and bad in the choices we choose. In “The Ministers Black Veil” Hawthorne confronts a touchy subject by displaying how the congregations covers their sin like a veil covers the face.
Throughout the story, Mr. Hooper is covered by a black veil which masks his face. He continuously prevents anyone from seeing his face or persuading him to take it off. Through the use of the veil, Hawthorne paints a picture which shows how sin ruled over the Puritan communities and controlled each person among them. The veil itself becomes the center of attention for all members of Hooper’s Puritan congregation. The entire population of the town become scared of Hooper and believe that this man who was so high among their values, now has a horrid sinful past that he is trying to hide.
It has so many different characteristics within it and makes it irresistible to read. The way he uses suspense to confuse and scare the reader increases the strength of his writing. Edgar Allan Poe has a very distinct way of writing because of his drive to scare, confuse, and intrigue the reader. First, Poe uses disturbing topics and rich vocabulary to really scare the reader at times.
Hawthorne was known to have double meanings in his stories, the physical objects in his stories, “The Scarlet Letter.” , “Young Goodman Brown.” And “The Minster’s Black Veil.” All have some specific type of symbolic reasoning.
History and Hawthorne Herman Melville once said that “for spite of all the Indian-summer sunlight on the hither side of Hawthorne’s soul, the other side-like the dark half of the physical sphere-is shrouded in a blackness, ten times black….”(Cain 667). This quote would no doubt, peek many peoples interest in Nathanial Hawthorne and Melville’s reason for saying such a thing. In order to find out what Melville was alluding to in his quote, it is important to look at the background of Hawthorne, and how his background influenced how he wrote. There are many different aspects of Hawthorne’s past that can are seen in his different works. Much like all writers background information can be an important factor to look at, when examining a text, and
It shall come as no surprise, then, that most of his stories and poems are gloomy and macabre. His characters never seem to work or socialize, instead, they chose to stay in the dark preferring their own company. Poe deliberately created intriguing and strange settings. As a matter of fact, he believes that strangeness in a vital ingredient of beauty. He has produced many works that are still popular.
Edgar Allen Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne were two very talented authors in the period of romanticism. Poe and Hawthorne share many similar qualities but they are each different in their own ways. Both of their writings are considered to be a part of dark romanticism, and they both often write about dark depressing topics. They both write about death and sin but they do it in their own ways, for example; Hawthorne mainly writes about sin and the evil acts of man, while Poe mainly talks about death, mourning and murder. Hawthorne also uses a lot of figurative language and allegories, while Poe usually is straight to the point his stories are usually short and the meaning behind the story is pretty obvious or uncomplicated.
Deaths and dark backgrounds have a very strong effect on people, and some people can use this as a push forward to their ultimate goal in life. In 18th century Massachusetts Nathaniel Hawthorne experienced both of these realities at a very early age; the death of a family member and his dark family past haunted him for the rest of his life. With such a harsh youth Hawthone learned to channel the immense pain that he was going through into many of his unique works. Furthermore, Hawthorne’s experiences with trauma, religion, and his family and friends that he was influenced by had a strong presence and emotion in his writing that many other authors are missing in their own writings. Due to Hawthorne’s experiences in life with friends, family,
In the “Minister’s Black Veil”, Hawthorne displays Hooper and the symbol of the veil as a representation of how judgmental society can become when faced with situations they don’t understand even though they have no right to judge. The “Minister’s Black Veil” was written as a parable in order to teach us a moral lesson stating that you should never judge someone. In Paul J. Emmett’s literary criticism he tells of a point in the story when Hooper explains his reasoning for wearing the veil, Emmett says, “After exhausting life in his efforts for mankind’s spiritual good, he had made the manner of his death a parable, in order to impress on his admirers the mighty and mournful lesson, that, in the view of infinite purity, we
With their similarities in writing styles, we see the struggle that the human mind goes through when dealing with dark obsession, an important aspect of the human condition. There are also some differences, for instance, there is death in both but they are a bit different, and one of the narrators has more control of their situation than the other. Not everything is as it appears, for example in Poe’s “Tell-Tale Heart.”
Though Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories like, The Cask of Amontillado, to his poems like, The Raven, Poe’s shows his writing style to use physical imagery and connotative syntax to show ,imagery in his writing. Throughout his life, Poe had always lived through the most chaotic and evil of time. His parents died while he was 3 years old. After his parents died, he lived with another family member who never accepted him as their own son. Later on in life, Poe had served in the military and at that point he started writing poems.