Edgar Allen Poe And Nathaniel Hawthorne

Term Paper Title	Edgar Allen Poe And Nathaniel Hawthorne
# of Words	1715
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	6.86

Edgar Allen Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne

Two authors best who typify a Romantic style of writing are Edgar Allen Poe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Both authors identify their characters through the use of creative symbolism, colorful metaphors,  and the use of the supernatural in their works. Like many authors of the seventeenth century Poe and Hawthorne stretched Realism beyond the edge of reality thereby developing a style of writing which today is commonly refer to as Romanticism. The use of the short story format in both "The Black Cat" and "Young Goodman Brown" evokes an allegorical use of the English language to stun their readers from reality into non-reality.

Edgar Allen Poe was born in 1809 and died in 1849. Orphaned at the age of two,  Poe was raised by his adopted father, John Allen. Poe had an unhappy childhood. His relationship with his father was a troubled one, filled with great tension and strife. Through the passing years this relationship degenerated into a complete dissolution between father and son. Poe spent one year at the University of Virginia,  then served two years as an enlisted man in the army . Poe also attended  West Point Military Academy for a short time, after his Army stint.

Poe grew very fond of writing and published his first book of poetry in 1827 at the age of sixteen. Poe is considered one of the first nineteenth century writers to establish aesthetic principles regarding short fiction stories as a high art, and one of the forefathers in the Romantic Movement. Poe stressed the idea of a well developed imagination through the identification of the characters, and the use of symbolism to enhance the atmosphere of the story.  He used symbols to explain the nature of man, his hidden darkness and fears. He showed the conflict between man’s soul and his existential presence. His goal was to enhance the readers senses and emotions so that they could truly feel the intensity of his story. " The Black Cat ", written by Poe, exemplifies how he creates a certain atmosphere in which the reader is almost lifted from his or her own reality into a place where mood, sensations, and events are limitless. Poe uses his romantic style to help the reader explore his or her self through a perception of illusions and the supernatural.

In "The Black Cat" Poe conveys to the reader how alcohol can be the harbinger to unleashing the hidden darkness of man, and once this dark rage and hate is unleashed it breeds insanity. Poe uses the character of a pious man with a loving wife and a pet cat in his efforts to contrast the harsh sense of realism he is quick to introduce to his reader. The pious narrator begins to consume alcohol, which Poe uses as a symbol for all of life’s evil temptations. Over the course of a few days his once faithful feline companion becomes  frightened of his drunken master. One night, in fit of rage, the narrator cut out the cat’s eye, and then a day later he hanged the cat. Poe used a supernatural twist to his story by bringing his cat back from the dead. This time he resurrected it with a  white ring around its neck. The ring symbolized the rope used to hang the cat, and is used by Poe to strengthen his grasp of his readers interests.  The narrator’s transformation continues when in an attempt to kill his resurrected cat, he viciously kills his wife.

Through these murderous acts  Poe paints graphically enhanced descriptions of his principle character’s emotions. This can be seen when the narrator states, "Evil thoughts became my sole intimates-the darkest and most evil of thoughts."  Toward the end of the story  our principle character tried to hide the body, this action completed his transformation into a monster. He had lost all humanity, and his rage and hate had  consumed him.
     Eugene Current-Garcia and Bert Hitchcock of Auburn University comment that "many of Poe’s stories are physco-moral allegories or symbolic dramas that explore the hidden depths of the human psyche. Viewed in this light "The Black Cat" is less about a black cat than the darkness of a man’s min...

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