Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne
Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne
Introduction
Nathaniel's writings and Poe’s writings are similar in some way. The themes mainly focus on
human nature, and act as moral lessons to the society. The two authors have negative
reactions towards transcendental as they do not support the ideas of transcendental movement.
This paper analyzes the similarity and differences between Nathaniel's writings, and Poe’s
writings
Similarities and differences between Nathaniel’s and Poe’s writings.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer. Hawthorne published a
lot of novels and short stories. He first published the novel Fanshawe in 1828. Later he
published several short stories in different periodicals. He later collected the periodicals and
named them twice told tales. Hawthorne’s writing mostly centers around New England. Most of
his works feature moral allegories that have a puritan inspiration. They combine historical
romance with symbolism, and psychological themes that are based on surrealism. Nathaniel
fictional works are said to be part of Romantic Movement and are mostly dark romanticism. His
themes mostly centre around evil and sin of humanity as he mainly focuses on the evil and sin
in the society. Most of the writings done by Nathaniel have moral messages, and are made to
educate the society. They also have deep psychological complexity. Most of his work belongs to
dark romanticism. Dark romanticism is used to show how guilty, sin and evil are natural qualities
of human beings. Most of his tales focus on historical fiction. Hawthorne’s description of the past
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Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne
is used to express main themes in his work. It is used to express themes of ancestral sin, guilty
and retribution. Hawthorne’s works show his negative view of the transdentalism movement
(American bibliographical centre & EBSCO publishing firm 2003)
Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer and poet. He was also an editor and literary critic and
he was considered to be part of American Romantic Movement. Most of his work focus on
mystery and macabre. He is said to be the discoverer of detective fiction genre. Poe fictional
works are gothic. Most of the themes in his work deal with questions about death in the society,
its physical sign and the impact of decomposition. They also focus on the worry of premature
burials, mourning and rumination of the dead. The works are also considered to be part of dark
romanticism. He has a negative reaction towards transcendentalism (American bibliographical
centre & EBSCO publishing firm 2003)
Nathaniel Hawthorne writings and Edgar Poe’s writings are similar and different in some way.
Nathaniel’s writings and Poe’s writings are similar in that they are both considered to be part of
dark romanticism (American bibliographical centre & EBSCO publishing firm 2003). Nathaniel
fictional work is said to be part of dark romanticism. Most of his work focuses on evil and sin of
humanity. Dark romanticism is a kind of literary subgenre that is influenced by transcendental,
but they do not embrace the concept of transcendental. Also, Poe's writings are considered to
be part of dark romanticism (American bibliographical centre & EBSCO publishing firm 2003)
Another similarity between Poe’s writing and Nathaniel’s writing is that the two authors focus on
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Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne
things that affect human life. For example, Nathaniel's writings focus on evil and sin of
humanity, and provide moral lessons to the society. They educate people on the effects of sin,
and evil spirit. Poe's writing focus on the death, its physical signs and impact of decomposition.
They also concentrate on premature burial and mourning (American bibliographical centre &
EBSCO publishing firm 2003).
In addition, Nathaniel’s and Poe’s writings are similar as they focus on psychological themes.
Nathaniel writings focus on psychological themes and use symbolism to convey the meaning to
the reader (American bibliographical centre & EBSCO publishing firm 2003). Poe’s convey his
psychological views in his work and they are part of main themes in most fictions. The two
writers have negative reactions towards transcendental movement, though most of their work is
based on dark romanticism. Moreover, Poe’s and Nathaniel’s works are gothic. The authors
have used supernatural beings in their fictional works to convey the message to the reader
(American bibliographical centre & EBSCO publishing firm 2003).
Nathaniel writings and Poe’s writings are different in that Nathaniel writing mainly focuses on
allegory while Poe’s writing does not focus on allegory as he dislikes allegory (American
bibliographical centre & EBSCO publishing firm 2003). Allegory is a figurative method used to
convey meaning using symbolism, but not literal meaning. Allegory often teaches a lesson
through symbolism. Nathaniel works use allegory and symbolism to convey message to the
reader, and also act as a moral lesson. Poe’s writings do not use symbolism and allegory to
convey the meaning. Poe believes literal work should be brief and focus to the main point
(American bibliographical centre & EBSCO publishing firm 2003).
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Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne
Conclusion
In conclusion, Nathaniel's writings and Poe’s writings are similar as they are based on dark
romanticism though, they do not embrace the idea of transcendental. They also focus on things
affecting human beings like sin, evil and death. Nathaniel’s writings and Poe’s writings are
gothic as the authors use supernatural beings to convey the message. The two writings are
different as Nathaniel uses allegory to covey meaning to the reader, but Poe’s writing does not
use allegory to convey meaning to the writer (American bibliographical centre & EBSCO
publishing firm 2003)
Reference
American bibliographical centre,.& EBSCO publishing (firm).America, history and life, Volume
40, Issue 3.Clio Press., 2003
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