Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne: a Comparison Essay

Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne were two of Americas finest Romantic writers. These two writers lease stood the test of time and be read as much today if not more than they were in their own time. The major reason that both authors were as popular as they are is beca delectation of the fact that they delved into the human opinion to create their psychological literature. Edgar Allan Poes life spanned from eighteen nine until cardinal forty-nine, the years that were the beginning of the Romantic Movement. Poe was considered an educated man for his time. He attended the University of Virginia and West demo.Since West Point is a military school, he no doubt studied psychology because star who would be a commander in the army would need to know about the way the enemy thinks. Poe did not use this knowledge as a military officer, but used it to create excellent psychological panic in literature. During a time when the arts focused on the supernatural, Poe looked to the char acters own mind to provide fear. The narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart is so terrified by his guilt that he reveals the murder he has committed to the authorities, as does the narrator of The Black Cat.In the famous short story The Cask of Amontillado, the indorser experienced the terror of ones condemnation to be walled up in a humbled cellar room to die and to have the time to think about what is to happen in descend darkness and isolation. The Fall of the House of Usher also leaves the narrator completely terrified, not because of his safety, but because of the breeding that his mind must process and the knowledge that he may begin to suffer from the same passion that Roderick Usher is doomed to endure.Nathaniel Hawthorne was also an expert in delving into the deepest regions of a characters mind. The Scarlet Letter, one of Hawthornes best works is about a woman who must wear a vermilion A because she is an adulterer. The town minister is the man who is also responsible for the blunder out. However, because he is a male and cannot rise pregnant, the community does not know of his guilt. Instead he punishes himself much more than his female counterpart until the vice takes on a supernatural quality. It does so only through the guilt that he must endure.The rectors Black Veil is about another minister who physically punishes himself for a psychological sin that he has committed. This penance has bothered the congregation to the acid that they isolate the minister. Again, it is their psychological fear and guilt that is their terror. Hawthorne, in his attempt to prove that all are sinners and that all wrestle with good and evil in their minds, proves his point in Young Goodman Brown. In this short story, a young man must decide whether to give away his soul to become a successful man or to remain free.The resolution of the story is that the terrible scene the young man had witness the night before was only a dream, yet he is not sure that it took p lace in his mind or if it was real. Reality and what one perceived as reality was something that Hawthorne was a master. Both Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne made use of the human mind as an instrument a persons demise rather than actions. They understood the power of the human mind even though they did not know what we do today. They are shining examples of psychological literature as an instrument of terror and guilt.