Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49) is perhaps the best-known American Romantic who worked in the so-called Gothic mode. His poems and stories explore the darker side of the Romantic imagination, dealing with the Grotesque, the supernatural, and the horrifying. Poe also rejected the rational and the intellectual in favour of the intuitive and the emotional, a dominant characteristic of the Romantic Movement.
For Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-64) literature also seemed to depend on the possibility of the Gothic. Hence, of particular interest to Hawthorne was the nature of evil. Like his contemporary Poe, Hawthorne also made extensive use of symbols.
One of Hawthorne’s and Poe’s distinctive concerns is also that of separating head and heart, intellect and soul. Hawthorne explored these Romantic ideas and the themes of obsession, loss and the impossibility of perfection extensively in his short stories “The Artist of the Beautiful” and “The Birthmark”.
However, in Poe’s life and works and thus also in “Ligeia” and “Morella”, the stories to be treated in this analysis, love, death and loss, are indissolubly entwined, and serve as the apotheosis of his science and the springboard for his horror. Some critics think that Poe was only a marketer of Gothic horror borrowed from the German models popular during his time. Hence, the pertinent issue in Poe becomes the origins for the terror of the soul.
In the following, it will be analyzed which aspects of American Romanticism are treated in Poe’ short stories “Ligeia” and “Morella” and in Hawthorne’s “The Artist of the Beautiful” and “The Birthmark”. For this reason, it is necessary to take a closer look at American Romanticism as a literary movement first.
Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)
- Introduction
- American Romanticism
- Gothic Horror and Lost Love in Poe's “Ligeia” and “Morella”
- Nature and Science in Hawthorne's \"The Artist of the Beautiful\" and \"The Birthmark\"
- Conclusion: Poe and Hawthorne Compared
Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)
This analysis investigates the manifestation of American Romanticism in short stories by Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. It explores how these authors employed themes and motifs prevalent in the Romantic movement to create unique narratives that reflect their own cultural context.
- The darker aspects of the Romantic imagination
- The influence of Gothic horror
- The role of nature and science
- The exploration of love, loss, and the supernatural
- The tension between intellect and emotion
Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)
- Introduction: This chapter provides an overview of the Romantic movement in American literature, highlighting key figures and their contributions. It introduces Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne as prominent representatives of this era and discusses their unique styles and themes.
- Gothic Horror and Lost Love in Poe's “Ligeia” and “Morella”: This chapter analyzes Poe's short stories, examining how he utilizes gothic elements, including the supernatural, the grotesque, and the horrifying, to explore themes of love, loss, and death. It explores the role of the female character in Poe's works and how they represent both idealized love and the fear of its loss.
- Nature and Science in Hawthorne's \"The Artist of the Beautiful\" and \"The Birthmark\": This chapter focuses on Hawthorne's short stories, exploring the intersection of nature, science, and human ambition. It examines how Hawthorne uses these themes to explore the limitations of human knowledge and the consequences of pursuing perfection.
Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)
American Romanticism, Gothic horror, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, love, death, loss, nature, science, supernatural, intellect, emotion, perfection, obsession, Puritanism.
- Quote paper
- Sirinya Pakditawan (Author), 2004, Aspects of American romanticism in short stories by Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/59348
