A Comparison and Contrast of Poe’s Fiction to Hawthorne’s

Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne were writers of the American gothic genre. They both used the elements of horror and mystery in their writing styles, writing about the dark side of humanity and the evil that lives within the human mind. Gothic writing focuses on the dark side of humanity and both Poe and Hawthorne captured this style well in their use of themes, symbols, and narration that focused on darkness and evil with their characters fighting various psychological issues. However, Poe’s stories are told in the first person narrative and he focuses on one human psychological effect, looking at man’s thoughts from within his mind and how his behavior then affects his surroundings. He also tends to build a sense on impending doom somewhat stronger than Hawthorne. Hawthorne, on the other hand uses the third person and focuses more on how man’s thoughts and behaviors are the results of what is happening around him. His stories also tend to be more of a r omantic nature than Poe’s and he tends to create stories of conflicting interpretations to share lessons of life. Both Poe and Hawthorne used symbolism to tell their stories. In The Tell-Tale Heart, Poe uses a number of symbols such as the old man’s eye and heart. The narrator compares the old man’s eye to the eye of a vulture. It seems dull with something like a film over it, obscuring clear vision, but at the same time it has power over the narrator. He states that the old man’s eye â€Å"the eye of a vulture†¦.wheneverShow MoreRelatedPoe Hawthorne949 Words   |  4 PagesComparison/ Contrast of Poe/ Hawthorne Poe and Hawthorne are the most significant American writers of 19th century. They have their own way of relating to their audiences that’s varied and similar at the same time. Poe’s writing involves the reader emotionally. Hawthorne on the other hand considers author’s imagination important and paints a picture based on it. These innovative thoughts and experimentations in language have forever changed what we appreciate in writing. Poe and HawthorneRead MoreANALIZ TEXT INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS28843 Words   |  116 PagesPlot When we refer to the plot of a work of fiction, then, we are referring to the deliberately arranged sequence of interrelated events that constitute the basic narrative structure of a novel or a short story. Events of any kind, of course, inevitably involve people, and for this reason it is virtually impossible to discuss plot in isolation from character. Character and plot are, in fact, intimately and reciprocally related, especially in modern fiction. A major function of plot can be said to beRead MoreLecture on Short Story5432 Words   |  22 PagesAllan Poe, take the ancestral intensity of the myth and folk tale to write condensed studies of human behaviour that attempt to reveal the most enigmatic, and in Poe’s case, darkest impulses behind human behaviour. It is useful to consider the revelatory nature of the short story as crucial to an understanding of this genre. A comparison with the novel can shed some light on this point. Novels are invested in a process or development: they follow the unfolding of a character (or characters) through