Edgar Allen Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Comparison
Edgar Allen Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne are two great writers/poets with similar writing styles. The stories to compare to get a more dilated opinion are
“Rappaccini’s Daughter” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”. In these short stories
Hawthorne and Poe use the theme, moral ambiguity. When the reader is reading these short stories, the reader or audience are often left confused and not understanding. An example, in “The Fall of the House of Usher” Poe claims “’ I dare not speak! We have put her living in the tomb!”’ (Poe 220). The reader doesn’t know who the character was.
What’s important to realize, Edgar Allen Poe can be pretty vague with the themes in “The Fall of the House of Usher”. Mr. Roderick, in the story, sends a letter to the narrator stating “ an acute bodily illness-of a mental disorder which oppressed him…”
Roderick as contracted an unknown mysterious illness that prevents him from listening to music not played on the strings and sunlight. Roderick mistakes his sister, Madeline, to be dead so he places her, living, in the tomb. Some people believe that Madeline had actually died and then came back to life as a vampire. After all her and her brother
Roderick have some vampire like characteristics. The Readers would never know.
In the short story “Rappaccini’s Daughter” the daughter, Beatrice, was so beautiful and innocent looking that no one knew if she was good or evil. Nathaniel
Hawthorne uses ambiguity to get the readers thinking and to analyze the story to see if
Beatrice was really good or evil. Her father was with out a doubt an evil person. In the story Baglioni states, “ For some purpose or other, this man of science is making a study of you. I know that look of his! It is the same that coldly illuminates his face, as he bends over a bird…” (Hawthorne 252). He is nothing more than evil scientist. Rappaccini cares more for science than he does his own daughter. He made his own daughter into a science
experiment.
“Rappaccini’s Daughter” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”. In these short stories
Hawthorne and Poe use the theme, moral ambiguity. When the reader is reading these short stories, the reader or audience are often left confused and not understanding. An example, in “The Fall of the House of Usher” Poe claims “’ I dare not speak! We have put her living in the tomb!”’ (Poe 220). The reader doesn’t know who the character was.
What’s important to realize, Edgar Allen Poe can be pretty vague with the themes in “The Fall of the House of Usher”. Mr. Roderick, in the story, sends a letter to the narrator stating “ an acute bodily illness-of a mental disorder which oppressed him…”
Roderick as contracted an unknown mysterious illness that prevents him from listening to music not played on the strings and sunlight. Roderick mistakes his sister, Madeline, to be dead so he places her, living, in the tomb. Some people believe that Madeline had actually died and then came back to life as a vampire. After all her and her brother
Roderick have some vampire like characteristics. The Readers would never know.
In the short story “Rappaccini’s Daughter” the daughter, Beatrice, was so beautiful and innocent looking that no one knew if she was good or evil. Nathaniel
Hawthorne uses ambiguity to get the readers thinking and to analyze the story to see if
Beatrice was really good or evil. Her father was with out a doubt an evil person. In the story Baglioni states, “ For some purpose or other, this man of science is making a study of you. I know that look of his! It is the same that coldly illuminates his face, as he bends over a bird…” (Hawthorne 252). He is nothing more than evil scientist. Rappaccini cares more for science than he does his own daughter. He made his own daughter into a science
experiment.