Literature
The American literature in the 19th century produced colorful plays, novels, fiction, poetry, essays and native literary pieces. The boundaries of the 19th century American literature were restrictive and presented three challenges to explain the narrow understanding due to the prolonged 19th century, the expansion of literature among genre and the asymmetry of the U.S. and America (Castronovo 1). In the case of famous writers Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne, a comparison of their works has given their audience the opportunity to play with their imagination by feeling a mix of emotions that may bring them to an eerie, sublime, ethereal, lamenting, miserable or even deathly. Making comparison of their works including short stories will lead the audience to compare the resemblance in the use of setting, characters, and the style of narration. Two of these works of these authors will reveal that there are similar gothic elements contained in the shorts stories such as “Fall of the House of Usher” by Poe and “Rappaccini’s Daughter” written by Hawthorne.
Poe’s work entitled “The Fall of the House of Usher” was able to present a very detailed gothic theme representing the destruction of the human body. He used a disintegrating house to symbolize the human body. In this work, the author as able to prove that he has the ability to establish emotional tone such as the guilt, fear and anxiety to the final judgment day. He used the main character of Roderick Usher, who was suffering from a strange disease, or a mental illness brought about by family conflicts. This was further illustrated in the part of the poem that contained the phrases “the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy of the House of Usher; but with the first sight of the building brings me a sense of excruciating misery that filled my spirit” (Poe 4). The short story of Poe is presumed to have occurred even before the modern psychological science was discovered. The condition of the main character of Roderick is characterized by a type of excessive sensory malfunction called “hyperesthesia”. This condition makes a person highly sensitive to the five basic senses of sight, hearing, smell and taste. He is also suspected to be suffering from the condition “hypochondria”, where he is overly preoccupied that he could be suffering from a serious ailment that has resulted to an acute anxiety. At the same time, his twin sister, Madeline became sick that led her to experience cataleptic death spell. After Madeline died, Roderick decided to place her body is a family tomb for two weeks prior to her burial. After she was buried, a storm took place and Roderick believed that their house became alive as the vault, and windows started to open on its own while the house glowed amidst the total darkness. The mood that Poe wanted to establish is an impression of misery and dismay just by the sight of the actual condition of the house. It symbolized the fragmentation of a house that used to be picturesque and is now on the verge of collapse. There is a presumption that Poe has compared the house to the state of human body deterioration. The main theme Poe’s story is about terror that is a result of the complications of human interactions. The horrendous incidents near the end of the story where the character of Madeline has risen from the dead and returned to the house of Usher after the occurrence events. Poe used the symbol of death to closely relate it to deterioration. Poe used symbolism to refer to an object that has a meaning beyond itself in such a way that the subject death is concrete which has the meaning of decaying or decomposing of the house. Poe also used the simile to create mental images and impressions by comparing ideas to clearly help his audience imagine the person, thing, or place being described, particularly. This has been used in the case of Usher and Madeline who were both inflicted with strange illnesses and the house which was described to be eerie and haunted, to signify the weakening in the relationship of the siblings.
In the work of Hawthorne entitled “Rappaccini’s Daughter”, it presented a story about a poisonous maiden and the daughter of Giacomo Rappaccini. Rappaccini raises her daughter named Beatrice to take care of the plants, making her resilient to poisons that she transformed herself to become poisonous to other people. Giovanni Guasconti was a youthful student of letters who fell in love with Beatrice despite her poisonous nature. Guasconti looked beyond the poisonous nature of Beatrice and saw the pureness of her heart. But the tragic part is that Guasconti became poisonous himself. He tried to concoct an antidote to cure Beatrice so that they can be together for eternity. But the tragedy struck when Beatrice died instead of being cured.
In both of the short stories of Poe and Hawthorne, there is an apparent gothic theme explained in both stories that may be related to a dreaded disease or poison to the body. In comparison of the primary characters of Beatrice and Roderick, it can be clearly inferred that the two characters are mentally disillusioned. The character of Roderick fell ill just as the character of Beatrice was cursed and shunned by people due to her poison. Despite her beauteous nature, Beatrice carried an awful perfume that she derived from the poisonous plants. At the same time, the character of her father, Rappaccini carried the description of towering, skinny and unhealthy man who wore black wardrobe. This character is reminiscent of Poe’s sickly character and educated man named Usher. The theme of Poe’s story was pessimistic throughout the story and carried the morbid theme of death (Castronovo 3).
In the case of Hawthorne, although the story carried a gothic element, the author was able to incorporate love in the theme of the story. This was evidently shown in the character of Beatrice, who was able to maintain her sweet and innocence nature. Just like the work of Poe in “The Fall of the House of Usher” that showed a vividly integrated gothic theme that represented the destruction of the human body. In the case of Beatrice, despite her father’s attempt to corrupt her body using the poisonous emissions from the plants when she was born, she was able to preserve the pureness of her heart and temperate soul. This claim can be illustrated when Beatrice fell deeply in love with Giovanni, which manifests her unconditional love that was so innocent and pure. The common denominator of both stories is the element of death which gives the audience the point of climax. Both Poe and Hawthorne have revealed their similarities in using history and past stories. The authors had made reference to antique volume of their works. My evaluation of the two stories had successfully been able to manage the gothic ideals, while at the same time, the setting, imagery and emotion by making the audience feel a sense of excitement as the plots unfold.
The theme of Poe’s “The Fall of Usher” was initiated one morning of the autumn season in the 19th Century (Cunnings, 2005). The setting of the story is in a big house which masked by a fungus and is surrounded by a small lake. There is a bridge situated across the lack that provides the access to enter the mansion. Poe used an unnamed narrator is close master of the house and will recount the events when he visited the house of his friend. Usher owns the mansion but is plagued with a strange medical condition, while his twin sister Madeline is suffering from a different disease. Madeline died due to her illness and rose from her coffin (Castronovo 2). On the other hand, the short story of Hawthorne entitled “Rappaccini's Daughter” occurred in the nineteenth century in the place called Padua, Italy. The setting of the story happened in the garden that was owned by Rappaccini and his beautiful daughter named Beatrice. In the building where the daughter lives, she met a medical student from the University of Padua named Giovanni Guasconti with whom she fell in love. Another significant setting is in the university where Guasconti studied medicine where several parts of the story took place.
In the work of Poe, it can be concluded that it presented supernatural effects that several critics have regarded as insignificant to the story. Most of them interpreted the concept of the “Fall of Usher” as one that was created by Poe merely for the sake of art. The idea behind this conclusion is that Poe’s short story failed to impart any moral, social and political doctrine. Instead, the author made incorporated the element of terror in the language of the story. However, in the work of Hawthorne, he was able to use the symbol of plants in the garden to represent the creation of God that sends the message of evil that scorned beauty. At the same time, the fountain in the garden represents the spiritual and immortal element of the story since the water that continuously flowed represented eternity. It remained unchanged event the lapse of time. The beauty of Beatrice symbolized the paradox since her love for plants made her resilient to poisons that she became poisonous to other people. This concept Hawthorne presented the twofold nature of humanity in literature. Both the stories of Poe and Hawthorne used the doctrine of “art for art’s sake” that became a literary movement of Aestheticism that steered clear from conventional Victorian practice in most parts of England. The type of literature that preached moral and philosophical teachings literature had weakened the rigorous conventions in the use of style and language (Cummings, 2009).
The work of Poe was censured by some critics because it has the inclination to preach and scorned its tendencies toward Romanticism. This established a literary movement in American literature that is characterized by excessive drama and overly sentimental exaggerations. This is also present in the work of Hawthorne when the love story turns to tragic tone as the story ended in the death of Beatrice. In the work of Poe in “The Fall of the House of Usher” it also used overemotional scenario when the character of Madeline died. Both the work of Poe and Hawthorne presented metaphor where an entity is depicted in terms that are more commonly associated with a different reality by relating to it by analogy. Example the metaphor is when the outer beauty of Beatrice is ugly and evil in nature since she became poisonous to others (Cummings, 2009). Based on the works of Poe, critics revealed that he showcased aesthetic theories, but at the same time excelled in critical dependence and authorial originality. However, Poe’ personal understanding of these virtues were tainted with complicated and self-reflective anxiety (Cassuto 1). In the case of Hawthorne, his works have the ability to reach his audience to be able to fully develop strong emotions with the use of forceful expressions and symbolism. Armed with this technique, he was able to draw personal feelings from the audience to picture the events in the story with the help of brilliant imagery. The start and end of Hawthorne’s story made strong comparison between the crumbling old mansion and the youth of Giovanni and healthy disposition, to the point of the illustrating what used to be a the vibrant life of Beatrice to the point of her gloomy death.
Works Cited:
Cassuto, Leonard and Poe, Edgar Allan. Literary Theory and Criticism. Ontario: Dover, 1999.
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Castronovo, Russ. The Oxford Handbook of Nineteenth-Century American Literature. New
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Cummins, Michael J. (2012). “Rappaccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Study Guide,”
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http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides6/Rappaccini.html#Top.
Cummings, Michael J. “The Fall of the House of Usher by E.A. Poe: A Study Guide”, 2005.
Web. August 10, 2013 http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides2/Usher.html#Main.
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Fall of the House of Usher. USA: The Floating Press, 2011. Print.
Poe, Edgar Allan. Thirty-Two Stories. USA: Hackett Publishing, 2000. Print.
Poe, Edgar Allan and Andrew Barger. Edgar Allan Poe Annotated and Illustrated Entire Stories
and Poems. UK: Bottletree Books, 2008. Print.
