Nathaniel Hawthorne's great grandfather was one of the judges who hung people and two dogs because they were thought to be witches.Hawthorne was embarrassed by this and thought that everyone had the choice to be evil.Transcendentalist believed that everyone was pure and God spoke to them through their minds,but Dark Romanticism believed that everyone had a choice to be good or evil.Hawthorne had an example in his family.His great grandfather killed people.
Herman Melville wasn't educated because back then school was basically for the rich.Heman Melvillie grew up poor.Instead Melville got to see things that most people never probably heard of.He saw whales and cannibals.Soon he wrote a book called Moby Dick.The book is about a captian who sacrified his crew to kill a white whale who ate off his leg.In the story Moby Dick Captain Ahab was so obsessed with getting revenge on the whale that he he killied his crew.If he was a Transcendentalist Captian Ahab would go by himself to kill the whale and not a crew.Transcendentalist believed in going out and being by yourself.
Edgar Allen Poe had a bad life his he was very young.His mother died and his stepfather disowned him.Everytime he married someone she died from tuberculosis,his life wasn't all that great.What he went through was the caused of him drinking and doing drugs.He also had a bad example why everyone was evil and not pure.The people who he love the most either died or turned away from him.Transcendentalists believed that death was apart of nature and when you die,you'll become nature.Poe didn't see that,he saw death as the worse thing.Transcendentalist saw death as a good thing.
2. Which side of the divide do you fall? Are you closer to being a Transcendentalist or a Dark Romantic? Explain your answer with a short paragraph.
Me personally I'm a Dark Romanticism, because I don't believe that everyone is pure.God doesn't speak to you through your mind,if anything He'll show you that He's talking by taking away the ones you love the most or having the one you love betray you.No one in this world is completely good,every single person is born with sin.If people were so pure and good then there would be no killings,no drugs,no gangs,no prisons,no jails,no homosexuals, none of that.Transcendentalists wanted to believe that everybody was pure,they tried so hard to believe that everyone is good,but reality is everybody are sinners.The Transcendentalists were sinners,Dark Romanticism were sinners,I'm a sinner and you're a sinner.Everybody is a sinner no matter what.
3. Read either "The Black Cat" or "Hop-Frog", both by Edgar Allen Poe. As you read, keep the Dark Romantics' beliefs in mind because you will be asked to point out these beliefs in the story later.
4. Write a 2-3 paragraph response to the story you read. You should explain what you thought of the story as well as how well it illustrates how the Dark Romantics disagreed with the Transcendantalists. You need to provide at least a line or two of direct textual evidence from the story you chose to prove your claim.
My personal thought on the story Hop Frog.The story shows Edger Allen Poe's feeling towards people and life.The story talks about a king and his seven men who treated Hop Frog and his girlfriend Tripetta like animals.Out of anger and revenge, Hop Frog comes up with this joke at a masquerade to get back at the king and his men.The result of this joke turns into a death one, because Hop Frog sets them on fire.Edger Allen Poe sees life as hell.At the age of two his mother dies from tb and his three wives,because of that,he sees the world as hell.Before his mother died he saw life as this beautiful place,almost like Heaven.That changed when his mother left him physically.
At length the flames, suddenly increasing in virulence, forced the jesterto climb higher up the chain, to be out of their reach; and, as he madethis movement, the crowd again sank, for a brief instant, into silence.The dwarf seized his opportunity, and once more spoke:
Hop Frog set the king and his seven men on fire, because the king was cruel and he hit Trippette who's Hop Frog's girlfriend.Hop Frog wanted to get back at him for being mean and cruel.Dark Romantics didn't think that everything was all pure and good.They saw that the world was evil and people were evil.
5. Once of Poe's most famous works was "The Raven", a poem he wrote while his second wife was literally dying in the next room. Read the poem (more than once), and then write a response that includes a few lines that stuck out to you. The second paragraph of this respone should explain how this poem represents an anti-Transcendental idea.
"And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtainThrilled me--filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating"'Tis some visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door--Some late visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door;This it is and nothing more." How the writer was scared when he heard the knock at the door, Transcendentalist believed that nothing was scary that everything was all good. the poem to me was very powerful, because the writer told how he felt about life and death. Poe's sadness and sorrow went with him to his grave. Like the Raven told the writer that his friends will leave him, but the raven will stay with him all the time. The Raven was right, Poe's darkness stayed with him.
6. Do some additional research on Edgar Allen Poe's life. Once you have finished, provide some information about his life that I have not already posted myself. After doing so, explain how you feel the events of his life had an influence on the things he wrote. Give specific examples from both his life and his works.
Edgar Allen Poe was on January 19,1809 in Boston.He was born to the late actress and actor,Elizabeth Arnold Poe and David Poe Jr.David Poe Jr was from Baltimore,Maryland.Like most children,Edgar Allen Poe had a good life and money something that most kids didn't have.All that happiness that Poe had changed after his mother died of TB in 1811.Poe was only two years old when his mother died.After his mother's death,Edgar Allen Poe went to live with John Allen (that's how Egdar Poe got his last name as well) and his wife,they were very wealthy.They never legally adopted Poe,when they died Poe wouldn't get their fortune.John Allen and Edgar Allen Poe did have that son and father relationship.As an adult Poe went off to college,but came back because he had a gambling problem.When Poe return to Richardmond,Virginia he found that his girlfriend had gotten engaged to another man.That's why some of Poe's poetry talks about his lost love.After he lost his first love,he had left Virginia to go to Boston where he published a pamplet with his poetry.Although he didn't make any money off his poems,he entered into the army under a false name (Edgar A. Perry).He attended the West Point Academy for a while until he got kicked out.One of the most unique thing about Poe,that he married his thirteen year old cousin.The marriage lasted for eleven years,his wife (cousin) died from the TB in 1847, like Poe's mother.
When you are finished, review your work to be sure it contains everything I've asked for, and then leave me a comment to this post to remind me to read your work.
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