Compare and contrast essay of Transendentalism period writers
Uploaded by kc0hng on Jan 12, 2004
There were many great writers in the early 1800s, such as Edgar Allen Poe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau, but each had many special qualities. These special qualities were sometimes similar throughout all of the writers, and some were very different. The main differences were split with writers such as Poe and Hawthorne, in the “Prophets of Darkness� and others were mostly “Prophets of Promise.� The main similarity between all transcendental writers in the early 1800s, is they preached the power of the individual
As obviously seen just from the name, the Prophets of Darkness were often more on a negative or sad subject. Some Prophets of Darkness were raised and brought their own selves into the chosen life where they wanted to write in sad dreariness. Others, such as Poe Were born into that. Poe had many family members die, the first being his mother, the last being his wife. Every death brought him down more until he was at a point of insanity, maybe leading to his best writings. A good example of his astonishing writing skills is: “During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher.� (Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher). This, being the very first words of his tale, show just how truly sad and dreary the setting is put out as. The power of nature is already introduced, with “shades of the evening� as this helps bring the depression to an already dreary subject.
The prophets of darkness had many reasons to talk about power of the individual, because most evils are within a person’s own mind.� TRUE! — Nervous — very, very dreadfully nervous I had been, and am; but why will you say that I am mad?� (Poe, The Tell Tale Heart). Here, Poor Poe shows his great writing by showing how an individual has the power of his own insanity. The power of the individual is very important to the prophets of darkness for others often attack the main purpose of the individual, often an...