America is said to be the land of opportunity, the land of freedom. Much of that freedom is used for expression, which most of it comes from writing. Many great writers have been a part of our history, sharing their creative thoughts, ideas, and opinions with everyone. Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allen Poe are two writers who come to mind. In his stories, such as “The Minister’s Black Veil” and “Young Goodman Brown,” Hawthorne shows how he believes that man is always living in denial of their true condition, and that pride keeps them separated from everyone, including God.
Poe, on the other hand, expresses his ideas of mankind in a slightly different way. In two of his pieces, “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat,” Poe explains in a dark manner how humans have a conscience with two sides, the “life instinct” and the “death instinct. ” Seeking to do violence is what the so-called “death instinct” does, and Poe was the first to ever believe this. Both authors have attempted to describe the darker side of human nature. Many questions arise when reading Poe and Hawthorne’s pieces, most of which can only be answered through analysis.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story “The Minister’s Black Veil” is a great example of humankind’s struggle with evil. This story revolves around pride, which is an inherent evil of humans, as Hawthorne believed. The black veil worn by Reverend Hooper represents the evil of humans, which essentially separates people from everyone, including God. Hooper decides to teach the people this very fact by wearing a black veil over his face. To show the people that they are prideful and sinful becomes a trickier task than he believed. The people responded in a frightened manner, such as Goodman Gray who, on page 104, cried, “Our parson has gone mad!
This clearly shows that Gray, along with the other people, missed Hooper’s point in wearing the black veil. But the congregation wasn’t alone in their misinterpretations, and soon Hooper realizes that he needs to be taught himself, so he believes that he must wear the veil for the rest of his life. He realizes his mistake when, on page 107, it says, ” At that instant, catching a glimpse of his figure in the looking glass, the black veil involved his own spirit in the horror with which it overwhelmed all others. ” He finally realizes he is just like the rest when he noticed his reflection with the veil covering his face.
When he saw the reflection, he just became even more attached to the veil, to a point where he even lost his wife. But soon his pride of being the only one to learn a lesson became his destruction and he lived out the rest of his life alienated from everyone. This was one of many ways that Hawthorne attempted to prove how man is always in search of goodness only to fail miserably. “Young Goodman Brown,” also written by Hawthorne, displays his beliefs of the nature of humankind as well. Sin plays another big factor in this story, as does with most Hawthorne stories.
Goodman Brown is shown at the beginning of the story with his wife, living a seemingly happy and healthy life. He is departing on a journey, however, he doesn’t say why. Symbolically, the journey stands for humankind’s search for goodness. On this journey he meets an old man who obviously stands for the devil. The devil begins to persuade Brown, in a settle yet harsh manner, to keep venturing deeper into the woods. “I have been as well acquainted with your family as with ever a one among the Puritans; and that’s no trifle to say.
I will fain be friends with you for their sake. ” This is but one of the blows given to Brown by the devil. What he is saying is that in fact his family have been sinners, and he will join them. Also during the trip, Brown spies other people who he thought were the holiest people whom never sinned. Now Brown is beginning to realize the truth, that no matter what we do, we will always be sinners. Upon returning home from his journey, nothing to him can be looked upon as the same. Brown can see no good in the world and wastes away his life miserably.
What Hawthorne is trying to say is that humankind lives in a world innocent from evil. But when one realizes their own evil, they can never look upon anything the same. The guilt of all their sins leads to the most lonely and cold death. Yet again Hawthorne has opened the windows to the soul to show that the true petty nature of humankind is inevitable. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” Edgar Allen Poe describes humankind a little differently than Hawthorne. He sees man with conscience that is flooded with evil, and which takes control of themselves in certain situations.
In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator has found a deep hatred for the old man’s “vulture” eye. It’s as if the eye can see all the sin that the narrator is hiding from everyone, and this upsets him. So the narrator plans ever so carefully to kill the old man so he could get rid of the eye forever. He finally kills the man and he cuts up the body and buries it under the floor in the old man’s room. Amazingly the narrator feels no guilt or remorse. Toward the end, cops show up to take a look around, only to find nothing.
But as they’re sitting in the man’s chamber, the narrator’s conscience starts to react to the deed he has done and begins to hear the beating of the heart. It was like the heart was telling him that you could never hide your sins, and that no matter what, the evil inside you will prevail. This leads to the narrator’s realization of the truth, and he tells the police that he is guilty of his crime. Poe’s beliefs of humans and their inherent evil conscience are expressed in such a manner that one would have no doubt in their mind that he speaks of only the truth.
In Poe’s dark and bizarre story “The Black Cat,” his deepest beliefs of human nature are brought to life. This story shows humankind’s other half of their conscience, their inner negative force or “spirit of perverseness” as Poe calls it. The narrator of this story has found a fondness for animals, especially a certain black cat named Pluto. The cat seems to be symbolic for the eyes of the world, as if the cat can see everything inside the man, from his sins to his deepest secrets. As their relationship grows older, the narrator is beginning to find a hatred for the cat.
Soon or later his negative force takes control of his anger and he must do harm to something, so he hung the cat. Because of this “spirit of perverseness,” he wanted to do it because it was wrong. “It was this unfathomable longing of the soul to vex itself – to offer violence to its own nature – to do wrong’s sake only – that urged me to continue and finally to consummate the injury I had inflicted upon the unoffending brute. ” This was the thinking of the narrator on page 361, and through all his killings. He went through a similar violent process with another cat, but his wife stopped him before he could kill it.
However, because his conscience was taken over by the inherent negative force, he killed the nearest thing, which was his wife. He buried his wife in the wall, but just as in “The Tell-Tale Heart,” he buries his guilt along with it. In the end, his guilty conscience is shown that it can never be buried, for it will always be inside of you. Poe’s vivid stories challenge the basic views of the nature of humans. His ideas of everyone having a death instinct is hard to get used to, but maybe that explains why we live in such a torn world.
Hawthorne and Poe definitely took their opinions to the extreme, believing that humans are born with evil. But I believe that humans are not born with evil, but adapt and learn evil as they grow older. When a newborn child comes into the world, it is the purest of all things, and slowly their minds are decayed by the evil that has been spread throughout the world. I agree that all humans have evil inside, but not inherently. These two authors have touched an idea that only men have dreamed about, and to be able to speak their mind in the manner that they have done is something that only the greatest American writers can achieve.
