Comparing the Use of Light and Dark by Melville, Poe, and Hawthorne Ess

Use of Darkness and Light by Melville, Poe, and Hawthorne Melville, Poe, and Hawthorne all(a) persist to focus on the darker side of humanity in their writings. In set out to allow their readers to better understand their opinions, they often resort to using symbolism. many an(prenominal) times, those symbols take the form of darkness and luminance appearing throughout the fabrication at appropriate times. A reader might wonder how light functions in the stories, and what it urges the reader to consider. If we look carefully at these appearances of light, or to a greater extent likely the absence of it, we can gain some insight into what these instigative romantics consider to be the truth of humanity. Hawthorne uses this technique to its fullest however, it is also very intelligible in the stories of Poe and Melville. All of these authors have something to say about what they perceive as the breakdown of man and society - and they often clue us in by using differing degrees of light. The aim of darkness and light is probably the nearly apparent in Hawthornes pieces, and Young Goodman Brown is an excellent example. The story starts slay as Young Goodman Brown begins his trip into the forest, away from his wife, Faith. The first presence of light is in the first sentence Young Goodman Brown came frontward at sunset .... Now, there is light in the sun, but the moment lies in the fact that the sun is setting. The scintillatingness in life - that is, the purity of humanity that once existed, is now being taken over by the darkness. YGB then departs down a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest. There is no mistaking this for anything but a symbol. YGB, representing all man, is sacking down a narrow path leading into one of the darkest and sca... ...aking of humanity) this benighted conceit pervades him, through and through. You may be witched by his sunlight,--transported by the bright gildings in the skies he builds over you--but there is the blackness of darkness beyond and even his bright gildings but fringe, and play upon the edges of thunder-clouds. Works Cited Adler, Joyce. Benito Cereno Slavery and abandon in the Americas. Critical Essays in Herman Melvilles Benito Cereno Burkholder, Robert E., ed. Macmillan Publishing Co., NY, 1992. Gargano, James. Art and Irony in William Wilson. New Approaches to Poe Benton, Richard P., ed., 1970. Levin, Harry. The Power of Blackness. New York, 1967. Melville, Herman. Hawthorne and His Mosses. From The Literary World, August 17 and 24, 1850. Accessed at http//eldred.ne.mediaone.net/nh/hahm.html on May 1, 2000.