Gothic Elements in Poe and Hawthorne's Work

Well definitely one of the main differences between Hawthorne and Poe is how they perceive human nature, particularly in relation to how one should feel when they’ve done something wrong.

Perhaps it might be their different styles of writing but I don’t particularly feel much of Hawthorne’s work carries many elements of Gothic writing. Yes, his stories deal with aspects that can prove depressing but ultimately his characters react to issues emphasizing morality almost to the point where it becomes ironic. Such as in Roger Malvin’s Burial, where the main protagonist Reuben loses everything due to the guilt he rather unnecessarily feels only finally to recover his sense of self after accidently killing his son, which in my opinion seems worse of a crime than what he was initially feeling guilt for. This also proves the point that unlike remorse guilt may be felt even if it is not warranted. Something Hawthorne seems to have an endless fascination with, judging from his stories

Hawthorne, coming from a politically minded background also explores issues of “American innocence” in more depth than perhaps Poe would. In the stories we’ve read, the protagonists have often delved in to dilemmas that question their moral standing. Some conform and others don’t. Their ability to adapt however as seen in the case of Robin in My kinsman, Major Molineux; whose naiveté of the world comes into question once he begins to live in a “community of sin”, proves to work in his favor, as he begins to be accepted once he turns his back on the past and looks to the future. This concept presumably commenting on the idea of “the new American.”

Poe on the other hand embodies what Gothic literature is all about. His narrations are often done in first person and it’s interesting to see that unlike Hawthorne his characters are often oblivious as to why they feel and act the way they do. For instance, in The Black Cat, the narrator’s life is sprawling out of control. Yet Poe cleverly insinuates that it is “The spirit of perverseness” that has infested his soul but also clearly conveys to the reader that the narrator has become an alcoholic. In this way Poe shows the terrible duplicity; which comes in the nature of humans particularly those who wish to rationalize or excuse their behavior.

As such, Poe shows the narrator to be clearly concerned with his depleting humanity but hardly is there any guilt associated with either this or his violent actions. In fact, if the narrator does feel anything, it would be remorse, which unlike guilt isn’t always followed upon as Poe clearly shows. His various explorations in to the nature of depravity trump any of Hawthorne’s work by far. This is possibly due to the fact that as a writer Poe seems less concerned with what is truly good and bad in his stories. His main focus is always on the imaginative quality his work can produce. As such he would seem the better fiction writer particularly in terms of Gothic literature.