Dark Romanticism

(1) Dark Romantics took issue with the inherent goodness found in the transcendental philosophy, whereas the transcendental idea worked with people who were fairly emotionally stable and strong of mind and spirit, it does not hold true to everyone. People who were raised in a emotionally or physically abusive situation are likely to have impulses that are not pure and true, I know there have been times when my head thought it was a good idea to do something but I knew that it wasn't. Some of the most famous Dark Romantics had extremely disturbed lives, in the case of Edgar Allen Poe his mother and father died when he was very young, and two of his wives died of tuberculosis. Nathanael Hawthorne's great grandfather sentenced people to death during the Salem which trials. the majority of the transcendentalists had fairly stable lives without seeing too much emotional abuse,k intended or not. one can imagine that people who were raised in a turbulent situation would have a less than pristine idea of human nature, as apposed to the transcendentalists who believed that everyone was good at heart, which was true with the situation they developed in.

(2)I would say I am closer to being a Transcendentalist except I realize there are messed up people in this world but I trust in my own intuition to be able to identify these people and not associate with them. I also trust in my intuition to be able to only get close to people who are good at heart and people I can trust.

(3) The story "The Black Cat" is a very interesting story, Edgar Allan Poe seems to have a reoccurring theme of animals causing utter terror to the narrator, the raven is another good example of that. in the beginning of the story the narrator expresses his humane demeanor towards animals of all sorts, stating "From my infancy I was noted for the docility and humanity of my disposition. My tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make me the jest of my companions" in his adulthood his favorite pet is that of a solid black cat, one which loves him immensely and always stays near him. our narrator speaks of his increasing use of alcohol and how it makes him begin to lose his humanity saying, "I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others... My pets, of course, were made to feel the change in my disposition. I not only neglected, but ill-used them. For Pluto [the cat] however, I still retained sufficient regard to restrain me from maltreating him." until one day when Pluto scratched him and he snapped and stabbed his cat's eye out. one day he was annoyed at Pluto's dislike towards him, due to the eye incident, and hung him in a tree. eventually he gets a new cat and ends up killing it also, and soon after his wife. something went seriously wrong with this guy.

Poe has an obvious opinion of alcohol, suffering from it's addictive grip himself. this story is a prime example of dark romanticism. a person, usually fairly humane and timid, finds himself in the grip of evil, totally succumbs, and ends up killing two cats and one person. this isn't exactly a realistic story, it is extremely unlikely that a person given a decent upbringing, no history of violent behavior, and no history of mental illness would do something like this but it is still possible for those people who are violent and mentally ill. one problem I have with both the transcendentalists and the dark romantics is there is no gray area with them, either everyone is pure, or everyone has a bit of evil that can take them over and cause them to do horrendous things. there are people who are both, there is no one rule than can define all humans, some are absolutely evil, some are absolutely good, but most are somewhere in between.

the raven was probably Edgar Allan Poe's most famous work, speaking of the general depression of death and general sorrow. the bird in this story represents Poe's unwavering loneliness and depression and general inability to be contented. Maybe Poe's most famous works were only written while he was in the throes of depression and/or addiction but he seems unable to be happy. when his wife was alive he was probably sad about something or other, once his wife died he would be even more unhappy, and as soon as he got over his wife's death he would probably find something else to be sad about. this is a very vicious cycle, the more one things about bad things the sadder one gets and the more used to thinking about bad things he becomes. if someone is sad most of his childhood, such as if their parents died and they didn't have somewhere stable to stay, this person will only be used to thinking negatively for the formative years of his life, thus getting into an atrocious feedback loop of unhappiness.
in this story the raven represents his own depression. I think the raven represents Poe's own feelings about life, he only realizes that he has always been unhappy and always will be unhappy when his wife dies. while the raven only comes in a physical form when Lenore dies, it's spirit about life is Poe's own, that he will be forever unhappy, not only because of Lenore's death but because of his general outlook on life, and I think that is why the raven says "nevermore" even when he gets over his wife's death he still has a naturally depressed disposition, but he must blame this disposition on his wife's death.

the transcendentalists believed that people's nature was good and somehow beneficial at heart this poem shows with firsthand evidence that this is not true, if everyone was good and pure why would anyone ever be unhappy? the raven is the impurity in people, telling them they will fail, they will never be happy, and life will never get any better. this seems to be Poe's major disposition towards life, his unhappiness.