Essay on Edgar Allan Poe and American Romantic Movement

Submitted By quanie01
Words: 412
Pages: 2

Shaquana Moore
Ms. Chew
American Literature
18 Feb. 2014
A Dark Romantic ….

Edgar Allen Poe is known for being a “Dark Romantic” in the American Romantic Movement during the Romantic Era in the 19th century. He writes primarily about guilt, sin, and the conflict between good and evil. A prime example of his work would be “The Masque of the Red Death,” written in 1842. The tone of this short story is evil sadistic, and gothic-like. One concrete detail that stood out to me was, “Castellated abbeys. This was an extensive and magnificent structure, the creation of the prince's own eccentric yet august taste. A strong and lofty wall girdled it in. This wall had gates of iron.” (1) One could refer to this description as something that resembled a dungeon in the medieval times, because of the iron gate that wouldn’t let anyone in or out. Poe used this dark writing technique to describe this so-called good thing that was supposed to keep Prince Prospero and his guest safe from the Red Death, but his gothic tone contradicts him. During the whole story he used multiple allegorical meanings all show-casing the dark side of things just like in the “Imp of Perverse”, which is a short story that Poe wrote in 1845. This story relates to dark romanticism because of the humans perverse minds. Poe explains how people know the concept between right and wrong, but still does what is wrong. He believes perverseness is what makes humans act without thinking, “This overwhelming tendency to do wrong for the wrong’s sake, admit of analysis, or resolution into ulterior elements. It is a radical, a primitive