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Chloe Gardner
Mrs. Kirschner
English II Block 2
9 October 2015
The Real Life American Horror Story
Dark Romanticism, a gothic writing style seen throughout the American Renaissance,
made people question the deep interworkings of the human mind by using horrific themes, dark
symbols, and the psychological effects of guilt and sin. There were only three Dark Romantic
writers by the names of, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville. The
Raven, The Pit and the Pendulum, and The Birthmark all have symbols, images, figures of
speech, tones, and themes that are used to create the various elements of Dark Romanticism.
Dark romantic short stories and poems all have symbols that make them unique. The
poem The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe has distinctive symbols that are seen throughout the
story, one of which includes the raven. The raven symbolizes the death of his wife Lenore, and
the mans grieving. In the story The Pit and the Pendulum, the pit represents the main character
as he is moving lower and lower in the ground down to hell, but when the French show up at the
end of the story, the man is saved, like one would be saved by God and sent to Heaven instead of
hell. Lastly, in the story The Birthmark, the birthmark symbolizes how no one is perfect.
Hawthorne was attempting to tell the reader that a person cannot be perfect and still be alive or
mortal. At this point in the history, while there as some religious dispute, most people were still
Christian. Therefore, he could have been alluding to the point that only God is perfect. Another
symbol seen in The Birthmark is Georginas room. The room is beautiful and well put together,

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filled with candles and lamps, but windows were kept covered so that no outside light can come
through:
For aught Georgina knew, it might be a pavilion among the clouds.
And Aylmer, excluding the sunshine, which would have interfered with his
chemical process, had supplied its place with perfumed lamps, emitting
flames of various hue, but all uniting in a soft, impurpled radiance
(Hawthorne 4).
This shows that there is beauty in everyone, but there will always be those certain people
who force others to hide their flaws from the rest of the world because they feel all should be and
look perfect.
The Raven, The Birthmark, and The Pit and the Pendulum all have major images
that the reader can see throughout each literary work. The Raven has images, which include
the, Tapping, tapping at [his] chamber door (Poe 22) that made the protagonist slowly start to
question his sanity. Another image is when the raven entered his chambers, Open here [he]
flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter, in there stepped a stately Raven of the
saintly day of yoreQuoth the Raven Nevermore (Poe 37-38, 48). This made the protagonist
feel that the raven was speaking inadequately about his late wife, Lenore. One of the prominent
images throughout The Birthmark is the birthmark itself. It caused numerous conflicts
between Georgina and her husband; it was her only imperfection. Other images Hawthorne uses
are the sensory details Georgina feels as she is passing away. She could slowly feel herself dying,
and it painted a colorful picture to visualize, It is grateful Methinks it is like water from a
heavenly fountain; for it contains I know not what of unobtrusive fragrance and deliciousness. It
allays a feverish thirst that had parched me for many days. Now, dearest let me sleep

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(Hawthorne 8). Finally, in The Pit and the Pendulum, Poe uses heaps of imagery to make the
reader to feel as if they were in the pit themselves as the pendulum was swinging above the main
character, The vibration of the pendulum was at right angles to [his] length. [He] saw that the
crescent was designed to cross the region of the heart (Poe 6).
The figures of speech in Dark Romantic short stories and poems are shown through
numerous quotes and literary devices. In the short story The Pit and the Pendulum, the word
down is repeated multiple times over the course of page six. Poe uses the metaphor, Arousing
from the most profound of slumbers, we break the gossamer web of some dream, (Poe 1) to
make a comparison that the reader would understand and relate to their normal day lives by
speaking of a web. The Raven comprises of quite a bit repetition throughout the poem. The last
two lines in each stanza end with the same two words. An example of this is stanzas eight and
fourteen with the words shore and Lenore. Another literary device Poe uses is that each stanza
contains six lines. In the Birthmark, Nathaniel Hawthorne creates various metaphors and
similes to expose the different sides of dark romanticism. Over the course of the story,
Hawthorne uses the birthmark on Georginas face to show the diverse sides of beauty, Have you
any recollection of a dream last night about this odious hand? (Hawthorne 2). The odious hand
being the birthmark, Hawthorne combines images and figures of speech to make the reader fully
understand the mindset of the character, Georgina, My earthly senses are closing over my spirit
like the leaves around the heart of a rose (Hawthorne 8).
The tone and the theme both contribute to the quality of the story or poem that is written.
In the poem The Raven, the tone is dark and eerie, which Poe applies to make the reader
constantly feel like there is more going on in the main characters mind than is being told. The
tone of the Pit and the Pendulum is quite dark as well, which makes the story intriguing, so one

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will constantly want to know more. The Birthmarks tone is unsettling and creepy. It makes the
individual want to know what was going on in the mind of Georginas husband, Aylmer.
The themes of all the literary works were created by the authors to make one think about
more than just what is on the surface. The theme of The Raven is to show how darkness,
insanity, and mental illness can manifest themselves inside someone and take over the human
body. The Birthmarks theme can be found easily because it is sprinkled boldly throughout the
entire story. The story is an attempt to explain how perfection is not possible. Someone cannot
achieve perfection, and still be alive. Everyone has flaws, and instead of having people who will
do anything in their power to cover them up, Hawthorne want individuals find others who will
let a persons true beauty shine through. The Pit and the Pendulums theme is more of an
interpreted one; Poe is trying to explain to the reader how knowledge is not always best. In the
beginning of the story, the man was in a dark room by himself, and while he wasnt happy, he
was safe. Once he got curious and started attempting to look around, he started to find things that
would end up almost killing him.
All three works have various eerie elements built-in to their story lines. One main reason
for this would be the authors lifestyles. They all lived darker lives than most other Americans at
this time period, which filled and consumed their minds with the material they would use to
write the stories and poems they did. Their unnerving mindsets gave them the capability they
would need to write the ghostly literary works, such as The Raven, The Birthmark, and The
Pit and the Pendulum, along with their symbols, tones, figures of speech, images, and themes.

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Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Raven." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, 1845. Web. 05 Oct.
2015.
"The Birthmark." By Nathaniel Hawthorne. N.p., Mar. 1843. Web. 05 Oct. 2015.
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe Poestories.com." Poestories.
N.p., 1842. Web. 05 Oct. 2015.