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John Hayden Wood

Mrs. Pritchard
English II
19 November 2015
Literary Analysis of Dark Romantic Works
Dark Romanticism (often conflated with Gothicism or called
American Romanticism) is a literary subgenre centered on the writers Edgar Allan Poe,
Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville (Wikipedia). Eldorado and The Masque
of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe, and The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne are
all pieces of dark romanticism literature. These three works all have symbols, images,
figures of speech, and tone/theme. These four qualities develop the texts and give extra,
sometimes hidden, meanings to them.
These authors put these extra meanings in their stories by adding symbols.
Symbols appear in all kinds of texts, but not all symbols have to be an object. Symbolism
is evident in The Masque of the Red Death. Poe writes, And Darkness and Decay and
the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all (Poe 5). The mysterious guest that
brings upon this darkness and decay represents death. Poe names the main character
Prospero, symbolizing prosperity. Poe tries to undermine aristocracy by having Prospero
killed in his home by the plague because nobody can escape death, no matter how much
money a person has. In The Masque of the Red Death, Poe uses the rooms in the
masquerade ball to symbolize life and death. The color progression begins with joyful
colors but transitions into a black room. This black room epitomizes death and the
plague. In Eldorado, the mythical city of El Dorado symbolizes mans obsession with

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searching for perfection. The knight in the poem is so caught up in finding the city that he
grows old and misses out on everything else in life. Symbols are very evident in these
dark romanticism writings because they give the texts extra meanings that arent so
apparent the first time they are read through.
Symbolism is not the only technique these authors use to give hidden meanings to
their word choice and writings. Some writers use images to put a picture in the readers
mind about what is going on in the writing. Death is being used as an image in the poem
Eldorado. Although Poe never uses the actual word death in the poem, he describes
death by saying the Valley of the Shadow (Poe 21). Georgianas birthmark in The
Birthmark is a very prominent image in this short story by Hawthorne. Her birthmark of
a hand on her cheek comes up constantly throughout the story and is the main focus of
this whole text. These images that the authors use to give their writing extra meaning help
develop the text and show prominent ideas.
Figure of speech, according to dictionary.reference.com, is when words are used
in other than their literal sense. The dark romantic authors used figurative language to
introduce an image or an idea. In The Masque of the Red Death, the Red Death is
continuously portrayed as a villain or a monster. Poe uses personification, calling the Red
Death a thief in the night(Poe 5). Hawthorne also uses figurative language in the form
of a simile to describe Georgianas face and her birthmark saying, the roses of her cheek
into a deathlike paleness, amid which the crimson hand was brought strongly out, like a
bass-relief of ruby on the whitest marble (Hawthorne 3). Figure of speech is a very
useful way for these dark romantic writers to compare and contrast scary and sad things
with the characters and objects in the text.

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Thelastofthefourcriticalelementsinthesedarkromanticworksofliteratureis
toneandtheme.Thedarkromantictextsaremeanttobedarkandsad.Hawthorneshows
thisdarksadnessbysayingthepartingbreathofthenowperfectwomanpassedintothe
atmosphere(Hawthorne12).Poealsoexaggeratesthisthemeandtoneofdarkandsad
bysayingthattheknightsstrengthFailedhimatlength(Poe1314).Theknightloses
allhisstrengthonthewaytofindElDorado.Thesedarkromanticstoriesandpoems
almostalwaysendinthedeathofacharacter.
Thethreemaindarkromanticwriters,EdgarAllanPoe,NathanielHawthorne,
andHermanMelvilleallusedthesefourconcepts,whichfullydeveloptheirworks.
Theseconceptsaidedintheideasandcontextthatthesewritingsportrayed.Thereare
manysymbolsintheseworksbecausemostofthetimethewritersaretalkingabout
somethingbiggerthantheliteralmeaningsofthewords.Theauthorsuseimagesbecause
theyaretryingtopresentanideamanytimessothereadercanhaveabetter
understandingwheretheirfocusshouldbe.Allwritersusefigureofspeechandfigurative
language,whichbetterdeveloptheirworks,especiallydarkromanticwriterssuchasPoe
andHawthorne.Toneandthemearealsoverysimilaramongstthedarkromanticworks
becausethetoneisalmostalwaysdarkandgloomy.Thethemevariesbasedonwhatthe
writersbeliefsandwhathewantstoportraytothereader.Thesethreeworksofdark
romanticismincorporateallfouroftheseconceptstogivelessonsandmeaningtothe
writing,makingthemstayrelevantevenduringthepresentday.

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WorksCited
Pechman,Alexandra."Eldorado."PoetryFoundation.PoetryFoundation,n.d.Web.09Oct.2015.
"TheMasqueoftheRedDeath."TheMasqueoftheRedDeath.N.p.,n.d.Web.09Oct.2015.
Hawthorne,Nathaniel."TheBirthmark."ByNathanielHawthorne.N.p.,n.d.Web.10Oct.2015.