On which question do the Dark Romantics differ most sharply from the Transcendentalists?
AWhether nature is worth writing about
BWhether human nature is basically good and the inner voice a reliable guide
CWhether fiction should be written in prose
DWhether American writers should set stories in America
Both groups wrote about nature and about American settings. The split is over human nature. Emerson trusted the inner voice, while Hawthorne, Poe and Melville kept returning to sin, self-deception and obsession.
Question 2 True / False
Dark Romantic fiction always gives a clear, rational explanation of its strange events by the end.
TTrue
FFalse
Answer: False
Ambiguity is a common strategy. Hawthorne's narrator asks whether Goodman Brown only 'dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting' and leaves the answer open, because the story is about the effect of the experience on Brown, not its literal truth.
Question 3 Multiple Choice
In his 1842 review of Hawthorne's 'Twice-Told Tales' and later in 'The Philosophy of Composition' (1846), Poe argued that a short tale or poem should be built around what?
AA moral lesson stated in the final line
BA single, preconceived effect on the reader, to which every detail contributes
CA faithful record of everyday middle-class life
DAn ending that reunites lovers
Poe's 'unity of effect' asks the writer to choose an effect first and shape every word toward it. It explains the tight construction of stories such as 'The Fall of the House of Usher' (1839).
Question 4 Short Answer
In 'Hawthorne and His Mosses' (1850), Melville praised a 'great power of blackness' in Hawthorne. What did he mean, and why does it describe Dark Romanticism?
Think about your answer, then reveal below.
Model answer: Melville meant Hawthorne's serious attention to sin and moral darkness, which Melville linked to the Calvinist ideas of innate depravity and original sin. That attention to evil and guilt inside ordinary people is the shared ground of the Dark Romantics.
The phrase names the quality that sets these writers apart from Emerson's optimism. Melville's own Moby-Dick (1851), with Ahab's destructive obsession, shows the same power.