The Dark Truth “The Raven”, by Edgar Allen Poe, and “The Minister’s Black Veil”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne are two stories that show the dark and twisted side of humanity. Edgar Allen Poe is best known for writing his stories about death and the darkness of death. This in turn makes all his seem to be this style where as “The Raven” is a creation of humans seeking hope in a situation that is hopeless. Hawthorne writes about the good and bad in the choices we choose. In “The Ministers Black Veil” Hawthorne confronts a touchy subject by displaying how the congregations covers their sin like a veil covers the face. Even though both authors write in the same type of style they differ in their themes, points of view, and symbols used to portray these …show more content…
All throughout the poem Poe uses dark poetry to present this gloomy dark poem. Right from the beginning we see the hopelessness as the narrator tries to stop thinking about his lost love Lenore. Poe uses his word choice throughout the poem to add to is depressed hopeless theme. His use of “bleak December” (Line 7), adds imagery to the poem and provides the picture of a dark winter. Later in the poem Poe writes of a raven that is with the narrator. The raven, which represents dark times and death, adds the most to the theme of hopelessness by only saying the words “Nevermore” (Line 48). In “The Ministers Black Veil” the theme throughout is that of hiding behind a mask to hide one’s sins. Mr. Hooper is a reverend that during his sermon wears a black veil to show his congregation how we all hide behind a mask to cover our sins.” The black veil, though it covers only our pastor's face, throws its influence over his whole person, and makes him ghostlike from head to foot” (Hawthorne 638). By giving this lesson it drove away his congregation due to his seriousness of wearing the veil and finally led to Mr. Hooper being feared by the people and being left to live alone and no one wanting to come in contact with