1. According to transcendentalist philosophy, mans thoughts and intuitions are the voice of God. Hawthorne would have disagreed with this, as whatever led the people of Salem to begin having each other killed under the presumption that they were witches was clearly not the voice of God. These people were weak minded and easily influenced, their thoughts would not appear to be the channeled from some divine power but handed to them by the authorities and religious officials.
2. In transcendentalist belief humans are born inherently pure. However this can hardly be argued for a cannibal society, as they did not turn to it by growing corruption over time, but generation after generation was born into it and accepted it as the natural flow of events, entirely on the contrary to their inherent goodness. Melville had to work on a ship at an early age, in a navy which often times provided less than favorable conditions, because of circumstances beyond his control. This would clearly have a major effect on his life and perception. Because of this these things he probably came to the conclusion that man is not born inherently good; instead that he is largely shaped by the society and circumstance which he is born into.
3. Poe in all likely hood rejected transcendentalist ideas because of the darkness he saw and felt in his own mind, along with that in the world which continually seemed to collapse around him. While they may contain some inner goodness as well, he saw that humanity had an undeniable inclination towards selfishness and cruelty which in his life seemed be the more prevalent.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment