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Force
Force
4 Nov 2018
During the antebellum era, light and dark ideas were depicted through literary, vocal, and
musical pieces. The antebellum era highlighted and focused on the different aspects of the
supernatural world and stories, and the darkness and goodness of man, and the temptations of the
evil. The specific gothic motif of irrational vs rational in the early republic, reflected a majority
of history and the development of the people, during that era. Through the 1800s slavery
demonstrated the motif, irrational vs rational; it displayed the consciousness in the citizens in the
early republic and the overall change throughout history, that changed the course forever.
In literature, the motif, irrational vs rational depicts the main character’s strife between an
irrational or rational world or idea. These irrational and rational conflicts typically drive the main
The Edgar Allan Poe short story, “The Tell-Tale Heart” , demonstrates a motif of
irrational vs rational. The story is of a man, the unnamed narrator, who has committed a murder
against an old man for an irrational reason. That reason eventually lead him to become insane,
because of the strife between the rationality of the real world versus his irrational thoughts. The
motif is specifically applied when the author is talking about his reasoning for committing the
murder, which is shown to be because of his “pale blue-eye, with film over it” (Poe 2), the man
states, that whenever he saw the man's eye, “my blood ran cold” (Poe 2), which eventually lead
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him to kill the old man. The story continues and the narrator explains how he killed the man and
how he placed the bodies under the planks in the house. After the murder, the police show up,
because the neighbors report of a shriek they heard in the night previous, in the beginning the
murderer, successfully talks to the officers and believes he is acting rationally, but then the man
starts to hear noises, he starts to panic, and the story speeds up. At first, he believes its a regular
sound, but then progressively starts to become hysterical, because he believes it’s the heartbeat
of the man. The story connects to irrational and rational motif because of the man's struggle
Young Goodman Brown, by the author Nathaniel Hawthorne, exhibits the motif of
irrational vs rational. Goodman Brown has always been a good Christian man, in the town of
Salem, surrounded by other superficially exceptional Christian citizens. One night, Goodman
Brown sets off, alone, into the forest with a man. In this dreary and dark forest, he learns of the
sinfulness and evilness that goes on in his town behind closed doors. Goodman Brown has
always lived in a rationalized and benevolent society, until he takes a walk with the man in the
forest, where all is irrational, and he concludes from this meeting that all men are evil and
tempted by the devil. Goodman Brown questions this irrational world he lives in, the next
morning, and asks if “[he had] fallen asleep in the forest and only dreamed a wild dream of a
witch-meeting?” (Hawthorne). This questionable and irrational meeting in the forest causes
Goodman Brown to lose his hope in society and also his faith in the people, this drives him to
Events in history can demonstrate this motif of irrational vs rational through the actions
and ideas of Americans, specifically in the early republic. A controversial conflict in the 1800’s
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of the United States that expresses this motif is slavery. Since the discovery of America in 1492,
it has been based and built off the cruel and inhumane acts of slavery, particularly in this time
frame, African American slaves. For over 400 years in America, it was normalized and slowly
became a part of the society, culture, and beliefs of America. As well as, it quickly became the
backbone of American economics. But, as the country began to develop rationality and became
aware of the unsophisticated values that had grown, citizens in the Early Republic became
acquainted with the irrationality of slavery. As slavery was slowly becoming irrational to many
people, Pennsylvania was the first to completely abolish slavery. Lead by George Bryan, the first
state Abolition Act was passed, that freed slaves from the plantations. Pennsylvania soon became
the role model for the rest of the United States to see and learn from. After the abolition act,
many northern states began to abolish slavery and thousands of slaves were emancipated.
Northern states, and their citizens believed slavery was irrational and completely inhumane, and
needed to be abolished everywhere, where in contrary, the Southern states, believed that the use
of slaves was needed, and did not see the negative in the situation. Slavery created tension and
became a major conflict particularly between the South and the North of the United States, that
Andrew Harris, the author of our primary source, was an educated African American man
who was an activist and abolitionist fighting against the spread of slavery. In his speech, Harris
describes the oppression and terror that slaves had faced for hundreds of years. Harris utilizes
rhetorical devices in order to create an intense and compelling argument for the abolition of
slavery. Harris explains that slavery stems from the “corruption of the human heart” (Harris). By
using this metaphor, Harris explains it is mankind’s fault for the uprising of slavery, this want for
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slavery comes from the darkness and evilness of mankind. Harris futhers his argument by
describing that “slavery has developed a passion in the human heart that is stronger than the love
of money; for they refuse to gratify this disposition which the bible says is the root of all evil,
through the influence of that still deeper root of evil, prejudice” (Harris). Harris uses this idea of
the darkness of “human heart” in order to demonstrate that it is no one’s fault, but man’s for the
cruelty of slavery. Humans are money-driven creatures, but Harris illustrates that the passion to
have slaves is stronger than their love and passion for money. He says that even though the bible
says slavery is not rational, people use their predispositioned ideas of prejudice against black
people in order to justify slavery without even realizing it. This speech by Harris explains slavery
as irrational. Harris describes the hardships facing slavery and the oppression against people of
color that has stemmed from this tragedy and this darkness of man. But, people try to rationalize
On the contrary of the abolitionists, ideas that slavery helped the economy and ideas that
people of color are property arose the defenders and supporters of slavery. Mostly being
southerners that defended slavery believed that black people were their property. This textbook
explains that “slave labor was the foundation of [the Southerner’s] economy” and to emancipate
slaves would destroy their economy and profits off of cash crops (Ushistory.org). Southerners
rationalized the growth and conservation of slavery by explaining that slaves helped their
economy and increased the profit while the Southerners did as little work as possible. This
textbook furthered their argument by explaining that slavery was “the natural state of mankind”
(Ushistory.org). To have slaves was normalized in many societies including ancient Greece and
Rome. Southerners strongly believed that because slavery went on for so many years prior to
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their keeping of slaves it was justified to them. This textbook sheds light of the argument of the
Southerners in the 1800s, and their ideals that slavery was rational.
For our creative piece, we decided to make a painting that depicted the rationalization
and irrational beliefs of slavery in the Early Republic, while also including the antebellum eras,
gothic romance pieces. In our painting, we drew an African American person, specifically a
slave of that time, in handcuffs. The handcuffs on the slave depicts the oppression and inhumane
treatment, the African American people handled during the 1800’s and later. The chains
symbolize the entrapment of the slaves, and their inability to escape slavery. In addition to the
slave, our canvas is divided into two sections; irrational and rational. The left side shows a
beautiful sunset, with a confederate flag blowing in the wind, symbolizing the confederacy
during that time, that believed slavery was a rational form of treatment, and that it increased
economic power. The left side shows beauty and serene, which is what the American
confederates believed slavery to be, and struggled to show to the people of the Early Republic.
The right side of our painting is a dreary and dark forest, with many trees, that look dead and
eerie. The dark forest is a reference to the Nathaniel Hawthorne story, Young Goodman Brown,
in the passage, the main character encounters an irrational experience when he enters the forest,
wondering what is really real and what is not. This side of the painting is describing the gothic
romance and oppression of the slaves, by showing a heart at the bottom of the page. The heart is
referencing to the Edgar Allan Poe short story, The Tell-Tale Heart, where in the story, the main
character faces the irrationality of hearing a dead man’s heartbeat. At the bottom of the the
painting the words “Evil of Man” are used to portray how slavery was rooted from the evilness
of mankind.
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In conclusion, ideas from literature in the antebellum era reflected the beliefs and events
occuring at the time. The motif of irrational vs rational can observed in both gothic romance
pieces of literature and the ideas and events of slavery in the 1800’s. These ideas of irrational and
rational casted a dark and twisted set of ideals over the American people that made them
Works Cited
libraries.udmercy.edu/archives/special-collections/index.php?collectionCode=baa&recor
d_id=545.
Literature, 1846,
americanliterature.com/author/nathaniel-hawthorne/short-story/young-goodman-brown.
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Http://Xroads.virginia.edu, American Studies at the
Association, www.ushistory.org/us/27f.asp.