53 POE, MELVILLE AND WHITMAN

1. INTRODUCTION.

Edgar Allan Poe, Melville and Whitman lived in the "age of national literature and romantic individualism". This transformative period in American literary history was characterized by a shift towards uniquely American themes and a focus on personal expression. It coincided with significant political and social changes in the United States, shaping the works of these writers. Two pivotal wars influenced the literature of this era: the American War of Independence (1775-1783) and the Civil War (1861-1865), inspiring writers to celebrate American ideals, such as liberty and self-determination and dealing with themes of morality, justice, and the human cost of war.

After a brief introduction, I will discuss the main points which are: the historical background of the period and the 3 writers related to the literature, namely, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville and Walt Whitman.

2. BACKGROUND OF THE PERIOD.

2.1. AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE (1775-1783).

The American War of Independence (1775–1783) was driven by ideological, political, and economic tensions between the British Crown and its American colonies. Central to the conflict was a fundamental disagreement about governance and constitutional principles. By the 1760s, Britain had imposed a series of parliamentary acts, such as the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts, which the American colonies found unjust and oppressive.

The conflict escalated, leading to Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence in 1776. This declaration articulated the colonies' justification for breaking away, emphasizing the principles of self-governance and the inherent rights of individuals. The war officially ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1783, when Britain recognized the United States as an independent nation and established its territorial boundaries.

Some years later, in 1787, the American Constitution was established during the Philadelphia Convention. This document, ratified by the states, became the cornerstone of American democracy. Under this new constitutional system, George Washington was elected as the first President in 1789. His presidency was marked by significant challenges, including establishing the nation's stability, navigating conflicts like the American Indian Wars (1785-1795) and the European wars arising from the French Revolution (1793), and addressing economic hardships in the young republic.

2.2. JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY (1829-1837).

The first half of the 19th century in the United States was a transformative period marked by the rise of Jacksonian Democracy, a movement that reshaped American politics and governance. Under President Andrew Jackson (1829–1837), the political landscape became more democratic, with significant expansions in suffrage for white men, allowing broader participation in elections. This era also saw the beginning of the country’s industrialization, laying the foundation for economic growth and modernization.

However, this progress came at a significant human cost. The drive for industrial and territorial expansion led to widespread abuse and dispossession of Indigenous peoples and the perpetuation of slavery. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 authorized the forced relocation of Native American tribes from their ancestral lands, culminating in the infamous Trail of Tears in 1839, during which thousands of Indigenous people suffered and died. Simultaneously, the expansion of slavery intensified since there was a growing demand for agricultural and industrial labour.

Amid the societal and industrial changes of the 1830s, a philosophical movement known as Transcendentalism emerged as a reaction against the rapid development of science, industrialization, and societal conformity of the 19th century. Transcendentalists sought to challenge the growing materialism and focus on progress by emphasizing the importance of individualism, self-reliance, and spiritual growth.

They believed that truth could be found through intuition, emotions, and a deep connection with nature rather than logic and empirical evidence, so they positioned themselves outside mainstream society. Their mission was to inspire individuals to rise above the masses and embody the ideals of the "New American"—an independent, complete, and self-reliant person. Through their philosophy, Transcendentalists encouraged a return to simplicity and personal integrity.

2.3. AMERICAN CIVIL WAR (1861-1865).

The Civil War is the most significant event in 19th-century America, marking a turning point in the nation's history. By the 1850s, the United States was deeply divided between free and slave states, leading to intense national disunity. The North defended the abolitionist movement, high tariffs and a strong national government while the South supported slavery, low tariffs and local independent power. This division reached a breaking point following the 1860 presidential election, which saw Abraham Lincoln elected President (1861–1865). After his election, 7 states withdrew from the Union and created the Confederate States of America: Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina, Texas, Mississippi and Florida.

When these States started to seize Federal territory, especially Fort Sumter, Lincoln had to declare war on the South. The conflict lasted 4 long years and finished with the victory of the Union but there were terrible consequences such as the assassination of Lincoln himself. His successor Andrew Johnson (1865-1869) had to face a period of reconstruction which was not easy. The social problems that provoked the outbreak of the War were still present, there was a necessity to restore normal political relations between the North and the South and to rebuild the South in an economic sense.

As we can see, the 19th century was really agitated and through Melville, Poe and Whitman we will see how these events affected the American culture and society.

3. THE MOST REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS. 

3.1. EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809-1849): TALES OF TERROR.

3.1.1. LIFE.

Edgar Allan Poe was born to a theatrical family and experienced a turbulent early life. He became an orphan by the age of two and he was taken in by the Allan family, though not formally adopted. His childhood included formative years in England from ages six to eleven, after which he returned to the United States. At eighteen, Poe briefly attended the University of Virginia but left after a year due to financial difficulties and disagreements with his guardian, John Allan. Returning to Boston, his birthplace, Poe published his first collection, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827). This was followed by a brief period in the army, an unhappy career at West Point, and ultimately, a final break from his foster family. These experiences heavily influenced his later works, characterized by themes of alienation and personal struggle.

3.1.2. STYLE.

He made the tale of terror his dominion, invented modern detective stories, became one of America’s first significant literary theorists and became in the words of Yeats 'always and for all lands a great lyric poet'. He was a man of two faces: a man of reason in his essays and detective stories and a man of passion in his Gothic stories. His influence extended across genres, leaving a profound impact on short stories, Gothic literature, psychoanalysis, and science fiction. Despite his literary achievements, his whole life was an unhappy one characterized by a personality morbidly inclined, opinionated and linked to drink and drugs. But whatever his life was, his works are evidence of 4 obsessions: women, guilt, death and art. 

3.1.3. WORKS.

In Edgar Allan Poe's tales of horror, he masterfully explores the psychological depths of terror and guilt by placing his characters in extraordinary situations and meticulously detailing their inner turmoil. Stories like The Pit and the Pendulum, The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Black Cat exemplify his genius. Poe rarely describes the actual object of horror, rather the reader must use his imagination, amplifying the fear. It is not only the events that take place that are terrifying but also the fact that his characters do not have a motive for their crimes. In the Tale-Tell Heart and The Black Cat, alarmed conscience terrifies both murderers into the panic of confession but the fascination of each story is in its display of hatred, destruction and self-destruction by men whose tormented state of mind expresses common feelings normally repressed. Both stories exemplify Oscar Wilde's observation that ‘each man kills the thing he loves’. As in The Fall of the House of Usher, in The Black Cat, the victim ends victimizer and the role of women is central but also marginalized. The tales reflect Freud's idea of the Uncanny, which means that something familiar yet alien produces at the same time an uncomfortable and strange feeling. 

His most famous Gothic short stories are Ligeia and The Fall of the House of Usher. In them, Poe's vexed souls are caught in a nightmare web of sex and death. Poe explains in The Philosophy of Composition (1846) that ‘the death of a beautiful woman is the most poetical topic in the world’. In fact, most of his heroines die and often return from the grave by various means, as happens in these two tales. The Fall of the House of Usher exemplifies Poe's principle that unity of effect is essential in short stories. The tale creates an atmosphere of pervasive decay and death, which serves not only as the physical setting but also as a reflection of the protagonist's psychological disintegration. The crumbling mansion mirrors Roderick Usher's deteriorating mind and spirit, whose fate is intertwined with his sister Madeleine. Their tragic end—dying in each other’s arms as the mansion collapses into the dark waters of the lake—symbolizes the complete destruction of the Usher lineage, both physically and emotionally. 

He also wrote poetry. The Raven is his best-known poem largely because of its structure, metre and the constant refrain of Nevermore, Nevermore as well as its ebony bird and tolling melancholy.

Poe also invented the modern detective story. His creation of the brilliant and analytical detective, Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin, set the template for many literary detectives to come, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. Dupin's methodical reasoning and the narrator's role as an unintelligent intermediary between the detective and the reader became a hallmark of the genre. Poe's stories, such as The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841), The Mystery of Marie Rogêt (1842), and The Purloined Letter (1845), exemplify his focus on "ratiocination"—the process of logical deduction. These works not only entertained but also challenged readers to engage in the unravelling of mysteries.

In a nutshell, he was the first American man of letters and his constant subject, his vexed soul, was a thing without nationality. 

3.2. HERMAN MELVILLE (1819-1891): SEA NOVELS.

3.2.1. LIFE.

Herman Melville, born in 1819 in New York, grew up in an environment of financial instability that worsened after his father’s death. With less than four years of formal schooling, he sought various means of livelihood, including clerking and teaching, before turning to life at sea. In 1841, Melville embarked on the most formative experience of his life by boarding a South Seas whaler. Ishmael speaks for Melville himself in Moby Dick when he says: 'A ship-whaler was my Yale College and my Harvard'. A year and a half later, he jumped ship in the Marquesas with a fellow sailor and spent about 4 weeks among the cannibal natives. A fictionalized version of this experience was Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life (1846). It was received as a tale of adventurers among exotic primitives but also showed Melville's interest in contraries. Omoo: A Narrative of Adventurers in the South Seas (1847) goes to Tahiti to explore the corrupting effect of white missionaries on the Polynesian islanders, showcasing Melville’s critical view of colonialism and his fascination with the interplay of opposites.

3.2.2. STYLE.

Life at sea became the most important material in his books and short stories. In his fiction, Melville portrays a world in perpetual conflict, divided into two warring forces: good versus evil, God versus Satan, and reason versus emotion. These dualities remain irreconcilable, reflecting the inherent struggles of human existence. Melville's stories are always more than simple sea stories. In a sense, the voyages of his heroes are always searches for the truth. His tragic sense of life and philosophical mind make his works difficult to read as there are a lot of abstract elements and intricate explorations of human nature and the cosmos.

3.2.3. WORKS.

After his first books, we find the great among the greatest Moby Dick (1851). It is a tragic drama, a tragedy of revenge, pursuit and pride, a tragedy of the mind but also a gigantic prose poem and an epic of the sea. Moby Dick began as a story of whaling, however, Melville's anxious desire to speak the unvarnished truth, makes the novel sometimes resemble a documentary or handbook of whaling. For him, reality must be there since it gives tremendous power to the book.

The first-person narrator Ishmael allows us to identify with him and his desire to discover ‘the ungraspable phantom of life’. Moreover, the novel moves grandly through the alternation of excitement and ease to the almost intolerable tension of the 3-days chase of the white whale and the eventual, inevitable disaster when the whale kills Captain Ahab and smashes the Pequot.

The action writing is unbeatable. His voyage, his seamen, their ship, their captain, and the whale itself are tangible; they possess colour, weight and dimension. Captain Ahab feels an obsessive hatred of the White Whale which, for him, symbolizes evil and death. Moby Dick is a manifestation of all that is wrong in the world and he feels that it is his destiny to eradicate such symbolic evil. However, the dualism Ishmael discovers in the 'Whiteness of the Whale' contradicts Ahab's obsession as there is more than malice to the whale. In the appalling purity of Moby Dick's whiteness lies absolute terror yet the colour is emblematic of innocence. Therefore, Moby Dick represents the fusion of opposites: both beauty and monstrosity. 

Following Moby Dick, Herman Melville wrote Pierre (1852), The Confidence-Man (1857), and Billy Budd, Sailor (published posthumously in 1924), among other works. Unfortunately, these later writings failed to gain popularity during his lifetime. As a result, Melville shifted toward less ambitious themes and adopted a style that was more humorous and conversational. Despite this stylistic change, his underlying philosophical concerns—questions about the nature of good and evil, the human condition, and the search for truth—remained consistent. These works reflect a continuation of his deep, often dark reflections on life, albeit in a more accessible narrative style.

3.3. WALT WHITMAN (1819-1892): THE BARD OF DEMOCRACY.

3.3.1. LIFE.

Walt Whitman, born in 1819 on rural Long Island, spent his youth in Brooklyn, where he worked various jobs, including as a printer, journalist, teacher, and building contractor. In the 1840s, he became a newspaper editor, notably for The Daily Eagle. Whitman was a strong advocate for the United States' expansion into South America, opposed slavery, and supported immigration and free trade. Widely regarded as the father of free verse and modern poetry, Whitman’s work is marked by themes of joy, love, nationalism, and individualism. He became known as the "bard of democracy" for his celebration of the American spirit and his embrace of democratic ideals in his writing.

3.3.2. STYLE.

In his poetry, Walt Whitman explored both the inner workings of his own consciousness and the broader experiences of the democratic masses, aiming to speak to all of humanity. His writing was characterized by a plain, straightforward style, allowing ordinary people to connect with his work. For Whitman, the message was always more important than the form; he wanted his poetry to be accessible and to resonate with the common person, conveying his ideals of freedom, equality, and the interconnectedness of all people.

3.3.3. WORKS.

Leaves of Grass was Whitman's life work, constantly revised and expanded through various editions. It is the result of Whitman's development both as a poet and a human being. As Ralph Waldo Emerson famously said, "It is the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed." The first edition was published in 1855, and one of its most important inclusions was Song of Myself. Its opening lines boom out the premises of Whitman's life and work: ‘I celebrate myself and sing myself’. But this self soon includes friends, the entire nation and finally, humanity. Like the Transcendentalists, Whitman believed that the true self is interconnected with the entire universe.

The optimism of Song of Myself continued in the 3rd edition of Leaves of Grass (1860), where Whitman celebrates both national spirit and the human body. He boldly broke with convention by equating the body with the soul, celebrating them equally, and describing their union in terms of sexual intimacy. The sexual references in his poems, particularly in Calamus and Children of Adam, sparked controversy during his lifetime, leading to the banning of Leaves of Grass in Boston. Whitman, however, understood the immense power of sexual impulse, which he viewed as a vital force central to life itself.

Many of Walt Whitman’s finest poems emerged from his personal experience of the Civil War and his effort to reconcile the war's devastation with his idealistic vision of America. The collection Drum-Taps captures his wartime moods and reflections, moving from depictions of soldiers in battle, the scattering of campfires, and the personal anguish of war, to a vision of a reunited nation. Whitman’s elegy When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d mourns the death of President Abraham Lincoln, expressing both grief and a renewed optimism. It affirms his belief in democracy and the resilience of the American spirit. The poem reflects his faith that, despite the suffering caused by the war, the land remains beautiful, and the eternal cycle of life will continue.

4. TEACHING IMPLICATIONS.

Before finishing, I would like to comment on the teaching implications this topic might offer. 

To begin with, I would like to justify the topic in the English curriculum. According to our current legislation based on LOMLOE from 2020 the teaching of a foreign language must be based on the communicative approach and communication must be the essential part of a language learning process. In addition to this, the law also highlights the importance for students to know not only how to use the language but also about the language, for this reason, it is very important to learn the historical literature and cultural aspects of the language learned. In this context, this topic has a relevant role in the English curriculum as it can be a tool to transmit our students’ linguistic and cultural competences.

On top of that, the current law and the Council of Europe prioritize the development of the communicative competence and establish many methodological principles of great use for this topic. These principles and the communicative competence are also reflected in the Royal Decree of 29th of March and in the Order of 2nd of August of 2022.

Therefore, historical events and literature, so crucial to the understanding of the origins of English and its role as an international language, must be explained to our students in a very communicative way. The EFRL provides a key for that. It states that our role as teachers is that of facilitators. Then, our role would be to make this topic and the language as close as possible to our students' reality and to provide them with knowledge and resources for its understanding. In other words, to work from the known to the unknown. For instance, there are books and film adaptations of the medieval period which can be incredibly useful in our lessons to practice the different competences established by the curriculum.

Moreover, a whole cultural environment is created in the classroom by working on topics like this. Students can carry out different communicative tasks with specific communicative purposes. For instance, how to produce a poem, a terror tale or a detective story, represent a film scene orally or read one of the works mentioned before which are usually appealing to them.

5. CONCLUSION.

In conclusion, the Civil War and the literary works of Emerson, Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman, and Poe provided the people of the United States with new frameworks to shape their understanding of identity. The three writers we have focused on made monumental contributions to American literature. Poe is credited with the invention of detective fiction and the development of the short story; Melville advanced the symbolic and allegorical novel, emphasizing personal experiences and reality; and Whitman introduced new themes through the innovative form of free verse. These authors not only defined the literary landscape of their time but also helped to articulate the evolving American self.

6. BIBLIOGRAPHY.

To write this topic, several references have been use, among which I would like to highlight:

• Alexander, M. (2000). A History of English Literature.

• Conlin, J.P. (2013). The American Past: A Survey of American History.

• Daiches, D. (1980). A Critical History of English Literature.

• Sanders, A. (1996). The Short Oxford History of English Literature.

Besides, legal sources have also been used to justify the topic:

• LOMLOE Organic Law 3/2020, of 29th of December to improve the educational quality.

• Council of Europe (2001). Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching and Assessment. Strasbourg.

• Royal Decree 217/2022, of 29th of March, which establishes the basic curriculum of secondary compulsory education and bachillerato.

• Order ECD 1172/2022, of 2nd of August, which passes the curriculum of secondary education and allows its application in the schools of Aragon.