Freed and Overstreet 1

Evan Overstreet and Sofia Freed

Darkside Essay

As American culture developed economic opportunities expanded. The creation of

factories and the expansion of transportation helped connect Americans in a way that had not

been possible before. The growth in the manufacturing and commercial sectors led to the decline

of home-produced products as men began working outside of the house. This allowed women

more time to focus on creating a morally uplifting and nurturing environment for her children

and husband. These standards held by primarily upper and middle-class families became known

as the Cult of Domesticity. This new era, known as the Antebellum era, brought tremendous

change to the literary world. Authors like Edgar Allen Poe and Nathanial Hawthorne wrote in a

new style that reflected the emotional and cultural understanding of America. Along with the

new American literature, a larger literary change was happening referred to as the Romantic

Movement. Romanticism was created in response to the ideas of the enlightenment which

focused on reason. While the enlightenment centered on the superiority of the rational mind the

new movement took on the complexities of emotions and argued that reason could not explain

the irrationality of humankind. The motif rational versus irrational reflects both Gothic literature,

which challenges reason and rationality to explain the unknown, and the Cult of Domesticity,

which is made of irrational ideas about how women should behave.

Nathanial Hawthorne’s story of “The Birthmark” uses a gothic motif of rational versus

irrational to display the inability of reason to explain human desires. In the short story Alymer, a
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scientist, marries Georgiana, a beautiful woman whose only flaw is a small red birthmark on her

cheek. Alymer becomes obsessed with removing the birthmark insisting its the only thing that

stops her from being perfect. While creating a potion to cure his wife he shows her “a powerful

cosmetic” that will make freckles disappear and “leave the rosiest beauty a pale

ghost”(Hawthorne). When Georgiana asks if that is what he intends to use on her cheek he

explains that “[her] case demands a remedy that shall go deeper”(Hawthorne). This passage

exhibits Alymers’ belief that the birthmark is not just a physical flaw but something that is rooted

deep into the essence of Georgiana herself. The reader realizes that Alymer has become crazed

with delusions associating the birthmark with mortality. The reason and rationality of science

have only concealed the unreasonable desires brought by a twisted wish to play God. Alymer

describes the hand as an unavoidable grasp in which “mortality clutches the highest and purest of

earthly mould”(Hawthorne), lowering her to the level of everyone else. It is a constant reminder

of her vulnerability to “sin, sorrow, decay, and death”(Hawthorne) and Alymer becomes terrified

of the object that represents his inability to control the natural world. Hawthorne uses

enlightenment ideals of science to contrast with the reality of emotions beyond the realm of

understanding. Georgiana follows the standard gender roles of the 18th century as a dutiful and

amiable wife who cares deeply about pleasing her husband. Alymer concentrates all his attention

in the marriage on her attaining physical perfection, which he believes equals beauty. Alymer’s

constant attention on Georgiana’s birthmark causes her to grow to hate it too, urging him to

remove it “at whatever risk” or to “take [her] wretched life”(Hawthorne). By Hawthorne using a

character like Alymer, he is able to make an example of his unattainable idealism and the pain it

inflicts on women. “The Birthmark” demonstrates the consequences of male dominance over
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women. Instead of emphasizing the standards of womanhood during the Antebellum era, it

mocks their irrationality.

Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, reflects rationality versus

irrationality through the main character’s questionable actions and thoughts. Poe’s story features

a narrator living under the same roof as an older man. The narrator introduces themself in a

unique way that makes the audience form an early opinion. This story begins with the sentence,

“It’s true! Yes, I have been ill, very ill.” (Poe), by stating this, the narrator can immediately be

characterized as unreliable. The narrator’s unreliability grows as they continue to discuss their

mental wellness and convince the audience that they are not a “madman”(Poe). Irrationality

begins to grow as well when the narrator explains their need to kill the older man simply because

of his “eye of a vulture” or “Evil Eye”(Poe). Before the narrator exclaims his means to kill, they

also express their love and devotion to the old man creating a total loss of rationality that was

barely present in the first place. Poe’s story continues with the narrator becoming more and more

obsessed with the man’s eye along with performing strange and questionable actions before the

murder itself. When the narrator finally ends the old man’s life, they dispose of the body under

the floorboards. Soon the police arrive and when they enter the room where the body is hidden,

the narrator begins to grow crazy over the crescendo of the old mans beating heart underneath

them. The audience is aware that this stressful scene is simply in the crazed narrator’s mind.

After the pressure reaches its peak the narrator admits to the crime. This short story offers a dark

tale that dives into the ideals of perfectionism. The irrationality that Poe creates over something

as simple as an eye can connect to the extreme emphasis on perfection that was presented to

women during this era as well.

The Cult of Domesticity, also known as the cult of true womanhood, formed a belief that

women should stay at home and take a nurturing role in the family. There were four things that

were expected of women within this time. “Piety, Purity, Submissiveness, and

Domesticity.”(Lavender). In other words, women were to obtain a religious role in the family by

bringing “the world out of sin through her suffering”(Lavender), remain sexually pure until

marriage, allow men to be dominant, and to remain in the home. Due to these irrational

standards, women were considered to be below men both intellectually and physically.

Observations supported this as natural scientists measured cranial capacity and brain weight and

connected this to intelligence. However, the results of the female brain size to female body

weight was higher than the male ratio. Because of these results, scientists changed the

measurements to brain weight to body height resulting in the male brain producing more weight

for each inch of height. Phrenologists, the scientists who study the shape of the skull, also stated

that the brain of a woman was an “inferior and more primitive type”(Lavender) compared to the

male brain. The Cult of Domesticity projected these beliefs onto women creating a complete and

irrational way of life for them.

The Antebellum period between Jackson’s presidency and the civil war brought the

creation of a value system among middle and upper-class women that demonstrated piety, purity,

submissiveness, and domesticity. Fanny Ferns’s “How Husbands May Rule” demonstrates the

irrational standards women had to uphold in order to please their husbands. The passage begins

with Mary’s husband asking if she will end her friendship with Mrs. May. Marry is confused

because her friend is “refind, intellectual, and fascinating”(Fern), however, her husband explains

that for those reasons she should give her up because her friends’ “influence over one so yeilding
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and impulsive”(Fern) is troublesome and damaging to their marriage. At first, Marry resists

recalling Mrs. May’s warnings about “being ruled by Harry”(Fern), but she soon reconsiders as

she does not want to disappoint him. Marry comes to the conclusion that Harry is “worth all the

sacrifices a loving heart can make”(Fern). This excerpt demonstrates the irrationality of her

husband’s wishes, stemming from his fear that her friend will corrupt Marry’s ideals. Marry

displays the characteristics of optimal feminine behavior and womanliness desired during the

Antebellum era. Despite Mary’s fears of being controlled by her husband, many women felt they

were only made inferior in status when a “regard to their best interests demands it”(Beecher).

Nevertheless, the illogical stereotypes that influenced the way women were viewed confined

them to roles managing their family and home.

The artifact that we created includes a large watercolor painting with pen and ink details.

We were able to capture an image that is complete with gothic-surrealism and horror-themed

faces. Towards the top left corner, there is a singular face of a beautiful woman with red hair that

stands out from the cryptic figures surrounding it. By formatting the painting this way, it presents

an interesting yet fearful sight that tightly surrounds the beautiful woman’s face. The

claustrophobic presentation around the woman’s face represents the pressure surrounding women

during the antebellum era, along with Georgiana’s character in “The Birthmark”. This painting’s

theme of horror represents the large amount of dark irrationality present in Romanticism and the

Cult of Domesticity.

Rationality versus irrationality is a common theme in Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” and

Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” demonstrating the complexities of human emotion. It is also

apparent in the Cult of Domesticity reflecting the irrational ideals women had to uphold.
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Works Cited

Beecher, Catherine. “Peculiar Responsibilities of American Women,” in ​A Treatise on Domestic

Economy: For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School​, 1842. Full text from

Project Gutenberg, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21829/21829-h/21829-h.htm.

Accessed 30 November 2019.

Fern, Fanny. “How Husbands May Rule,” ​in Fern Leaves from Fanny’s Port-Folio (​ collected

newspaper columns), 1853. Full text from Project Gutenberg,

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45450/45450-h/45450-h.htm. Accessed 30 November

2019.

Hawthorne,​ Nathaniel. “The Birthmark.” 1843.

Lavender, Cathrine. “Notes on the Cult of Domesticity and True Womanhood.” Prepared for

Students in HST 386: Women in the City, Department of History, The College of Staten

Island/CUNY, 1998, https://csivc.csi.cuny.edu/history/files/lavender/386/truewoman.pdf.

Accessed 12 November 2019.

Poe, Edgar Allen. “The Tell-Tale Heart”​, ​Lowell, January 1843.