happy endings precisely because the hero can think his way through a problem. Though the hero of \Pit and the Pendulum\cannot, by his unaided efforts, save himself from the death intended for him, he uses his head to keep himself alive until help from the outside comes. In fact, one kind of Poe's characters must be those who are forced to fall back on the resources of one's mind.
? Just as he was fascinated with the process of reason, Poe was interested in
the deviousness(曲折) of the human soul. He placed emphasis on how the unconscious motivates human beings, not unlike the Romantics of his day, but to a greater extent. Unlike the Romantics, Poe examined irrational drives; he wanted to bring reason to bear on areas which, in his time, were regarded as lying beyond its boundaries or else were ignored altogether. In other words, Poe used his reason to discover the source of the irrational. This is especially evident in \
? Poe's tragic life and his concentration on death were his extreme and poetic
response to that which was elaborated upon, in naturalistic terms, fifty years later. He was unusually sensitive to the world of his own day, affected by it intensely ，causing his isolation. Though he wanted to find his place in a traditional society, his failure to do so may well have heightened his sense of lonely individualism. It is this sense of alienation which has carried itself through the greatest of literature in America.
4. Comment on Hawthorne’s style.（10%）
? His style is also noteworthy for his frequent use of images. Metaphors and
similes abound, most of them stirringly fresh and effective. He makes skillful use of colors as a means for conveying mood. Black ,red and gray predominate.
? Hawthorne's sentences, like his language, show the effects of his long years
of study and practice in writing. There are few of the awkward sentences which may be found in Cooper. The sentences may appear, to a twentieth century reader, to be too consistently long. But they were not abnormally long for their day. In the most complex sentences ,however, grammatical subordination is employed with sufficient logic and variety to make the writing smooth and clear.
? Another reflection of the times in which Hawthorne wrote is seen in his
punctuation. Many of his works are over-punctuated, by modern standards;
there are superfluous commas, excessive dashes, and far too many exclamation points. In most cases his words are forceful enough to achieve the emphasis he desires, and the attempt to show such emphasis by using exclamation points is not necessary. But Hawthorne cannot be condemned for following the mechanical conventions of his day.
? Hawthorne depends heavily on summarized historical narrative, but links
scenes dramatically. Occasionally, he will interrupt his works to address the reader directly, with some comment on the story, some piece of background information, or a brief moral essay.
? A characteristic device of Hawthorne’s， which is employed several times
in The Scarlet Letter, is the \objects as well as characters to serve as his symbols. He concentrates on a few main symbols repeated often in the story, and uses the fluidity of character development to illustrate the ways in which symbols grow and change based upon one's perception of them.