Section 1: A description of the dark side of human nature. Human nature is the set of general psychological characteristics, feelings and behavioral traits of humanity, considered to be shared. by all humans. (Oxford Dictionaries). The dark side of human nature is the part of the human that dwells in negative thoughts or actions such as revenge, hatred, violence, murder, and all seemingly evil things. But what is the dark side of human nature and how does it motivate evil, and how is it perceived differently? Evil is deeply immoral and/or malicious and occurs when someone knows what they are doing is wrong and continues to do it. Dark Romanticism authors like Edgar Allen Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne use Gothic elements to depict the dark and brooding nuances of the psyches of the story's characters and, through the characters, essentially the nature of all humans. Section 2: Hawthorne and Poe consistently reveal the dark side of human nature. The Dark Romantics focuses on the psychological effects of the conflict between good and evil, guilt and sin, and psychotic behavior. It shows the dark side of human nature through stories of revenge, shame, obsession and madness. Both Poe and Hawthorne examine different aspects of the darker side of human nature. The Dark Romantics emphasize human unreliability and the propensity for sin and self-destruction, having a less optimistic view of humanity, human nature, and religion like Emerson's transcendental thought. (http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=03296e7a-93dd-402a-8825-d2a1431ae5b9%40sessionmgr4001&vid=8&hid=4114). his thoughts that all human nature is dark and malevolent. It expresses dark and gloomy ...... middle of paper ...... symbol of the secret sin that all men carry within them. At the end of the story, on his deathbed, the minister says he sees “a black veil on each face” (End of the book). The minister says that all men hide behind their sin and this causes people to examine their own lives and feel guilty for their own sins. Another symbol is the Puritan interest in the concept of "sin." The Puritan view of sin is that each person is predestined to an eternal life in either heaven or hell. The black veil could be Hooper's way of revealing to humanity that he was a sinful being. By wearing the veil, Hooper is criticized for this, which could be due to Hawthorne saying that the Puritans are callous and hypocrites, and far from being moral beings. Conclusion: For Poe and Hawthorne, humanity is an evil being who is infinitely prey to sin. guilt and mortality.