Paper Title: Relationships Between External and Human Nature

Author: Jenny Lau

Email: jennyklau@yahoo.com

Quote: “In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous”--Aristotle.

"Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Bronte, and Pam Houston conceptualize nature in a vastly different manner as is apparent in their works, 'The Fall of the House of Usher,' Wuthering Heights, and 'A Blizzard Under Blue Sky.' The dissimilarities in the depiction of nature vary due to each author’s own concept of nature, which is greatly affected by his/her culture. Poe and Bronte write during the Industrial Revolution but their view of nature is drastically different. In the short story, 'The Fall of the House of Usher,' Poe’s fascination with the supernatural is overtly prominent due to its powerful presence in the house, and its effect on the characters is equally apparent. Poe devalues nature, seeing nature as secondary and unimportant compared to human consciousness—something which corresponds with some of the deepest impulses behind industrialism.. Emily Bronte creates an isolated and bleak environment in Wuthering Heights, which encourages violence and vicious behaviors in the characters. Bronte, however values nature, as she explores both the pastoral and wilderness traditions in her writing. In contrast to Poe’s devaluation of nature, Bronte is more synonymous with the authors and artists discovering and celebrating nature during the Industrial Revolution. The 21^st Century provides a similar division between nature and contemporary industrialization, consumerism, and technology. Like Bronte, Houston values nature; and like many other contemporary environmentally-minded writers in the tradition of Muir, she privileges wilderness experience."