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Nature and Man in Poe’s A Descent into the Maelstrom and Crane’s The Open Boat PDF Free Download

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Nature and Man in Poe’s A Descent into the Maelstrom and

Crane’s The Open Boat

Diplomarbeit

zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades

eines Magisters der Philosophie

an der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz

vorgelegt von

Matthias MILCHRAHM

am Zentrum für Inter-Amerikanische Studien

Begutachterin: Ao. Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. phil. M.A. Roberta Maierhofer

Graz, 2018


 
Table of Contents 
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................................ 2 
A Descent into the Maelstrom / Close Reading ...................................................................................................................... 3 
1 Rationale of a Close Reading Approach .......................................................................................................................... 3 
1.1 Short description ...................................................................................................................................................... 3 
1.2 Three main reasons for a Close Reading approach .................................................................................................. 4 
2 Close Reading with a special focus on the role of nature and its impact on man ............................................................ 4 
Romanticism ........................................................................................................................................................................ 11 
1 Definitions, origin and the romantic thought ................................................................................................................. 11 
2 American Romanticism and the negative Romanticist Edgar Allen Poe ....................................................................... 13 
3 Romantic theme of nature .............................................................................................................................................. 16 
The relationship between A Descent into the Maelstrom and Romanticism ......................................................................... 20 
1 general ........................................................................................................................................................................... 20 
2 nature ............................................................................................................................................................................. 24 
3 sublime .......................................................................................................................................................................... 26 
Close Reading: The Open Boat ............................................................................................................................................ 29 
Naturalism ............................................................................................................................................................................ 35 
1 general: definitions, origins, main currents .................................................................................................................... 35 
2 Crane ............................................................................................................................................................................. 36 
3 Key characteristics of Naturalism .................................................................................................................................. 38 
3.1 Darwinism ............................................................................................................................................................. 38 
3.2 Determinism .......................................................................................................................................................... 39 
3.3 Objectivity and Pessimism ..................................................................................................................................... 40 
The relationship between The Open Boat and Naturalism.................................................................................................... 41 
1 Darwinian Concepts in The Open Boat ......................................................................................................................... 42 
2 The Influence of Determinism in The Open Boat .......................................................................................................... 44 
3 Crane’s style .................................................................................................................................................................. 46 
4 Objectivity and Pessimism ............................................................................................................................................ 49 
Comparison: Combination of Structural and Contextual Elements ...................................................................................... 50 
1 Juxtaposition of Key Roles of Nature in Descent into the Maelstrom and The Open Boat ........................................... 50 
1.1 power of nature ...................................................................................................................................................... 50 
1.2 multi-faceted and indifferent nature ....................................................................................................................... 52 
1.3 dependence on nature............................................................................................................................................. 54 
2 Juxtaposition of Crucial Effects of Nature on Man in A Descent into the Maelstrom and The Open Boat .................... 55 
2.1 sublime experience (R) vs. pessimism (N)............................................................................................................. 55 
2.2 transcendence (R) vs. denial of transcendence (N) ................................................................................................ 56 
2.3 adoption of distant perspective of nature (R) vs. objectivity (N) ........................................................................... 56 
2.4 submission to nature vs. fight against nature ......................................................................................................... 57 
2.5 brotherhood vs. betrayal ........................................................................................................................................ 58 
Conclusion............................................................................................................................................................................. 58 
Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................................................. 60 
 

1. Introduction

Throughout the centuries, nature has been a fascinating phenomenon for mankind and has

established itself as one of the most influential and controversial fields of research. There

hardly exists a scientific discipline which has not attempted to unravel certain mysteries of

nature and although humanity has come a long way to understand natural processes and

establish underlying theories to explain them, there are still uncharted processes within that

universal notion of nature. If one forms an association between scientific disciplines and

nature, natural and formal sciences will most likely predominate. However, also social

sciences, such as Philosophy or the Humanities, have examined and implemented nature in

their respective fields of research. As a matter of fact, this thesis is entirely concerned with the

Humanities, more specifically with American literature and the historical and literary

contextual background of two short stories, in which nature adopts a crucial and determining

role.

The aim of this thesis is to compare and contrast the two short stories A Descent into the

Maelstrom (1841) by Edgar Allen Poe and The Open Boat (1897) by Stephen Crane, as

characteristic expressions of the literary eras of Romanticism (Poe) and Naturalism (Crane),

by especially focusing on the topic of nature and its impact on man. I will consequently

address the following research questions: How is the role of nature, on a structural and

contextual level, represented in the texts? What are significant effects of nature on man? How

do the texts belong in their respective literary era? How are aspects of Naturalism

demonstrated in the The Open Boat? How are aspects of Romanticism demonstrated in A

Descent into the Maelstrom? What are similarities / differences between the two texts?

In the first part of this thesis, I will provide a short rationale of my text-oriented and

structuralist Close Reading approach. Then, I will proceed with the Close Reading analysis of

Poe’s A Descent into the Maelstrom, in which I will examine the role of nature and its impact

on man on a textual level. In this section, I will introduce salient themes and imagery of the

narrative, with a special focus on nature, which will consequently promote the understanding

of the subsequent contextual approach through providing relevant illustrations. Afterwards, I

will establish the fundamental and underlying literary and historical concepts of Romanticism,

which will be essential for a contextual-approach in a further consequence. In this section, I

will address the revolutionary shift of thinking in dynamic organicism, provide key

characteristics of Romanticism and conduct a thorough analysis of the Romantic theme of

nature. Then, I will conduct my first contextual approach and establish the relationship

between Romanticism and A Descent into the Maelstrom, in which structural as well as

contextual elements will be regarded.

In the second part of this thesis, I will use the same method as in the previous part but with

Crane’s The Open Boat. Again, I will start with a text-oriented Close Reading approach, in

which salient aspects of nature and its impact on man will be analyzed. Subsequently, I will

conduct an investigation of the most influential characteristics of Naturalism, the most

prominent being Determinism and Darwinism. Afterwards, I will establish the relationship

between the text and the contextual background and finally I will draw a comparison between

the two texts in the third part and recapitalize my findings in the conclusion

2. A Descent into the Maelstrom / Close Reading

2.1 Rationale of a Close Reading Approach

2.1.1 Short description

“Close Reading is the detailed and specific interpretation of a text through its language,

considering the prevalent images, symbols, metaphors and patterns it incorporates” (McCaw

2008: 43). The key principle behind a close reading approach is the central focus on the text

itself, without considering the relationship of the text to contextual debates, such as (literary)

history, culture, society, politics, etc. Imagine putting the text in a vacuum and merely

analyzing it with the provided information of the text, which is put into words. McCaw (2008:

44) states that “[…] the reader/critic attempts to explain the text and the way it works, as a

kind of internal structure, through its diction (choice of words), syntax (construction of the

sentences), tone (attitude or voice of the narrator/speaker), and internal context […]”.

There exist various perspectives on a close reading approach and the selected method for this

paper will be The New Criticism method. The critical perspective originated from John Crowe

Ransom’s The New Criticism (1941) in the United States and established itself as one of the

predominant methods for text-oriented studies in the 20th century. “The prescribed critical

method of the New Critics was to view the text as a self-contained structure, a web of words,

symbols and images. Texts existed in their own right, and didn’t need additional or extraneous

information to enlighten them” (McCaw 2008: 49).

2.1.2 Three main reasons for a Close Reading approach

➢ Close Reading significantly promotes the crucial understanding of a text, which might

in a further consequence be essential for other subsequent forms of analysis.

➢ Close Reading provides no room for bias if external influential factors such as

historical, biographical or genre-oriented issues are not regarded.

➢ Close Reading shows a tendency of having less speculations than other forms of

critical engagement

(cf. McCaw 2008: 57)

2.2 Close Reading with a special focus on the role of nature and its impact on man

As the title Descent into the Maelstrom already suggests, the aspect of nature is of paramount

importance in Poe’s short story. According to Merriam-Webster (online), a maelstrom is a

“powerful often violent whirlpool sucking in objects in a given radius”. Merely the thought of

descending into a powerfully violent natural phenomenon such as the maelstrom, evokes a

dreadful and uneasy feeling of terror and fear. The omission of an overt connection between

humans and the descent into a maelstrom in the title, is a further indicator of the significance

of nature in this short story and could imply that the role of nature is even above the role of

everything else. Although one would assume that it is about a human experience with nature,

one cannot be certain about it since it is not clearly stated that humans are descending into a

maelstrom. The ‘Descent’ could have a metaphorical meaning or could even refer to other

species, such as personified animals for instance.

The quote by Joseph Glanville at the beginning of the story signifies that god plays a crucial

role in nature. “The ways of God in nature” (Poe. Descent into the Maelstrom 1) suggest that

god is the driving force behind nature and the “vastness, profundity, and unsearchableness of

His works” (1) imply that nature, as a tool of god, exceeds the significance and power of

humans tremendously. The created notion of powerless humans in the face of an

overwhelming nature through god in combination with the ominous title of the short story

already foreshadows a horrible endeavor. Finholt (1973: 356) identifies the theme of the story

as “[…] the how, why, and what-of-it of one man’s discovery of God’s ways in Nature”.

The first paragraph after the opening quote already confirms that ominous expectation and

reveals the aftermath of a determining clash of man with nature, while simultaneously

introducing the narrative situation. The story is organized in a so-called frame tale, in which a

story is told within a story. Both frames are comprised of one homodiegetic first-person

narrator, which means that the characters are involved in their respective narrated story. The

outer frame is centered around a mountain climb and includes the unnamed narrator and the

fisherman who has survived the Maelstrom. The inner frame is centered around the reveal of

the experience with the Maelstrom and includes the fisherman and his two brothers. The

fisherman asserts that three years ago, “an event such as never happened to mortal man-or at

least such as no man ever survived to tell of” (1) happened to him and that “the six hours of

deadly terror which I then endured have broken me up body and soul” (1). The fisherman

further disproves the assumption that he would be an old man and says that “It took less than

a single day to change these hairs from a jetty black to white, to weaken my limbs, and to

unstring my nerves, so that I tremble at the least exertion, and am frightened at a shadow” (1).

As can be seen, the experience with nature and the Maelstrom in particular, had a tremendous

physiological and psychological impact on the fisherman and made him look like a frail old

man. This illustrates the power of nature over man and sets the tone for the rest of the story.

Although the fisherman describes himself as very anxious and wrecked by the immense

power of nature, he shows no fear of a cliff, a massive natural phenomenon. The unnamed

narrator is taken aback by this paradoxical sight and astonished by the fisherman’s reckless

position on the “ ‘little cliff’, upon whose edge he had so carelessly thrown himself down to

rest, that the weightier portion of his body hung over it, while he was only kept from falling

by the tenure of his elbow on its extreme and slippery edge” (1). One logical explanation for

his contradictory behavior could be, that he has been desensitized by his near-death

experience with the Maelstrom, so that other natural phenomena cannot evoke any feeling of

fear or terror. Another plausible explanation could be that he sees no real danger in a

deceptively static form of nature, such as the cliff, which is indeed under constant change as

well, and only fears dynamic natural phenomena such as the sea. In contrast to the fisherman,

the unnamed narrator is literally immobilized and overpowered by the daunting “little cliff” –

“a sheer unobstructed precipice of black shining rock, some fifteen or sixteen hundred feet

from the world of crags beneath us” (1), which demonstrates the power of apparently static

natural phenomena and accentuates the contrasting effect of nature on the fisherman and the

unnamed narrator.

Moreover, natural phenomena are presented with a varying degree of power and some are

depicted as superior to others, which is strongly depending on the perception of the viewer.

This assumption is exemplified by the unnamed narrator who says that he “dared not even

glance upward at the sky-while I struggled in vain to divest myself of the idea that the very

foundations of the mountain were in danger from the fury of the winds” (1). The unnamed

narrator attributes more power to the winds and is even afraid that the whole mountain might

collapse. The personification “fury of the winds” is a further indicator of the superiority of the

wind over the mountain in the face of the observer.

The story continues by establishing the setting of the outside frame and by providing

additional facets of the role of nature and its impact on man. The fisherman describes their

current location and he also showcases his geographical knowledge of nearby islands. “‘We

are now close upon the Norwegian coast-in the sixty-eighth degree of latitude – in the great

province of Nordland – and in the dreary district of Lofoden. The mountain upon whose top

we sit is Helseggen, the Cloudy’” (2). The name of the mountain “Helseggen, the Cloudy”

radiates a powerful divine presence and it virtually sounds like a deity, which allows the

visitors to sit on it. On top of that, the unnamed narrator introduces the underlying natural

phenomenon to even create a maelstrom, namely the sea, and does it in a way to generate

tension and evoke reverence: “Now raise yourself up a little higher-hold on to the grass if you

feel giddy-so-and look out, beyond the belt of vapor beneath us, into the sea” (2). In this quote

a rather peculiar aspect of the role of nature is highlighted, namely the ability of providing

support for humans, which is illustrated by the advice of the fisherman to “hold on to the

grass if you feel giddy”. Immediately afterwards, the opposing dark and gloomy facet of

nature is emphasized once more, which is more in line with the general tone of the story:

A panorama more deplorably desolate no human imagination can conceive. To the right and left, as far

as the eye could reach, there lay outstretched, like ramparts of the world, lines of horridly black and

beetling cliff, whose character of gloom was but the more forcibly illustrated by the surf which reared

high up against its white and ghastly crest, howling and shrieking forever. (2)

The panorama, which consists of various natural phenomena, exceeds the human imagination

and is extremely negatively connoted (“deplorably desolate”, “horridly black and beetling

cliff”). The phrase “as far as the eye could reach” further implies the limitations and the

inferiority of humans towards nature. On top of that, the surf is personified through its ability

to howl and shriek, which creates a horrible and intimidating image of nature. As the story

proceeds, the unnamed narrator is confronted with the sheer power of nature, which is

embodied through the “loud and gradually increasing sound, like the moaning of a vast herd

of buffaloes upon an American prairie” and the “chopping character of the ocean” (2). He

even attributes a monstrosity to the generating current which resulted in an “ungovernable

fury” (3). The comparison of the raging water with the American buffaloes could imply that

the unnamed narrator is an American traveler and the “chopping character of the ocean”

sounds extremely hostile and discourages human contact with the ocean, since it might have

fatal consequences.

The Maelstrom is presented as the ultimate and most powerful and magnificent natural

phenomenon, which predominately evokes extreme fear and terror in man. The phenomenon

is thoroughly described and the interior “was a smooth, shining, and jet-black wall of water,

[…] speeding dizzily round and round with a swaying and sweltering motion, and sending

forth to the winds an appalling voice, half shriek, half roar […]” (3) The ominous presence of

the Maelstrom through this first description is undeniable and the unnamed narrator is

terrified and seeks support and protection with the herbage on the mountain. He cannot grasp

the “magnificence” and “horror of the scene” (3). Additionally, the fisherman mentions some

of the dangers of the Maelstrom and states that “if a ship comes within its attraction, it is

inevitably absorbed and carried down to the bottom, and there beat to pieces against the rocks;

and when the water relaxes, the fragments thereof are thrown up again” (4). The incredibly

massive power of the Maelstrom is further emphasized by the powerlessness of huge

mammals such as whales or bears, which are frequently pulled into the violent stream; it

would be “impossible to describe their howlings and bellowings in their fruitless struggles to

disengage themselves” (4). The unnamed narrator evaluates this statement as redundant “for it

appeared to me, in fact, a self-evident thing, that the largest ship of the line in existence,

coming within the influence of that deadly attraction, could resist it as little as a feather the

hurricane, and must disappear bodily at once” (4). The comparison of a ship in the Maelstrom

with a feather in a hurricane effectively exemplifies the sheer power of this “deadly” natural

phenomenon.

The malicious description of the Maelstrom amplifies and signifies its power over man even

further and provides room for the assumption of a symbolism of hell in this natural

phenomenon, which stands in direct opposition to a symbolism of heaven (god). The

depiction of the center of the Maelstrom as “an abyss penetrating the globe” (5) is a

hyperbole, which aims to emphasize the power of it even further and the word “abyss” has an

extremely negative association and could even refer to hell and evilness. The assumption of a

symbolism of hell in the Maelstrom is further substantiated by the mentioned origin of a

hurricane in the sky; “the most terrible hurricane that ever came out of the heavens” (6),

which illustrates a contrast between heaven and hell and further underlines the thesis that god

works his way through nature, which was established at the beginning of the analysis.

Moreover, Egan (1982: 160) introduces the interpretation of the “yell that went up to the

Heavens from of that mist” (11) as a central image and a “execration from Hell, a challenge to

God”, which further underlines the juxtaposition between heaven and hell. Consequently, it

gives room to the theory that the devil imposes his will on nature and utilizes nature as well,

for instance the Maelstrom, to drag humans in the abyss of hell. The metaphor of the

Maelstrom as a manifestation of the devil is reasonable, although one must consider whether

god would not have the upper hand in a battle of nature with the devil, but this is open for

interpretation and offers a completely new point of discussion, which is not the focus of this

thesis. As opposed to the strong symbolism of hell in the Maelstrom, “the rainbow has

traditionally symbolized God’s promise of mercy to mankind, and so foreshadows the

mariner’s survival of the descent” (Egan 1982: 160).

The mere mentioning of the word ‘Moskoe-ström’, which is the Norwegian term for

Maelstrom, has the capability to elicit a feeling of extreme fear and terror. The fisherman feels

joy and relief after realizing that his brother has not been swept overboard “but the next

moment all this joy was turned into horror-for he put his mouth close to my ear, and screamed

out the word ‘Moskoe-ström’” (7).

No one will ever know what my feelings were at that moment. I shook from head to foot as if I had had

the most violent fit of the ague. I knew what he meant by that one word well enough-I knew what he

wished to make me understand. With the wind that now drove us on, we were bound for the whirl of the

Ström, and nothing could save us! (7)

The reaction of the fisherman to the revelation of his brother that the Maelstrom is close

ahead is extremely horrible and evokes the feeling of absolute despair and doom in the face of

such a powerful natural phenomenon. As they proceed to get closer and closer to the

Maelstrom, the dread and horror intensifies and the fisherman states that “As it was, I

involuntarily closed my eyes in horror. The lids clenched themselves together as if in a

spasm” (8). As can be seen, the fisherman even loses control of some of his bodily functions

because of the immense terror he must endure. On top of that, his brother is “looking as pale

as death” (8) which is a further indicator of the powerful and horrible impact of nature on man

and also foreshadows the death of the brother.

In contrast to the predominantly terrorizing effect of the Maelstrom on the fishermen, at one

point the Maelstrom’s horror seizes to terrify the narrator of the tale because of an

appreciation of this beautiful manifestation and due to the lack of hope to survive this forlorn

endeavor. “It may appear strange, but now, when we were in the very jaws of the gulf, I felt

more composed than when we were only approaching it. Having made up my mind to hope no

more, I got rid of a great deal of that terror which unmanned me at first” (9). The fisherman

submits himself to nature and has accepted the probable outcome of this situation, namely

death. Additionally, he concludes that his life is insignificant in such a magnificent spectacle

of nature and he begins to appreciate the upcoming death, which awaits him in the depths of

the sea. “I began to reflect how magnificent a thing it was to die in such a manner, and how

foolish it was in me to think of so paltry a consideration as my own individual life, in view of

so wonderful a manifestation of God’s power” (9).

The second reason for a calmer constitution of both mind and body is the disappearance of a

specific natural phenomenon, namely the wind. Throughout the story, the wind has been

depicted as an extremely powerful entity (e.g. “fury of the winds”) and has even been

attributed the power to unsettle and shake a massive mountain by the unnamed narrator. Thus,

it is comprehensible and logical that a cessation of the wind would have a positive impact on

the fisherman, which is exemplified by the following quote: “There was another circumstance

which tended to restore my self-possession; and this was the cessation of the wind, which

could not reach us in our present situation […]” (9). The fisherman further emphasizes the

overwhelming power of the wind in combination with the sea, which leads to a “confusion of

mind” (9) and “they blind, deafen, and strangle you, and take away all power of action or

reflection. But we were now, in great measure, rid of these annoyances” (9). Every cloud, or

in this particular instance, every Maelstrom has a silver lining, which overall helps the

fisherman to cope with this desperate situation.

Another aspect of the role of nature in Descent into the Maelstrom is the nourishing factor,

which provides humans with food and is the initial reason why the fishermen head out into the

sea in the first place. This is exemplified by the assertion of the fisherman that “In all violent

eddies at sea there is good fishing, at proper opportunities, if one has only the courage to

attempt it […]” (5). He further states that he and his crew fish at a very dangerous spot which

earns more fish in a shorter period of time. Without a lot of background information, it seems

to be a very irresponsible and reckless strategy, mostly driven by greed and economic reasons.

Nonetheless, the fisherman proudly says that “In fact, we made it a matter of desperate

speculation-the risk of life standing instead of labor, and courage answering for capital” (5).

Apart from the economic aspect of fishing, the fishermen are also dependent on other natural

phenomena, which underlines the assumption of a dependence of man on nature. First and

foremost, a dependence on the condition of the sea is unequivocal. The sea man need to

consider various currents, ebb and flux of the sea, the depth of the water at critical spots and

the structure of reefs, protruding rocks etc. Secondly, they are strongly dependent on the

wind, which is their main motor of movement at the sea. This is accentuated by the statement

of the fisherman that “We never set out upon this expedition without a steady side wind for

going and coming-one that we felt sure would not fail us before our return-and we seldom

made a miscalculation upon this point” (5). If the wind conditions were bad, it could have

severe consequences, such as being stuck at the sea and starving to death.

The short story gives further rise to a theory that man should adopt a more distant perspective

of nature. Man’s metaphorical short sightedness of nature and the limited human perception

of the natural phenomenon are represented in the following scene: “‘At first I was too much

confused to observe anything accurately. The general burst of terrific grandeur was all that I

beheld’“ (10). In contrast to the confusion of man, the moon is depicted with a lucid vision of

the scenery: “‘The rays of the moon seemed to search the very bottom of the profound gulf;

but still I could make out nothing distinctly, on account of a thick mist in which everything

there was enveloped […] ‘“ (10). Although the mariner is directly immersed in the natural

phenomenon, he is incapable of clearly observing the natural spectacle, whereas the moon

establishes a clear view, despite being situated at a far greater distance. Therefore, it might be

crucial to adopt a more distant perspective of nature in order to perceive it clearly and

adequately. (cf. Egan 1982: 160)

The final aspect of nature in this close reading section is its extreme unpredictability and

potential rapid change, which puts man in a precarious position when confronted with nature.

A “steady breeze” (5) can turn into a “fury of the winds” (1) or a tempest within seconds and

endangers the life of man, especially when on a sea voyage as in the example of this story.

This is effectively exemplified by the statement of the fisherman that “In less than a minute

the storm was upon us-in less than two the sky was entirely overcast-and what this and the

driving spray, it became suddenly so dark that we could not see each other in the smack” (7).

Another appropriate example would be the change of the sea from a tranquil ocean into a

mountain of water: “[…] but at all events the seas, which at first had been kept down by the

wind, and lay flat and frothing, now got up into absolute mountains” (8). The survival of the

descent of the mariner is another excellent illustration of a rapid change of natural

phenomena:

The gyrations of the whirl grew, gradually, less and less violent. By degrees, the froth and the rainbow

disappeared, and the bottom of the gulf seemed slowly to uprise. The sky was clear, the winds had gone

down, and the full moon was setting radiantly in the west, when I found myself on the surface of the

ocean, in full view of the shores of Lofoden, and above the spot where the pool of the Moskoestrom had

been. (12-13)

Egan (1982: 161) argues that on a symbolic level “[…] the moon, the funnel and the man

have met at the surface of the ocean [and] that the moment of illumination is passed; […] the

mariner shared with the moon the perception of the force, beauty and patterns of motion at

Nature’s core”.

3. Romanticism

In order to apply a context-oriented approach and investigate how aspects of Romanticism are

influential and demonstrated in Poe’s Descent into the Maelstrom, it is of utmost importance

to firstly immerse oneself in the historical and literary era. Thus, I will thoroughly examine

various romantic aspects of relevance for my diploma thesis, which will provide the

groundwork for my analysis in the following sections of this paper.

3.1 Definitions, origin and the romantic thought

Romanticism, or commonly known as the Romantic era, was a movement focusing on art,

literature, music and intellectual topics and had its origins in Europe around the end of the

18th century, peaking in the majority of areas approximately around 1800 to 1850. Central

characteristics of Romanticism are the strong focus on emotion and individualism, as well as

the typical virtue of glorifying the past and nature. It was also a reactional movement to the

Industrial Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment. There has been a lot of controversy and

skepticism about an exact and precise definition of Romanticism over the years, but I will

nonetheless discuss some of the most prominent ones, which were established in middle of the

20th century. Barzun (1943) has managed to collect a plethora of various definitions of

Romanticism such as “a return to the Middle Ages, a love of the exotic, the revolt from

Reason, a vindication of the individual, a liberation of the unconscious, a reaction against

scientific method, a revival of pantheism, […], a rejection of artistic convention and a return

to nature and emotionalism” (as cited in Peckham 1951: 6). Peckham (1951: 14) further

attempted to explain the change of thought in Romanticism and argued that regardless of

whether it is philosophic, theological or aesthetic, there is a revolution in the minds of

Europeans taking place, which leads them away from “thinking in terms of static mechanism”

and enables “the redirection of the mind to thinking in terms of dynamic organicism.

Additionally, Peckham (ibid.) asserts that the primary values of dynamic-organicism-thinking

are “change, imperfection, growth, diversity, the creative imagination, the unconscious”.

A highly effective metaphor to illustrate that shift of thinking is to imagine the static

perception of the universe as a clock and the dynamic perception of the universe as a growing

tree. That growing-tree mentality emerged in the minds of many at the end of the 18th century

and resulted in a re-invention and revolution in various fields such as art, thought, music and

literature. Consequently, the key values of the ‘growing-tree’ dynamic thinking, such as

instinct, intuition, freedom and change replaced their counterparts of the ‘clock’ static

thinking such as reason, order and permanence in all minds who underwent the shift and

ultimately lead to the romantic school of thought. (cf. Adams 1970: 249)

Romantic thought is relativistic and pluralistic; it rejects absolute values, formal classifications, and

exclusive judgment; it welcomes novelty, originality, and variety. It is less interested in distinctions than

in relationships, particularly in the organic relationship which it posits between man and nature, or the

universe, and (less often) between the individual and society. The great chain of being is replaced by

(less often) between the individual and society. The great chain of being is replaced by an indefinitely

extended and complicated live network of connecting filaments, as in the vascular system of a plant or

in a mass of animal nerve tissue, by which every phenomenon is tied by countless direct and indirect

contacts to every other. When a new fact appears, it is not just another link in the chain or cog in the

machine; it is an evidence of organic growth and development, and its emergence changes every

previously existing aspect of the universe. A new characteristic is evidence of a totally new and

different world. (Adams 1970: 249)

Thus, the main objective of a romantic artist is not the imitation of an already existing

idealized perfection of form, but rather to originate and create a form which is new and

unprecedented and allows the unique expression of his personal feelings and knowledge. In

order to achieve that, he will rather depend on imagination than on logic, prefer symbols over

signs and allegories and rely more on the power of unconsciousness than on consciousness.

He will be devoted to the creation of an authentically new thing, which will result in change

and renewal of the whole organic universe. (cf. Adams 1970: 249-250)

Another scholar who attempted to define Romanticism was Renè Wellek (1949), who offered

three criteria of Romanticism: “imagination for the view of poetry, an organic concept of

nature for the view of the world, and symbol and myth for poetic style” (as cited in Peckham

1951: 7). Wellek (1949) further accentuates three central aspects in his article: firstly, that a

European romantic movement centralized on intellectual and artistic characteristics is

undisputed; secondly that the protagonists of this movement were well-aware of their

historical and revolutionary significance and thirdly that Lovejoy’s article on Romanticism

caused confusion and skepticism about Romanticism, especially in America. (cf. Peckham

1951: 7)

3.2 American Romanticism and the negative Romanticist Edgar Allen Poe

The romantic movement in America originated from France, England and Germany and the

central idea of various romantic school of thoughts was the common glorification of the ideal

of individualism (cf. Parrington 1970: x). The romantic period in the history of American

literature started at the end of the 18th century and lasted to the beginning of the Civil War.

Akin to the Europeans, the American Romantics showed moral enthusiasm to a high degree,

were committed to the central idea of individualism and the unfolding of the self, emphasized

the importance of intuition in the act of perceiving and had the notion of nature being

inherently good, while humans being susceptible to corruption (cf. McMichael 1997: 613).

Adams (1952: 432) argues that American romantic literature, which arose in the middle of the

19th century, displayed a high level of independence and self-sustainability and the romantic

shift of thinking in dynamic organicism instead of static mechanism (see. chapter 3.1), which

was encouraged by the Europeans Goethe, Wordsworth & co., played a significant role in

establishing that. Additionally, Adams (ibid.) claims that the Americans expanded the

romantic revolution further and developed the meanings and indications of Romanticism more

effectively than any other nation before; the reason being “partly because they had the firm

foundation of European romanticism to build on and partly, perhaps, because they were so

clearly and completely in opposition to the predominant forces in their own society”.

Due to the nature of this paper and the selection of Descent into the Maelstrom as a primary

text, I am particularly interested in one writer of the American romantic movement, namely

Edgar Allen Poe and especially how his style of writing fits into (negative) Romanticism, and

I do not intend to delve any deeper into other American romantic writers or provide

unnecessary biographical details. When one thinks about romantic writers, typically European

writers such as Wordsworth, Coleridge and Goethe and American writers such as Emerson,

Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville and Whitman come to mind. Poe is mostly connected with the

American Gothic, but he was also a Romanticist, although not a very positive one. It is

therefore vital to draw a distinction between positive and negative Romanticism and identify

the major differences between those two categories. Firstly, positive Romanticism refers to

the radical shift of thinking (see chapter 3.1) and is “as a term useful in describing men and

ideas and works of art in which dynamic organicism appears, whether it be incomplete or

fully developed” (Peckham 1951: 14). Positive romanticism is perfectly illustrated in

Coleridge’s The Ancient Mariner and it describes an experience similarly to the ones given by

Wordsworth and Carlyle, two other typical positive Romanticists. It is an experience of “a

process; it affirms the unconscious mind and the creative imagination; it affirms the principle

of the living universe; it affirms diversitarianism;” and it is full of (organic) and dynamic

symbols such as the albatross which transcends from a symbol of life to one of death and

which marks the beginning of the Mariners alienation (Peckham 1951: 19). Secondly,

Peckham (1951: 15) emphasizes that positive romanticism on its own is incapable of

explaining the various literary works of romantic writers and does not suffice to develop and

understanding of the romantic movement. Consequently, it is crucial to add the

complementary term negative romanticism. “Briefly, negative romanticism is the expression

of the attitudes, the feelings, and the ideas of a man who has left static mechanism but has not

yet arrived at a reintegration of his thought and art in terms of dynamic organicism” (Peckham

1951: 15). As a result, the characteristic features of negative romanticism are people who find

themselves in desperate situations, often cosmically and socially alienated and usually

haunted by guilt and/or other negative emotions (cf. Peckham 1951: 20). They are further

depicted as perpetrators of appalling crimes who have lost their connection and relationship to

god, their environment and other individuals and hopelessly wander the earth (ibid.). Terror,

confusion and uncertainty encompasses their lives and the writers of negative romanticism

often find themselves in similar situations and express their own attitude towards the world

and the universe in their texts (cf. Adams 1952: 430). Many literary scholars have classified

negative romanticist writers as weak individuals, sick humans and neurotics but their position

in the romantic movement is nonetheless absolutely justified and undisputed and not only

psychiatric, but also philosophical reasons provide the inspiration for their morbid and

negative works (ibid.). Adams (1952: 431-32) further states that the majority of American

romanticists did not fully achieve and complete the shift to thinking in dynamic organicism

and most of them stayed static mechanists or negative romanticists which was caused by “the

relatively long persistence of Puritan and Fundamentalist theology, by the overwhelming

predominance of middle-class commercial interests, and more recently by the tremendous

growth of technological skill and industrial power”.

It is evident that Poe’s literature does not correspond to the notions of positive romanticism

but in contrast matches the characteristics of negative romanticism perfectly. He

predominantly addressed negatively connoted themes of crime, terror, incest, burial alive and

forbidden knowledge and was obsessed with the Gothic tradition and the works of Byron (cf.

Adams 1952: 430). However, his unequivocal interest and high regard of Keats and Coleridge

inspired him to adopt formal traits of their style of writing and made him apparently romantic;

he partially accepted an “organic theory of form in literature” and relied on “symbolism to

express ideas and feelings of which he [was] largely unconscious and apparently very much

afraid” (Adams 1952: 430). Moreover, Adams (1952: 431) states that his “inadvertent self-

expression through symbolism” classifies him as a romantic and that his “fear of self-

expression, his insistence on the purely conscious and intentional character of his work [..]

and his very superficial notion of originality” mark him as a negative romanticist. Other

scholars such as Parrington (1970: 55) identified Poe as a “romantic concerned only with

twilight melancholy” who followed quite an extraordinary form of romanticism.

Poe’s typical theme of terror, his living universe and his innate love of contradiction are

characteristic elements of his style of writing. Terror is a recurring theme in Poe’s stories and

unequivocally one of his most prominent trademarks. Mauclair (as cited in Finholt 1973: 357)

states that Poe’ was actually an “ideologue”, a philosopher determined to unlock the “secret of

the world” and in Poe’s case the key to achieve that was terror. “Mauclair insists that the

element of terror in Poe’s stories is not an end in itself, but only a theme, a pretext. Fear acts

as a great mainspring of the psychological life, and only for this reason was Poe fascinated by

it” (ibid.). Experiencing terror has a powerful impact on the mind and body and one is faced

with agonizing emotions such as dread, intense fear, apprehension and may feel utterly

powerless about his surroundings and the situation. “Poe’s elimination of supernatural

elements and reliance on the vices of man to connote a tone of evil that is palpable due to

existing in the realm of plausibility creates a level of terror too close to reality” (cf. Artifice,

online). Thus, the evilness becomes extremely relatable and realistic and often evokes

frightening levels of terror in the reader. Another characteristic aspect of Poe’s literary

techniques is the assumption of a living universe, which “proceeds from a normal and right

state of unity through an abnormal and wrong phase of diversity to its original unity again, the

whole process being an absolutely orderly and logical result of a single act of will on the part

of God” (Adams 1952: 431). Adams (ibid.) argues that life and death are one in Poe’s

metaphysical view, which stems from the attempt of thinking in dynamic organicism but

failing to analyze in that way as well, namely organically and not statically, like if it were a

machine. Although Poe’s works seem inconsistent and contradictory and Silverman (1992:

77) claims that “his simultaneous belief and unbelief, finally, produces not only beings and

landscapes at once living and dead, but such other derivatives as images of things at once

conscious and unconscious, near and far, present and absent, lost and inalienable, […]”, one

has to consider that these expressions were deliberate and were rooted in Poe’s “innate love of

contradictions, which is a further vital element of Poe’s literary techniques.

3.3 Romantic theme of nature

During the Age of Enlightenment, rationalism, empiricism and thinking in terms of static

mechanism determined the view of nature, which gave rise to a radical shift of the perception

of nature in Romanticism. Nature was merely seen as an object to fulfill economic and

industrial goals; it was commodified and used as a resource in exploitative activities, such as

mining, and solely served the underlying objective of achieving progress and advance the

human race. This anthropocentric view of nature was challenged and in Romanticism

“attitudes changed and nature became something to be experienced rather than used for one’s

own ends, the nurturing and restorative effects of nature becoming a soothing panacea to the

discordant influence of industrialization” (McCauley 2010, online). The perception of nature

evolved from a static mechanism for material ends to a dynamic organicism, which had the

power to affect individual human beings on a much deeper and spiritual level. Many scholars

accredit French philosopher and writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) the position of the

‘Father’ of Romantic Naturalism and his perception of nature is exemplified by the popular

quote of Emile (1762): “Everything is good as it comes from the hands of the Author of

Nature; but everything degenerates in the hands of man” (Rousseau 2003: 1). Brown (2001:

31) reflected on that quote and added that “for many Romantics, their chosen image of

creative Genius was the plant, germinating from its seed in its own cycle of life. It obeyed

natural law, and could be stunted only by outside intervention”. This ‘outside intervention’

clearly refers to the exploitative procedure of man regarding nature during the Age of

Enlightenment.

It is crucial to acknowledge that there was not one ideal way of depicting nature during

Romanticism and there were a plethora of different and individual views, although the

underlying motives were very similar and always relied on the experience of the individual

with nature and “[…] demonstrate[d] a heightened sensitivity and communion [between the

individual and] the natural world” (McCauley 2010, online). According to Oerlemans (2004:

33), one commonality and characteristic of Romantic nature is that its description exceeds

empirical means and enables the broadening and finding of ones consciousness in the natural

world , which is exemplified by Wordsworth who “pays a much finer attention to his own

mind than to the natural world around him, and that he uses nature to transcend materiality to

discover a universal spirituality which the development of his own consciousness

exemplifies”. Whitehead (as cited in Hoffmann 1952: 259) delved even deeper into the matter

and identified six distinctive notions of romantic nature poetry, (which are also applicable to

other romantic text types) which aim to describe the thinking of nature in dynamic

organicism; namely ‘change, value, eternal objects, endurance, organism and interfusion’ and

challenge scientific materialism and perception of nature as a static mechanism. Change can

refer to a multitude of natural processes, such as the change of the seasons, flood and ebb,

night and day, climate change or on a microlevel simply to the growth of a seed to a full-

grown tree. It constitutes dynamic organicism extremely well and illustrates the beauty and

power of nature. The notion of ‘value’ in Romanticism refers to the valuable effects and gifts

of nature on man, but rather on a spiritual level than on a scientific and material level as it was

during the Age of Enlightenment. ‘Eternal objects’ and ‘endurance’ are very contradictory

notions with regard to nature, since nothing is permanent. However, it may refer to the

illusion of permanence humans have when they immerse themselves into nature. They look at

the sky and see the clouds, they take a walk on the countryside and see meadows and trees,

they sit by a river and see the flowing water. All of this conveys the notion of eternity and

endurance, when in fact every single one of those processes is under constant change, but

humans are simply not able to conceive that change. “We can only compare the remembrance

of the past with the present-we might remember the sapling and the see the full grown tree, or

we might remember the mature tree and see the fallen one, its roots dry, its trunk rotten”

(Hoffmann 1952: 259). The extent of importance of each of the individual notions for the

works of different romantic authors are extremely varied. While Wordsworth was mostly

concerned with the endurance and permanence of nature, exemplified by his prevalent setting

of hills and disregard of the change of the seasons, Shelley “thinks of nature as changing,

dissolving, transforming as it were at a fairy’s touch […]. This is one aspect of nature, its

elusive change: a change not merely to be expressed by locomotion, but a change of inward

character; […] a change of what cannot die” (Whitehead 2011: 87). The American

counterparts such as Bryant and Cole “often turned to nature as a symbol of permanence

amidst change and as a refuge from a crass, materialistic civilization” (Sanford 1957: 441).

Their most distinctive natural symbols of permanence in change were trees and waterfalls

which represented “eternal change and everlasting duration” (Sanford 1957: 446).

The concept of the sublime is an additional perspective on nature in Romanticism and

correlates strongly with the effect of nature on man. It was originally introduced by the

English philosopher Edmund Burke (1729-1797) and shortly after established itself as a

fundamental concept in the perception and depiction of nature in romantic literature, which

was adopted by many American writers as well. It is further one of the key concepts in Poe’s

Descent into the Maelstrom and therefore crucial to thoroughly examine and understand. The

sublime elicits feelings of awe, horror, elation and fear and forms of nature and natural

phenomenon (e.g. ocean, mountains) are the cause of a sublime experience. Burke (1998:

102) presented an effective exemplification of the sublime with a juxtaposition between the

central concept of terror and the enormousness of the sea:

No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear. For fear being

an apprehension of pain and death, it operates in a manner that resembles actual pain. Whatever

therefore is terrible, with regard to sight, is sublime too, whether this cause of terror, be endured with

greatness of dimensions or not ... And to things of great dimension, if we annex an adventitious idea of

terror, they become without comparison greater. A level plain of a vast land, is certainly no mean idea;

the prospect of such a plain may be as extensive as a prospect of the ocean; but can it ever fill the mind

with any thing so great as the ocean itself? This is owing to several causes, but it is owing to none more

than this, that the ocean is an object of no small terror. Indeed terror is in all cases whatsoever, either

openly or latently the ruling principle of the sublime.

According to Burke (1998: 96), terror evokes the strongest psychological response of the

human mind and no other emotion can elicit the same result, which “is due to the fact that the

weak or moderated states of pain or terror, which sublime objects arouse are ones which cause

a healthy invigoration of those finer bodily tissues upon which the mental powers act”.

However, it is important to note that that the sublime itself is not terror, but either something

terrible, associated with something terrible, or acts upon us like the terrible (cf. Weiskel 1976:

87). This could be interpreted as a decentralization and a decrease of the significance of the

object (nature) and that nature and natural phenomena are not inherently terrorizing and only

bring terror when in contact with subjects (humans). As opposed to terror, beauty would not

lead to a stimulation of the mind and would have the opposite effect, evoking calmness and

mental inaction. Therefore, terror is one of the key principles of the sublime.

Another important concept is the ultimate effect on man in face of the sublime, namely self-

preservation. When in a situation of extreme distress and terror, as in the sublime, man loses

self-control and is absolutely overpowered, which triggers the instinct of self-preservation and

may lead to unspeakable and egoistical actions, to save one’s own life. Ryan (2001: 277)

further adds that “the sublime leads not to an exaltation of our soul or of our mind but to the

strengthening of our body, to a strong nervous system, which ultimately compels us to

action”. However, Kant and other scholars hold an opposing view and argue that the sublime

experience may indeed lead to an intense self-presence and exaltation, which could even go as

far as to reach a state of transcendence of the self (cf. Ryan 2001: 266).

The theme of a storm-tossed boat in the sea plays a prominent and typical role in the sublime

experience. The massive scale, vastness and perils of the sea establish it as the perfect setting

in the sublime and consequently it has become one of the major natural phenomena in

association with a sublime experience. Even though a calm and peaceful ocean may already

elicit feelings of terror in some, since the fear of drowning or being killed by creatures of the

sea is imminent, Burke (1998: 100) emphasizes that “these waters must be troubled before

they can exert their [real] virtues”, which suggests that a stormy sea has increased value and

has a much more powerful effect on the subject (man). In Romanticism, older means of

technology merely enabled a confrontation between man (subject) and sea (object) with a

mechanical device called boat or with the body itself, in form of drowning or swimming, the

latter being unlikely since the majority of people could not swim. Thus, in order to describe

the experience of man and ocean, the theme of the storm-tossed boat was born. Eitner (1955:

287) states that “the symbolism of the storm-tossed boat is ancient and familiar [and was]

used to dramatize man’s struggle against fate or against nature, or to point up the need for

salvation […]”. This statement introduces three ideas, which are to a varying degree

significant and provide room for analysis in the context of man and the sublime experience

(nature) in Romanticism. Firstly, “man’s struggle against fate” refers to the philosophical

doctrine fatalism, which suggests that events are fixed in advance so that human beings are

powerless to change them (Merriam-Webster dictionary). This notion is not in accordance

with Burke’s view of the sublime experience, because the instinct of self-preservation is

counter-intuitive and atypical for a fatalist approach, which would rather affect the subject

(man) to submit itself to nature and embrace its fate. As discussed above, Burke’s principle of

self-preservation in a sublime experience would imply the opposite, namely fighting and

preserving one’s life with oftentimes unspeakable actions. Although fatalism is not very

typical in a sublime context, it still has its place in romantic literature and will be considered

as a possible drive of the protagonist’s actions in the analysis section of this paper. Secondly,

“man’s struggle against nature” implies the traditional sublime notion of man, as a subject,

against nature as an object and has been thoroughly examined by now. The third notion, “to

point up the need for salvation”, is highly relevant and is in accordance with Kant’s view of

the sublime, which operates more on a spiritual level than on a physical one, and could lead to

transcendence and salvation of the self.

Another crucial aspect of the sublime is the assumption that nature is not inherently dangerous

and terrorizing but rather indifferent to humanity. Nature in the sublime event should be seen

as an indifferent spectacle (or object), which only causes terror in the mind of the spectator

(subject) (cf. Riding 2013, online). Jonathan Lamb (1995: 10) writes that “despite the frequent

assertion to the contrary by eighteenth-century landscape specialists, there is no sublime

environment, no phenomenon in nature that can claim an intrinsic part in these intensities, or

pretend to be a cause or end of them”. To illustrate this point, Lamb (1995: 10-11) quoted

from Kant’s Critique of Judgment (1790):

Thus the broad ocean agitated by storms cannot be called sublime ... All we can say is that the object

lends itself to presentation of a sublimity discoverable in the mind. For the sublime, in the strict sense of

the word, cannot be contained in any sensuous form.

This quotation emphasizes that the sublime experience is only possible when humans

(spectators) immerse themselves in the spectacle of nature, spiritually as well as physically.

Nature on its own is unequivocally indifferent to humanity and has merely a form of modified

power. By contrast, romanticists believed that the power of god was unmodified and could set

limits to the power of nature. “The immanentism of the American Romantics appears in their

view of God as present throughout the world, realizing his divine purpose through natural

processes” (Bevir 1995: 879).

4. The relationship between A Descent into the Maelstrom and

Romanticism

4.1 general

The perception of nature as a dynamic organicism and the organic relationship between man

and nature are undeniably represented in Poe’s Descent into the Maelstrom and characterize

the text as a typical romantic short story. Nature is unequivocally represented as a dynamic

organicism, since most of Peckham’s (see chapter 3.1) key values of a typical romantic

dynamic-organicism-thinking such as change, diversity, creative imagination and the

unconscious are extremely palpable in the story. In the close reading section, natural

phenomena have been established as extremely versatile and prone to rapid change (e.g.

steady breeze / furious wind; calm sea / Maelstrom), which underlines the dynamic

organicism of nature. The diversity of the different natural phenomena and their organic

relationship to man are represented through their different power levels, but also through their

contrasting effect on man, which ranges from a nourishing and supportive effect (fish in the

sea, wind for movement) to an ultimately lethal effect (death in the Maelstrom). The creative

imagination is represented by the curiosity of the mariner to explore the depths of the

Maelstrom and his speculations: “I must have been delirious-for I even sought amusement in

speculation upon the relative velocities of their several descents toward the foam below” (Poe.

Descent into the Maelstrom 11). The final value of the ‘unconscious’ is represented by the

appreciation of dying in such a beautiful manifestation of god (Maelstrom) and additionally

through the actions of his brother who entirely lost the ability of rational-decision making.

The application of Wellek’s (1949) criteria (see chapter 3.1) of Romanticism on the text, is

another method to definitively prove the romantic character of A Descent into the Maelstrom.

The primary criteria which will be regarded for this analysis is the ‘imagination for the view

of poetry’ and a ‘symbol of myth for poetic style’. These criteria are represented by the

curiosity and desire of the mariner to explore the depths of the Maelstrom and the sadness of

potentially not being able to tell anyone about it. Sweeney (1973: 23) argues that the

significance about the sailor’s desire to explore the Maelstrom is aesthetic rather than

scientific and “his desire to explore the depths, even at the price of death, is actually a desire

to experience more and more beauty [,] thus the sailor is essentially a high poetic man”. He

(ibid.: 22) further states that the mariner merely survives this horrible endeavor because of his

“poetic appreciation of Nature, not through his rational comprehension of it” and the

assumption of a poetic function in the mariner is further underpinned by the support and

complementation of the first narrator’s outside frame-tale, which apparently gives the inside

frame of the mariner credibility. However, considering the three crucial observations of the

mariner one might argue that he relies on reason to survive the Maelstrom, but on a closer

look it is rather the “rational element of Taste, whereby an order is sensed and thus Beauty

poetically perceived” and a “poetical-truthful-symmetrical instinct, that ultimately enables

him to save himself” (Sweeney 1973: 23). Moreover, Silverman (1993: 167) states that for

Poe “poetry aims at representing beauty” and beauty should be supernal and from above,

which is exactly the type of beauty which is represented in the Maelstrom. The narration of

the tale is a further indicator for the use of ‘imagination for the view of poetry’ and the poetic

character of the mariner, since the termini (“sphere” and cylinder”) for his observation are

only borrowed after the incident from a local school master and he cannot recite the actual

scientific observation of the natural phenomenon of the Maelstrom, which emphasizes the

insignificance of science: “poetry is the sole requisite, and it is to poetry that the sailor resorts

in order to narrate his experience” (ibid.). The usage of a plethora of tropes in connection to

the experience of the Maelstrom is additional evidence for the poetic imagination and

appreciation of the mariner: the boat is “the lightest feather of a thing that ever sat upon

water”; it rids itself of the water “just as a dog does in coming out of the water” ; it floats like

“like an air-bubble upon the surface of the surge”; the Maelstrom as “mountainous”; a “wide

waste of liquid ebony”; and the sound is “a kind of shrill shriek” like “the waterpipes of many

thousand steam-vessels letting off their steam all together”. (cf. ibid.)

Another distinctive characteristic of the text is the prominent theme of terror vs. lucidity,

which further corresponds strongly to Poe’s style of writing and Romanticism. The first page

of the story already introduces the theme of terror and its effect on man: “[…] and the six

hours of deadly terror which I then endured have broken me up body and soul” (1).

Throughout the story, terror is the driving force behind the unfolding of the plot and climaxes

in the encounter with the Maelstrom. Moreover, Quinn (as cited in Finholt 1973: 357) states

that the obsessive psychological interest of Poe with terror, “the dark torment of nightmare”

stands in a dialectical opposition to the “lucid and inquiring”, which functions as a pre-

disposition focused on intellect “to bring up to the surface of consciousness the kind of

submerged emotional life that the intelligence prefers to ignore”. Finholt (ibid.) identifies the

dialectic between terror and lucidity as the “motivating center” of A Descent into the

Maelstrom. As the mariner and his brother dive into the Maelstrom, a force parallel and

equally powerful to the one of the natural phenomenon awakens in the mariner, which

apparently stems from his “submerged emotional life” and is capable of clenching his eyelids

together “as if in a spasm”. The force is classified as “terror” and he comes to the conclusion

that it has “unmanned” him and forcefully robs him of “action or reflection”. “Terror, then,

has the power to strip a man of his powers of lucid inquiry and rational action [and is a

recurring motif in Poe’s stories]” (Finholt 1973: 357). However, the mariner possesses a form

of stoic self-control which gives him power over his fate at all times and ultimately leads to a

state of lucidity in the middle of a nightmarish happening (cf. ibid: 359). The Stoics hold the

belief that regardless of how terrible the situation is one finds himself in, one has invariably

the power to gain freedom. Seneca (2014: 139) illustrates this with an example of Spartan,

who was taken prisoner and furiously exclaimed ‘I shall not be a slave!’ before killing himself

by dashing his head against a wall and ultimately gaining freedom. In the story, the dialectical

opposition describes the state of terror in the mariner’s brother in contrast to the state of

lucidity in the mariner. The terrorized brother, who so desperately attempts to save his life,

dies; and the mariner who submits himself to what fortune has in store for him and rationally

accepts it, saves it. (cf. Finholt 1973: 358)

The wise person is still not harmed by the storms of life— poverty, pain, and the rest. For not all his

works are hindered but only those that pertain to others. He is himself, always, in his actions, and in the

doing of them he is greatest when opposed by fortune. For it is then that he does the business of wisdom

itself, which as we just said is his own good as well as that of others. (Letters 85.37, online)

According to Finholt (ibid.), “this dynamic, in varying forms, can be seen operating in many

of Poe’s stories […]; the moral tension is between chaos and control, emotion and reason, and

the movement of the hero’s mind is between the freeze-framed, nightmarish paralysis of terror

and the purposeful activity of lucidity”. While the mariner’s brother is constantly paralyzed

by the terror of the Maelstrom and dies, the mariner transitions from a chaotic state of terror

to a controlled state of lucidity, in which he “hope[s] no more” and “got rid of a great deal of

terror which unmanned me at first” (9).

Aspects of negative as well as positive Romanticism are represented in the text and are further

characteristic elements of Poe’s style of writing. As already discussed in the theory section,

Poe predominantly belonged to the group of negative Romanticists who adopted some

concepts of positive Romanticism (see chapter 3.2). The mariner and his brother embody the

desperation, alienation and the predominant feeling of terror, which is extremely typical for

negative Romanticism, extremely well. However, Poe’s ‘living universe’, which is a dynamic

process and characteristic of positive Romanticism, is also demonstrated in the story. To

recap, the living universe describes the process of proceeding “from a normal and right state

of unity through an abnormal and wrong phase of diversity to its original unity again” and

every stage is based on the will of god (Adams 1952: 431). Firstly, the normal and right state

of unity is presented at the beginning of the story in which the mariner and his brother start

their fishing endeavor in a seemingly static environment and with a static perception of

nature. Secondly, they are confronted with the powerful and ominous Maelstrom, which

represents the abnormal and wrong phase of diversity; and thirdly the fisherman is saved and

eventually tells the story on a mountain in its original unity again. The second stage is usually

highlighted and presents the main part of the story. In the second stage of A Descent into the

Maelstrom, the mariner actually realizes the living and dynamic nature of the universe and

appreciates god for the beautiful manifestation of his power, in which he is fortunate enough

to die. “The essence of his lucidity is a truer perspective of the nature of the universe and his

own ordered place in it” (‘Finholt 1973: 359). He discovers “‘how magnificent a thing it was

to die in such a manner, and how foolish it was in me to think of so paltry a consideration as

my own individual life, in view of so wonderful manifestation of God’s power’”. On top of

that, the third stage is already foreshadowed by the outside frame of the narrative, which

reveals that the mariner survived the plight in the Maelstrom.

4.2 nature

A Descent into the Maelstrom challenges the perception of nature in the Age of

Enlightenment and functions as a metaphor against the destructive and exploitative methods,

while simultaneously representing romantic values of nature. At first, the mariner and his

brother seek out into the sea to utilize it for economic purposes, particularly to gain capital

(fish) and they further perceive nature as a commodity and a static mechanism. They are

aware of certain risks but nonetheless venture into the most dangerous spots to avoid

excessive labor; “the risk of life standing instead of labor, and courage answering for capital”.

The mariner transcends to an enlightened (careful: does not refer to the Age of

Enlightenment) person in the midst of the Maelstrom, when he reaches the state of lucidity

(see above), and accomplishes the shift from thinking in terms of static mechanism to thinking

in terms of dynamic organicism. He starts to see nature as something to be experienced and as

a beautiful manifestation of god, which even elicits curiosity in the mariner, despite certain

death. He utterly submits himself to nature and establishes a strong bond, which exemplifies a

highly romantic perception of nature. “The Romantic notion of connecting with and

submitting to nature was a very personal, introspective and individual response” (McCauley

2010, online). Ruskin (62) adds that “nature will show you nothing if you set yourself up for

her to master. But forget yourself, and try to obey her, and you will find obedience easier and

happier than you think”. This quote emphasizes the power of nature on man and challenges

the Enlightenment notion of nature that it is something men can control, exploit and use for

greedy and egoistical plans. Additionally, the central notions of romantic writing (see

Whitehead 3.3) are exceedingly featured in the text. Firstly, ‘change’ (see close reading) is

represented through the rapid change of natural phenomena such as the wind or the sea. The

‘value’ of nature is represented on a spiritual and material level. On the material level, which

is less important for a romantic perception, value is represented by the nourishing factor of the

sea and by the dependence of man on certain natural phenomena (wind to enable movement).

On the spiritual level, value is represented by the enlightening and luscious effect of the

Maelstrom on the mariner as well as by the moon, which is capable of maintaining a luscious

sight of the scenery despite the greater distance (see close reading). ‘Eternal objects’ and

‘permanence’ are represented by the sea, the sky and the moon. As discussed in Chapter 3.3,

these notions seem rather contradictory in connection to natural processes from an outside

perspective but gain much more significance and rationality when perceived by the individual.

If one is immersed in nature, for instance by sailing the seas, one experiences a feeling of

permanence and eternity. In A Descent into the Maelstrom, the mariner accredits these values

to the sky, which further symbolizes the gateway to heaven, but also to the sea and the moon,

which eternally rises at night. The values ‘organism’ and ‘interfusion’ are further represented

by the organic relationship between man and nature and the varying effect of nature on man.

It is crucial to understand that there is not one static effect of one individual natural

phenomenon on man. On the contrary, it is a dynamic organicism and can transition from a

supporting role (wind; calm sea which provides fish) to a destructive role (tempest;

maelstrom) and it even further varies between individual human beings (see terror vs

lucidity). The ‘interfusion’ is also represented by the fusion and collaborating of individual

natural phenomena (e.g. the sea and the wind create a maelstrom); but also by the bond of

nature and the individual, which is exemplified by the scene with the moon, the mariner and

the Maelstrom, in which he gains a greater appreciation of the value of nature and submits

himself to become one with it.

Moreover, Poe uses subtle symbolism to disprove the reliability of science, as it was

perceived in the Age of Enlightenment. At first, the mariner holds a rigid view of nature,

which is dominated by rationality and practicality, and which is exemplified by relying on his

watch to plan his leaving of the dangerous sea area. “By employing a man-made instrument

and the arbitrary measurements (minutes and hours) it produces, the sailor seems to expect

something of chaos: he expects it to act in a certain way, according to his technologically

measured design” (Sweeney 1973: 22). However, the mariner does not take into account that

technology is not invariably flawless and may in fact fail, which is exemplified by the broken

watch which ultimately causes the boat to get caught in the maelstrom. The one thing that is

supposed to keep them from danger and get them out in time is responsible for their misery,

which marks the watch as the first “apt symbol of the unreliability of technology” (Ware

1992: 78). Furthermore, the decision to choose the ringbolt as an object for support to escape

the destructive Maelstrom does also not stem from rationality as the protagonist’s statement

proves: “It was mere instinct that prompted me to do this-which was undoubtedly the very

best thing I could have done-for I was too much flurried to think” (586). Finally, the

calculating observations during his descent are neither conclusively substantiated and are

identified as “invariable miscalculation[s]” (592) later in the story. (cf. ibid.)

4.3 sublime

The final part of this section will illustrate, how the key concept of the sublime is represented

in A Descent into the Maelstrom and how salient aspects of the sublime, such as the emotional

effect on man, self-preservation, a state of transcendence etc. are demonstrated.

Firstly, the typical sublime feelings of terror, awe, elation and fear are demonstrated in the

fishermen, when they are confronted with the Maelstrom. The mere mentioning of the

‘Moskoe-ström’ from one of the mariner’s brothers, marks the beginning of an intensive

sublime experience, which initially elicits a feeling of terror in the mariner. “‘No one ever will

know what my feelings were at that moment. I shook from head to foot as if I had the most

violent fit of the ague’ “. This statement exemplifies the immense power of terror, as can be

seen in the theory section, which evokes the strongest psychological response of the human

mind (cf. Burke 1998: 96). On top of that, this scene perfectly illustrates that the natural

phenomenon is not inherently terrorizing, since the fishermen are not even caught in it yet, but

it rather emanates a terrible aura for the fishermen and is associated with something terrible;

“I knew what he meant by that one word well enough” (7). Merely the word of the natural

phenomenon and the expected outcome when in contact terrorizes the fishermen, which could

to a certain extent even occur when they would be on land and in no imminent danger.

McCauley (2010, online) further describes man “as inconsequential and feeble in the face of

nature’s manifestations” and that for man potentially threatening natural phenomena may

elicit “a sense of vastness, ruggedness, darkness and gloom”. The aspect of darkness is clearly

demonstrated by the mariner’s remark that it “became suddenly so dark that we could not see

each other in the smack” (7). As the fishermen eventually make direct contact with the

Maelstrom, awe and admiration complement the feeling of terror and the emotional state of

the protagonist turns into a “delightful terror” (Burke), which is a prominent aspect of the

sublime. This is illustrated by realization of the protagonist that the boat appears to be

hanging in the whirl: “‘Never shall I forget the sensations of awe, horror, and admiration with

which I gazed about me.’“ (10).

Another salient feature of the sublime experience is the effect of self-preservation, which may

lead to the loss of rationality and can induce terrible actions. This concept is vividly depicted

in A Descent into the Maelstrom. The first time the act of self-preservation occurs is when the

fishermen approach the Maelstrom and the protagonist lets go of the foresail and throws

himself on the deck and grasps a ringbolt close to the fore-mast. “It was mere instinct that

prompted me to do this-which was undoubtedly the very best thing I could have done” (7). In

this example, self-preservation appears to have a positive effect, since the mariner could go

overboard if he did not grab the ringbolt. Conversely, self-preservation may also induce

negative actions, which is illustrated by the brother of the mariner. As the fishermen approach

the edge of the Maelstrom, the protagonist’s brother reaches for the ringbolt the protagonist is

holding for support and attempts to push his brother away, which exemplifies an utterly

egoistical and horrible attempt to save one’s own life and sacrifice the life of one’s brother

instead: “As we approached the brink of the pit he let go his hold upon this, and made for the

ring, from which, in the agony of his terror, he endeavored to force my hands, as it was not

large enough to afford us both a secure grasp” (9). This act is in accordance with Burke’s (as

cited in Ryan 2001: 270) fundamental effect of the sublime which is the exclusion of the

power of reason, which may hinder and paralyze one’s rational capacity tremendously and

may cause unspeakable acts. In response to the dreadful deed of the brother, the protagonist

assert that “I never felt deeper grief than when I saw him attempt this act-although I knew he

was a madman when he did it-raving maniac through sheer fright” (10), which shows that he

even identifies the cause of his brother’s deed and acknowledges that he cannot necessarily be

blamed for it. Another prime example of an effect of self-preservation, which ironically

results in the complete opposite, namely death, is the literal paralysis of the protagonist’s

brother despite attempts of the mariner to make him aware of a potential way of survival: “I

attracted my brother’s attention by signs, pointed to the floating barrels that came near us, and

everything in my power to make him understand what I was about to do” (12). Nevertheless,

his brother is incapable of a seemingly counter-intuitive action, which was jumping into the

water and live, and instinctively keeps a tight grip on the ringbolt and dies. He is deceived by

a momentarily feeling of support and safety by the ringbolt and is ultimately killed by this

negative effect of self-preservation.

Furthermore, the state of transcendence and salvation is another key effect of the sublime

experience on man (see sublime, Kant) and is represented by the mariner and his experience

in the Maelstrom. After the initial instinctive self-preserving actions of the mariner and his

negative influence of terror, he starts to adopt a different attitude towards his situation and

utterly despairs and submits himself to nature, which diminishes the feeling of terror and

elicits a form of curiosity, awe and admiration (see “delightful terror”): “ ‘Having made up

my mind to hope no more, I got rid of a great deal of that terror which unmanned me at first’ “

(9). According to Egan (1982: 161), the mariner accepts his determined fate and “abandons

those scaled-down ‘models’ referred to in the story’s motto [and] revelation flows from this

act of self-abnegation”. He utterly rejects hope and realizes that any rational plan to escape

the Maelstrom is futile and “[…] when confronted with the total otherness of the Maelström,

man’s reason is indeed puny and impotent [,] so he arrives at a primary stage of

transcendence, of selflessness” (Sweeney 1973: 22). As a result, the mariner starts to gain

awareness of the beautiful manifestation of god and appreciates this way of dying; “how

magnificent a thing” it would be die in “so wonderful manifestation of God’s power” (9) and

“with nothing to gain, no reason to exert, no plan to formulate, no expectations to make, the

sailor can do something he has never really done before: he can look at the abyss with

detachment” (ibid.). Complementing the sublime experience in the Maelstrom, the moon is

emanating a “flood of golden glory”, which produces a “gleaming and ghastly radiance” in

the reflection of the ebony walls of the vortex. Additionally, the whole focus of the mariner is

on the “general burst of terrific grandeur” (10), and the appreciation of this beautiful but also

chaotic natural phenomenon denies the mariner’s downfall into madness and symbolizes a

“preliminary step towards achieving salvation” (Sweeney 1973: 22).

The sailor’s perception of the beauty of the Maelström is a prerequisite to salvation in that such

perception im- plies a recognition, even if non-rational, of an order and symmetry in the abyss. Not an

aesthetician, the sailor is nonetheless aesthetic in that he appreciates beauty where he sees it. The beauty

cannot be described in rational terminology, but still, since it is beauty, it is-although totally alien--

orderly. (ibid.)

Finholt (1973: 365) further underpins the assumption of the attainment of salvation since in

the very moment the mariner starts to gain a desire to explore the depths of the Maelstrom and

submits himself to his imminent death, “he achieves the pace of the unparticled state and he is

moving toward ultimate reunification with God”. Additionally, Finholt (ibid.) identifies a

moral issue, developed by Poe, that “[…] man seems to have the capability to purify his

thought, to vibrate in tune with God’s thought, while still revolving on the brink of the abyss,

on this side of ultimate reunification.”. By the reunification, man becomes capable of freeing

himself from the terror and it further positively supports the regaining of rationality and can

even influence the outcome of his destiny, through acting in line with god’s thoughts (cf. ibid:

366).

The storm-tossed boat, another prominent theme of the sublime experience is literally and

unequivocally represented in A Descent into the Maelstrom. The text even expands the

boundaries of this theme and develops it into a storm-tossed boat being sucked into a

Maelstrom, which is even more powerful than a storm on its own. It is the perfect symbol to

depict the struggle of man verses nature and further illustrates the almighty power of god.

Additionally, it provides the ideal underlying catalyst to enable salvation and transcendence of

the self and also introduces fatalism, which is exemplified by the protagonist when he gives

up on his brother and leaves him on the storm-tossed boat; “[…] I resigned him to his fate

[…]” (12).

Moreover, the aspect of the sublime experience that nature is indifferent to man, as long as

god does not modify it in any way, is illustrated in the text. The Maelstrom occurs multiple

times through any given year and the natural spectacle only becomes dangerous when man

(the spectator) immerses himself into it. The fishermen advertently decide to fish in a zone

which is known to carry certain risks and yet they ignore them, which ultimately brings them

into their desperate situation. Additionally, if the Maelstrom was inherently bad it would not

ever release one of the fishermen after they have been sucked into it. Nature does not

differentiate between a cask or a man in that particular example, and brings them both to the

surface after the gyrations of the whirl have stopped.

5. Close Reading: The Open Boat

First of all, the full title of the text The Open Boat: A tale intended to be after the fact. Being

the experience of four men sunk from the steamer Commodore and its opening paragraph

already signify the central role of nature in the text. The story appears to be about men in a

shipwreck situation and their fight for survival. The opening paragraphs already introduce the

plight of men in their tiny boat amidst the massive waves “that seemed thrust up in points like

rocks”. The omniscient narrator further introduces the four characters of the story and

illustrates the different effect of nature on each of them. The cook seems to be rather anxious

that the boat might get overthrown and “squatted in the bottom with both eyes at the six

inches of gunwale which separated him from the oean” (1). The oiler is described as very

pragmatic and unaffected by nature and occasionally stands up to keep clear of the water. The

correspondent, on the other hand, steering the other oar watches the waves and wonders why

he ended up in such a terrible situation, which shows that nature has a stronger effect on him.

Lastly, the captain of the crew is lying injured in the boat and is initially described as rather

indifferent to the situation, which is shortly after refuted since he gives directions to the oiler

on how he should steer, which shows that he is still in command and takes responsibility over

his crew.

Another important aspect of nature in The Open Boat, which becomes already extremely vivid

in the first paragraphs, is the power of it, which is often depicted with an ominous undertone

or symbolism. In the second paragraph waves are described as “wrongfully and barbarously

abrupt and tall” and that each wave poses a problem to men, which exemplifies the sheer

force of this natural phenomenon. Waves are described as a “menace” (2) and “[…] that after

successfully surmounting one wave you discover that there is another behind it just as

important and just as nervously anxious to do something effective in the way of swamping

boats” (2). The ominous symbolism of nature is further depicted in the “grim water”, the

“snarling” (2), “huge, furious, implacable” (19) waves, the “wrath of the sea” (3), the surf’s

roar as “thunderous and mighty” (7) the “black waters” (14), “monstrous inshore rollers” (18)

and the vicious splashing. All these notions of the wave and the sea as inherently evil,

malicious and intentional in their process of generating power sound like an ethical reproach

of the narrator which should be taken ironically: “to a detached observer ocean waves are

neither right nor wrong, barbarous nor civilized; […] the sea is perhaps weirdly picturesque

or, as the correspondent comes finally to believe, merely indifferent” (Colvert 1958: 42), but

this aspect will be discussed later in the close reading analysis. It is also important to note that

not only the sea and the waves represent the power of nature, but also the wind, which is

exemplified by the “wind [which] tore through the hair” (3), “wind riven” (3) and by the

statement of the oiler that they are lucky to face an “on-shore wind” (3). Additionally, the

combination of the two natural phenomena, wind and sea, generates an “ominous slash” (17)

and affects them even more intensively. The current is a further natural process which has a

significant power over men and is describes as “deadly” (20) and the correspondent being in

the “grip of this strange new enemy-a current” (20).

The notion of the indifference of nature towards the lives of men is presented as one of the

central themes in Crane’s Open Boat and is unequivocally depicted in the story. In the course

of events, the correspondent ultimately makes the assumption that “[…] nature does not

regard him as important, and that she feels she would not maim the universe by disposing of

him […]” (15). Although the indifference of nature is hinted at and might be inferred by the

reader, the anger of the correspondent over his potential death suggests that he himself has not

grasped the concept at all and presents himself in an entitled and pretentious manner. He

states that is an “abominable injustice to drown a man who had worked so, so hard” (15) and

that it would be a “crime most unnatural” (15), which suggests that he does not accept the

notion of nature as a physical process that does not differentiate between individual human

beings and kills arbitrarily. Gendin (1995: 94) calls it the “blind, impersonal forces of nature”.

However, his statements are in line with the ominous and inherently evil depictions of natural

phenomena and are somewhat conclusive in that regard. According to Hilfer (2012: 251), “the

extended ellipsis of ‘but still-‘ indicates the absurdity of asking for an exemption from a

routine hazard. The greatest joke of the passage is the pun ‘a crime most unnatural’, as if large

waves and heavy surf were un-natural impositions”. The ultimate symbol of the indifference

of nature towards the plight of men is the windmill on the shore:

This tower was a giant, standing with its back to the plight of the ants. It represented in a degree, to the

correspondent, the serenity of nature amid the struggles of the individual nature in the wind, and nature

in the vision of men. She did not seem cruel to him then, nor beneficent, nor treacherous, nor wise. But

she was indifferent, flatly indifferent. It is, perhaps,plausible that a man in this situation, impressed with

the unconcern of the universe, should see the innumerable flaws of his life and have them taste wickedly

in his mind and wish for another chance. A distinction between right and wrong seems absurdly clear to

him, then, in this new ignorance of the grave-edge, and he understands that if he were given another

opportunity he would mend his conduct and his words, and be better and brighter during an

introduction, or at a tea. (p. 88)

In this passage, the correspondent has eventually grasped the concept of indifference (nature

as “indifferent, flatly indifferent”) and allocates peculiar features to nature (serenity of nature)

which stand in contrast to the rest of the story, in which nature is represented rather

ominously.

Another prominent aspect of the role of nature in the text is its multi-faceted character and

varied and sometimes contradictory perception and impact on man. As opposed to the

malicious description of nature, which is dominant at the beginning of the story, nature is

depicted as romantic and mysteriously beautiful at the end of the story (cf. Colvert 1958: 45):

“When it came night, the white waves paced to and fro in the moonlight, and the wind

brought the sound of the great sea’s voice to the men on shore, and they felt they then be

interpreters” (21). This scene of the story simultaneously introduces one underlying reason for

the various descriptions of nature and its impact, which are the different lenses through which

nature is perceived, since only in the end the surviving characters can be interpreters when

looking at the sea and are not directly immersed in it as before. From the point of the

omniscient narrator, nature even appears to be picturesque at times, which is exemplified by

his statement that “Viewed from a balcony, the whole thing would doubtlessly have been

weirdly picturesque” (2), since he is figuratively standing on a balcony and is not confronted

with the overwhelming powers of nature. By contrast, the men are directly immersed in nature

and thus the malicious perspective is most prominent at the beginning. Moreover, the two

contrasting images and perceptions of nature as hostile vs. nature as picturesque are already

introduced in the first two paragraphs “in which the contradictory ideas about the reality of

the sea are set up not only in direct, openly communicative statement, but also-and more

significantly-in the images of space, color and motion and in the rhythm, balance and tone of

the sentence” (Colvert 1958: 41).This is exemplified by the description of waves as “thrust up

in points like rocks” (1) and the “viewed from the balcony” scene. Although the hostile and

destructive view of nature dominates the character’s perspective of the sea and waves, they

also intentionally and consciously find comfort at one point, which is illustrated by the

correspondent who “touched the cold comfortable sea-water” (17) and lay to rest and on top

of that the sea which is once described as a “great soft mattress” (226). Other contradictory

perceptions of nature are depicted in the land, which on the one hand generously welcomes

the men and on the other hand symbolizes “the different and sinister hospitality of the grave”

for the oiler.

Additionally, the animals of an oceanic environment are also represented in contradictory

fashions. Firstly, the sea gulls are identified as allies of the hostile sea and which are

unaffected by the power of nature; “the wrath of the sea was no more to them than it was to a

covey of prairie chicken a thousand miles inland”. The men are rather helpless against the

malicious attack of one of the gull on the captain’s head, who “gently and carefully” attempts

to wave it away, which creates a connection to the oiler’s careful paddling with a “thin little

oar [which] seemed often ready to snap”. As the gulls approach the men, they stare at them

with “black beadlike eyes” and “struck their minds at this time as being somehow gruesome

and ominous”, which connotes a rather ominous and negative perception of the gulls.

However, in the course of the narrative, the perception of the gulls changes and they are seen

as “slanting flight up the wind toward the gray desolate east”, and it is then when they “seem

less a symbol of ineffable, perhaps demoniac malice, than a remote and beautiful design in

nature” (Colvert 1958: 43). The shark is another mammal which elicits extremely different

responses in the characters. For the correspondent, who notices the shark’s “enormous fin”

cutting “like a shadow through the water” is both astonished and terrified by this magnificent

creature. “Subjectively, it, like the gulls, a symbol of nature’s inscrutable malice; still, in his

despair and exhaustion, the correspondent can also see the shark objectively” (Colvert 1958:

43-44). Thus, he is not influenced and confronted with “the same horror that it would if he

had been a picknicker” and is mesmerized by “the speed and power of the thing [which] was

to be greatly admired”. Ultimately, the symbol of the shark changes once again and it

represents indifference, which is exemplified by the disappearance of the shark and

abandoning potential food: “The thing which had followed the boat and waited had evidently

grown bored at the delay. There was no longer to be heard the slash of cutwater, and there

was no longer the flame of the long trail”. (cf. ibid.)

Billingslea (1994: 33) further states that there is a so-called ‘three-fold view of nature’

(Marcus 1962), which describes the development of the men’s perception of nature, starting

with nature as ‘malevolently hostile, then as thoughtlessly hostile and finally as wholly

indifferent’. However, it is crucial to acknowledge that none of the different perceptions of

nature necessarily exclude the other, which is exemplified by the style of narration of the

detached narrator. The form of language and phrasing allows for “perceptual error” (ibid.:

42): To the men the waves merely “seemed thrust up in points like rocks”; the sea perceived

from a balcony would “doubtless” have been picturesque; it was “probably” splendid; it was

“probably” glorious and it merely “occurs” to a man that nature does not regard him as

important. As can be seen, there is a clear tentativeness and uncertainty palpable in the

narration and Colvert (ibid.: 43) states that “sometimes, […] the narrator seems to be in the

boat, seeing and feeling as intensely as the men […], [but] at other times he seems to be

observing their situation from afar, seeing it critically, dispassionately, or even mockingly”.

Hence, these conflicting points of view exceedingly promote the contradictory aspects of

nature.

The contrasting effects of nature on men and their resulting binary reactions towards it,

namely fight vs. submission, are another central theme of nature and affect the outcome of the

individual characters significantly. At first glance, one would invariably assume that ‘fight

against nature’ must have the upper hand between those two reactions and should yield better

results. However, this ‘common-sense’ assumption is effectively refuted in The Open Boat

and the conflicting reaction of submitting to nature is by far superior. It is evident, that on a

macro level and from a broader perspective, they are all fighting against nature, since

otherwise they would not try to navigate the boat out of the stormy sea and onto land and just

relinquish and let nature take its course. However, from a narrower perspective and on a

micro level, the individual reactions differ massively and at certain points submitting to nature

is the correct thing to do. Throughout the story, the sea is increasingly attributed with

positively connoted characteristics and a “nurturing imagery” (Rath & Shaw 1991: 103) is

created: the men are described as “babes of the sea”; on a boat which “snuggled deeper into

the sea” and their expressive comfort and pleasantness by the sea is depicted as “a great soft

mattress” or a “seawater couch”. According to Rath & Shaw (ibid.), a paradoxically stoic

submission to nature replaces the ominous and horrifying effect of nature and calms the men’s

spirit, which exemplifies the first advantage of submitting to nature, as opposed to fighting

against it. The second central incident, which accentuates the advantage of a submission to

nature occurs in the climax of the story, when the boat gets overthrown and the men attempt

to swim to shore. Three of the four characters, namely the correspondent, the cook and the

captain have apparently learned to interpret nature (“the great sea’s voice”), by their act of

submitting to it: the correspondent “paddle[s] leisurely” and is “caught […] and flung […]

with ease and supreme speed completely over the boat and far beyond it” by a massive wave

(90,91); the cook utilizes the floating effect of the sea and turns around on his back while

paddling “with an oar […] as if he were a canoe” (90); and the captain adopts a supportive

and guiding role and is depicted as a tamer of the sea, who not only teaches the cook and the

correspondent how to submit to nature but also finds support at the dinghy, “clinging with

hand to the keel of the dinghy”. By contrast to the submitting behaviors of the three discussed

characters, the oiler epitomizes the fight against nature and instead of giving in to the sea,

relies utterly on himself and fights: “[he] was ahead in the race. He was swimming strongly

and rapidly” (90), and ultimately dies. The isolating description of the sea as “cold, “sad” and

“tragic”, which occurs in a preceding paragraph, effectively foreshadows this outcome. (cf.

Rath & Shaw 1991: 104).

Another prominent aspect of the role of nature and its influence on man is the factor of

dependence. This is closely connected to the previously discussed aspect, that the submission

to nature is superior to the fight against nature, since through this submission the characters

are tremendously dependent on natural processes. For instance, when the correspondent stops

fighting against the current, since any attempt of escape is futile, but ultimately “a wave

perhaps whirled him out of this small deadly current” (20). Another more general example

would be the dependence on the natural process of the wind, which is a prerequisite for

effectively navigating the sea, and is illustrated by the oilers statement “Yes! If this wind

holds”, in order to reach the shore. Additionally, there is a continuing dependence on the

processes of the sea, which include tides, currents, waves and also oceanic animals to a small

extent (see Moby Dick for higher relevance). An illustration of these parameters would be the

statement “Tide, wind, and waves were swinging the dinghy northward” (7) and thus nature is

in absolute control of the direction of the boat. Another appropriate example would be the

wave, the “miracle of the sea”, which “flung [the correspondent] with ease and supreme speed

completely over the boat and far beyond it” (908), thus saving his life. Ironically, the same

wave might have killed the oiler by drowning him or shoving the dinghy against his head,

which further underlines the dependence of man on natural processes.

6. Naturalism

6.1 general: definitions, origins, main currents

Naturalism is a rather deceptive term and is immediately associated with the terms ‘nature’ or

‘naturalness’, which simplify the term and do not represent the actual complexity of it (cf.

Furst & Skrine 1971: 1). The Merriam-Webster Dictionary (online) defines ‘Naturalism’ as

”a) a theory denying that an event or object has a supernatural significance; b) realism in art

or literature; specifically: a theory or practice in literature emphasizing scientific observation

of life without idealization and often including elements of determinism”. This thesis is

particularly concerned with point b), the literary Naturalism and it is thus crucial to note that

Naturalism began as a sub branch of Realism and these two terms are still used

interchangeably by some, although they differ in some regard. Lars Ahnebrink (1950, as cited

in Gendin 1995: 90) offers a concise and interesting differentiation between the two terms:

1. Realism: a method of composition by which the author describes normal, average life in an

accurate, truthful way.

2. Naturalism: a method of composition by which the author portrays life as it is in

accordance with the philosophic theory of determinism. Such authors believe men lack free

will.

The literary Naturalism was established by the French writer and theorist, Emile Zola, who is

universally regarded as the founder of this literary movement, which was taking place from

1865 to 1900. In America, our focus of research, it was firstly introduced by the American

novelist Frank Norris. A further specific and widely accepted definition of American

Naturalism is that it is “essentially realism infused with a pessimistic determinism” (Pizer

1976: 11). Additionally, (biological) science, particularly the theories of Charles Darwin are

exceedingly influential; heredity and environment playing a significant role in American

Naturalism and determine one’s character and influence the behavior and belief of the subject.

The typical naturalist characters are consequently from the lower middle class or the middle

class and are tendentially poor, unsophisticated and uneducated. According to Pizer (1996:

66) the “naturalistic hero is usually inarticulate, devoid of deep subjectivity and moral

reflection, subject to poverty and suffering, the product of his biological makeup and

immediate environment, and the victim of inevitable sequence of events […]”. The fictional

world is further presented as rather unheroically and usually displays the commonplace. For

instance, in the US common settings were industrialized and thriving American cities, with a

focus on ethnically (at that times) conspicuous and different inhabitants. It is also crucial to

consider that “naturalism reflects an affirmative ethical conception of life, for it asserts the

value of all life by endowing the lowest character with emotion and defeat and with moral

ambiguity, no matter how poor or ignoble he may see” (Pizer 1976: 14). Thus, Naturalism

could serve as a tool to dramatize difficult times in America, both economically and

spiritually, and was utilized to accentuate social and intellectual issues at that time (cf. Pizer

1996: 14).

6.2 Crane

Stephen Crane (1871-1900) was one of the main representatives of the literary era of

Naturalism in America and his style of writing is characteristic of Naturalism, but also

includes some extraordinary elements, which made his style extremely unique. Walcutt (1956:

66) describes Crane’s works as a “unique flowering of pure naturalism”, although he

mentions that his form of Naturalism is characterized by certain restrictions and a special

sense and is undoubtedly comprised of naturalistically atypical elements. Nonetheless, he

displays a strong degree of consistency and coherency and is rightly so associated with

Naturalism as one of its main representatives. Crane is further classified as a pioneer in

American naturalist literature, who was the first American who effectively implemented a

“deterministic philosophy not confused with ethical motivation into the structure of the novel”

(ibid.). Walcutt (ibid.: 67) further elaborates on three key literary values of Crane: firstly, his

Naturalism is characterized by “his attitude toward received values, which he continually

assails through his naturalistic method of showing that the traditional concepts of our social

morality are shams and the motivations presumably controlled by them are pretenses”;

secondly, it is characterized by his impressionism and the resulting depiction of experiences

as fractioned phenomena which disprove the old moral order and do not adhere to a set of

rules; and thirdly it is characterized by his apparent interest in utilizing science and a

deterministic perception of characters and events in his narratives, which is not necessarily

embodied in his tone. The central focus of his works is invariably the action and the societal

and environmental situation the characters are embedded in, as opposed to the characters

themselves. Thus, he is unaffected by problems of divided stream since merely what happens

in the story is the only requirement to decipher meaning and his protagonists do not function

as authentically free ethical agent. (cf. ibid.: 67)

Crane’s style of writing is further characterized by his representation of the overpowering

effect of the environment on man and the resulting struggle between man and nature. His

characters are often located in destructive and challenging environments, which are used to

represent man’s struggle in an uncontrollable and deterministic universe. The environment is

often depicted to mold the lives of men, which is encouraged by isolated settings of the

narratives and which often results in a recognition of man of how insignificant and uncertain

their lives are. “All life, Crane appears to be saying, is a struggle, a constant sea of violence in

which we inevitably immerse ourselves and in which we test our beliefs and our values”

(Pizer 1976: 26).

Moreover, Crane’s imagery is advertently and consciously antiheroic and he applies the

technic of ironic deflation in his texts. This is exemplified by his satirical usage of images of

chivalry (a soldier “waving his [shirt] banner-like”) and also through his subtlety in

representing animalistic and mechanical images to cause a deflation of potential heroic

moment (cf. ibid.: 25). Crane’s “ironic imagination leads him to reverse the expected and to

find the commonplace in the violent rather than the sensational beneath the trivial” and he

further presents the human character as “predominantly fallible and self-deceptive” (ibid.: 27).

Another key characteristic of Crane’s work is his depiction and importance of the theme of

brotherhood in his narratives. The value of mutual trust and confidence between the

characters of his works is continuously represented and confirmed. If it is established and

fulfilled by the characters, it can give moral strength and support survival; whereas if it is

lacking and replaced by negative emotions such as fear or distrust it can have a detrimental

effect on the protagonist (see The Blue Hotel). Crane emphasizes the benefits of a fostering

social bond with others and thus “establishes a vital organic relationship between his deflation

of the traditional idea of courage and his assertion of the need for and the benefits of social

unity” (Pizer 1976: 29-30).

6.3 Key characteristics of Naturalism

6.3.1 Darwinism

In 1859, Charles Darwin published his Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, and

his presented theory of evolution became the most debated and controversial topic at that

time, which influenced the literary movement of Naturalism decisively. Darwin proposed the

thesis that man is descended from lower animals and that he is placed in a life of constant

struggle for his existence, in which natural selection occurs, the survival of the fittest in the

corresponding environment. The created notion of natural selection, which advocates the

superiority and power of the strong over the weak, contradicted the ideologies of every

religion and led to the “most radical self-assessment in human history” (Furst & Skrine 1971:

16). As a result, Darwin’s theories established themselves as the single most important

influencing factors in Naturalism. In stark contrast to the glorifying and idealizing depiction

of the individual in the preceding romantic era, man was suddenly put down to the level of a

mere animal, which had to primitively fight for his survival and was taken of all higher

aspirations.

Moreover, Darwin’s theories led to a recurrent animalistic imagery in naturalist works of

literature and semantic fields such as ‘savagery’, ‘struggle for existence’, ‘primordial’ became

more prominent (cf. ibid.: 16-17). Furst & Skrine (ibid.: 18) further state that the naturalist

man is animalistic, his position and status in life massively influenced by heredity, the

environment and its impact and by the arbitrary problems of the moment and that “this

terribly depressing conception robs man of all free will, all responsibility for his actions,

which are merely the inescapable result of physical forces and conditions totally beyond his

control”. The concept of devolution and degeneration was also introduced by Darwin and

suggests that through the preferred mating of the best with each other in a certain species, the

worst and inferior members also mate with each other, which results in a degeneration and

devolution (cf. Pizer 1996: 56). The focus of literary Naturalism was centered on the latter

and preferred evolutionary throwback over progress, which is exemplified by Zola’s Rougon-

Macquart novels (cf. ibid.). Many other Naturalists, such as Jack London to name an

American exemplary writer, relied on “atavistic regression [as] a constant undertone in the

biological economics” to express and represent “instinctual perversion through Darwinian

tropes of primitivism” (Den Tandt 1998: 130). Norris, for instance, incorporates a theme in

which man’s racial atavism (sexual desires) and man’s individual family heritage (e.g.

alcoholic degeneration) are combined and result in a regression into behavioral and thought

patterns of our animal antecedents (cf. Pizer 1976: 16). This theme falls under the term of

social Darwinism, in which evolutionary theories are transferred to and applied in a societal

context. Crane also showed interest in this branch of science but “was more concerned with

the light that social scientists threw upon that which in human relationships exceeded

rationality” (Davies 2001: 2).

Another effect of Darwinism was the disproval of romantic and transcendental thought that

nature was a manifestation of god and that the human soul can transcend nature. The work of

early writers, such as Thoreau or Emerson was utterly displaced by the groundbreaking

theories of Darwin, and a shift from the spiritual, transcendental perception of man in nature

to a more pragmatic, materialistic and animalistic perception of man in nature was taking

place. According to Bender (2012: 2), “Darwinian evolution transformed the face of ‘nature,

shattering the idea that nature exists in a state of grand repose and projecting instead a reality

of struggle, competition, and violent change-[…] in human society and even within the

individual chaotic mind”. Furst & Skrine (1971: 2) further substantiated this assumption and

state that there is no transcendentalism, divinity or metaphysics in the universe, thus man

cannot transcend since there is non-existence after death and man merely lives in a world of

perceived phenomena, “a kind of cosmic machine which determined his life as it did nature”.

Therefore, the presentation of man in nature started to become more tragic and the assumption

of Darwin that “psychology will be based on a new foundation, that of necessary acquirement

of each mental power and capacity by gradation” (488) resulted in an exploration of Darwin’s

unconscious by many artists. Stephen Crane was one of the naturalist writers who started to

dramatize the chaos of their characters mind. (cf. Bender 2012: 2-3)

6.3.2 Determinism

The influential and landmark theories of Darwin led to another significant concept in

Naturalism, namely determinism. A deterministic notion of the universe was firstly introduced

by Spencer (1864/1895), who attempted to give a scientific demonstration to show that a set

of common principles governed the whole universe, which was in direct opposition to

religious beliefs and advocated a more pragmatic and materialist conception of the universe:

For Spencer, all objects could be understood in terms of a purely physical interaction between internal

and external forces. Species or society changed "under the combined influences of its intrinsic nature

and the environing actions, inorganic and organic" .The factors of evolution were (1) original, which

was divided into extrinsic (e.g., climate, surface qualities) and intrinsic (physical and intellectual

character), and (2) secondary or derived-a set of factors brought into play by social evolution itself, like

modifications of the environment, size and density of the social aggregate, and intersocietal reactions.

Spencer's science of interactions systematized the earlier speculative work of the geographical

materialists on the effects of environment on human society. For example, the much discussed effects of

climate were specified as degrees of solar radiation, "source of those forces by which life . . . is carried

on . . . source of the forces displayed in human life, and consequently in social life" (as cited in Peet

1985: 313)

In literary Naturalism, Emile Zola was the first artist who insisted to implement these

concepts in naturalist literature, since if science accepted these notions in relation to the

physical life, it was of utmost importance to incorporate them in writing as well, in order to

depict the determined outcome of specific individuals realistically and based on science. The

novelist should adopt the role of an experimenter and showcase the effects of determinism in

his writing. Zola, for instance, did this by choosing a genetically negatively affected family in

a destructive social environment as his main protagonists. For the protagonists of naturalist

stories, determinism usually implies that they are devoid of free will and any individual

decisions in life, which might affect their lives in any way, are negated by the underlying

power of nature’s principles. Moreover, they are depicted like animals in a natural

environment and while they are capable of reacting towards exterior and interior forces, they

are ultimately powerless when confronted with these forces. What’s more, a naturalist author

conveys the image that a character’s fate has been predetermined from the beginning, as

discussed above by hereditary and environmental factors, and that he must outlive his often

miserable and doomed life until the inevitable death takes place, which cannot ever be

controlled.

6.3.3 Objectivity and Pessimism

Another fundamental characteristic of Naturalism is objectivism. This concept refers to the

effort of the naturalist author to maintain objectivity and neutrality in his texts and present the

narrator as an unbiased and objective scientist who merely observes and examines what he

already sees or knows. Doubtless, there have been deviations and flaws in naturalist narrations

and achieving objectivity at all times is scarcely feasible. However, by the detachment of the

narrator from the story objectivity is encouraged and easier to maintain. What’s more,

naturalist authors, but also modernist authors such as Hemingway for instance, display the

tendency to omit names from the protagonist, which consequently leads to detachment and

accentuates the plot and the actual events of the characters, instead of focusing the characters

themselves. This way, authors can avoid sympathy and identification of the reader with

certain characters, which often lead to a misleading or distorted image of characters.

According to Furst & Skrine (1971: 13), naturalist authors prioritized the truthfulness and the

examination of it was solely possible with objective observation, which applied to naturalist

characters as well. Additionally, they avoided the formerly Romantic concept of evoking

intense sensations, which might lead to a transcendence of the self, and attempted to stay

factual. Pizer (1996: 6) states that a re-assessment and revisal of literature had to take place,

which challenged the romantic formula since “these derived from the limited beliefs and

social life of their moment of origin, in favor of a realistic aesthetic which demanded that the

subject matter of contemporary life be objectively depicted, no matter how ‘uniliterary’ the

product [may] seem”. It was therefore vital to eliminate the depiction of the old heroic and

ideal and replace it with the depiction of the commonplace men. The interest of the

extraordinary individual who fascinated the Romantics was replaced with a portrayal of the

ordinary individual, since a Naturalist subject matter implies “that at all levels of society the

same guiding principles prevail and all men are shown to be fundamentally alike” and

therefore the Naturalists focused on “man in his milieu” (Furst & Skrine 1971: 51).

In a further consequence, this shift to the focus on the ordinary and anti-heroic man lead to a

pessimistic portrayal of man, which introduces another important characteristic of Naturalism,

namely pessimism. In naturalist works of literature, oftentimes characters continue to repeat

certain lines or phrases, which illustrate a significantly negative connotation and the

realization of the inevitability of death and their insignificance in the universe. Emile Zola’s

works are infamous for their negatively connoted subject matter and his works displayed an

openness of sexuality with persuasive pessimism.

7. The relationship between The Open Boat and Naturalism

From a naturalist perspective, the role of nature and its impact on man will mostly be

examined through the subchapters Darwinism and Determinism, in which nature and

environment are deeply embedded and which influence the entire human existence.

Naturalists did not perceive nature as a singular and separate entity, which power could be

modified by god, and thereby an analysis of nature on its own is disadvantageous.

7.1 Darwinian Concepts in The Open Boat

The unequivocal representation of Darwinian concepts in the Open Boat mark it as a

characteristic work of Naturalism. Darwin’s fundamental theories of ‘Natural Selection’ and

‘Survival of the Fittest’ are extremely influential in the text. The story begins with an

immediate introduction of the powerful forces of nature, by presenting the waves in a

negatively but extremely overwhelming way, and by placing a group of four men in a small

dinghy directly in an extremely detrimental environment. Without adequate forms of

technology, humans could not last very long in the middle of a stormy sea, since it is not our

natural environment. Thus, the image of four men in one of the lowest forms of technology,

namely a dinghy in a stormy sea, evokes unpleasantness and fear and one of the most

prominent Darwinian themes of man’s struggle for existence is already established in the first

paragraph. However, the immediate detrimental setting of the characters in a disadvantageous

environment, could even imply that ‘natural selection’ had already occurred beforehand,

which brought the characters in this miserable situation in the first place and thus they were

already ‘selected out’ by the environment. Regardless of the actual validity of this

assumption, a Darwinist setting of man’s struggle against nature is immediately represented.

The influence of Darwinian concepts is further substantiated by the multiple encounter with

oceanic animals, which illustrates the theory of evolution and the adaptation abilities of

different species. As a matter of fact, the encounter with the shark and the sea gulls exemplify

the animal level of the men and further signify an inferiority of humans in the natural

environment of the ocean. Throughout centuries, the shark and the sea gull developed a

suitability for this environment and adapted appropriately to enable an unproblematic

existence in the environment of the ocean. Men, on the other, are dependent on forms of

technology to navigate and live on this natural environment, which may be interpreted as an

adaption as well, but one has to consider that technology may fail or get overpowered by

external forces at the sea (waves, storm), which would result in a completely unadapted state

of humans again, which makes them extremely vulnerable. The sudden failing of technology

in an unsuitable environment, which had apparently happened before the story even took its

course (Dinghy is a complementary boat and not the main boat), falls under the Darwinian

category of ‘arbitrary problems of the moment’ (see Chapter Darwinism) and represents the

utter uncontrollability of human beings in the environment, while simultaneously highlighting

the immense power of physical forces and conditions. Moreover, the oceanic animals can be

interpreted as the ‘fitter’ species under these circumstances, since they have no problems

navigating under or above the ocean. Thereby, ‘survival of the fittest’ depends strongly on the

actual environment (sea, land, etc.) and on other circumstances, such as means of technology

for example. While men in a small dinghy might be inferior to a shark, men in a large whaler

for instance are usually superior and can even kill large sperm whales. Nonetheless, in the

scenario of the Open Boat, men represent a strong disadvantage towards oceanic animals,

which is exemplified by the stealing of the captain’s hat by a seagull and the feeling of awe by

the encounter with the shark and the observation of his efficient movement through the water,

something the men in the boat could only dream of. The mere animal level of the men is

further underpinned by the perceived danger of the contact with the oceanic animals. If they

regarded themselves as ‘fitter’ and superior to a shark or the seagulls, they would not be

affected by their presence, which is clearly not the case in Crane’s account. Therefore, the

sole representation of the somewhat problematic encounter with the animals underlines

Darwin’s theories that man is descendent of animals and operates on the same level.

Another prominent aspect of the Darwinian model, namely heredity, is effectively represented

by the juxtaposition of the oiler and the captain. They are intentionally displayed in extremely

different ways, to accentuate the varying hereditary roles and positions of men. The oiler is

depicted as physically strong and obedient, who has a high working capacity and generally

represents strength and integrity. From a physical perspective, he might be regarded as the

‘fittest’ of them all. The Captain, on the other hand, becomes physically impaired by the

shipwreck but displays his intellectual knowledge multiple times throughout the story. For

instance, by formulating the strategy of their potential survival and by the guidance of the

correspondent and the cook at the end of the story. From an intellectual perspective, he might

be regarded as the ‘fittest’ of them all.

A further central notion of Darwinism is illustrated in the text, which is the abolition of

romantic and transcendental thought that nature was a manifestation of god and that humans

may attain a state self-transcendence within and through nature. In Crane’s The Open Boat,

there are no signs or indications of God’s providence, which is illustrated by the exclusion of

typically protected species of god, such as sparrows and waterfowls (cf. Hilfer 2012: 251).

Moreover, the men express their irritation openly in the narrative, which was caused by the

exclusion of providential signs. “There was the shore of the populous land, and it was bitter

and bitter to them that from it came no sign” (76). The seagull which aims to land on the head

of the captain is also “an inversion of Coleridge’s benign albatross” (ibid.: 252): “After it had

been discouraged from the pursuit the captain breathed easier on account of his hair, and

others breathed easier because the bird struck their minds at this time as being somehow

grewsome and ominous” (71-72). Additionally, the man on the shore, who was waving his

coat, does not offer any providential allusion and “don’t mean anything” (80). Due to the fact

that men are incapable of communicating with a man on the shore, it becomes even more

difficult for them to grasp and perceive any sublimity or divine providence through the

speechless phenomena in the natural world. According to Hilfer (2012: 252), “signs in

Crane’s story either fail to signify or are interpreted by the men to signify natural

malevolence, or at least indifference” and thus “Crane has put the last nail in the coffin of

Emerson’s transcendentally idealist conception of nature”. Words are mostly interpreted as

materialistic natural facts (“these waves were of the hue of slate”) or frequently serve the

purpose of “egocentric complaints or pleas” (ibid.). The single occurrence of symbolism in

the story takes place when the force of spirituality does not benefit human desires and is

merely used with the symbolism of ominousness, such as the “ominous bird”. Moreover, the

death of the oiler Billie, is not in line with the Christian notion of divine Providence, since he

acts exceedingly self-less and righteous and should be spared according to Christian

principles. Not only is the death of the oiler Billie an irony directed at Christianity, which

aims to discredit the religion, but it is also quite ironic in respect to a Darwinian conception of

the event, since physically the oiler was unequivocally the ‘fittest’ of all characters. (cf. ibid.)

7.2 The Influence of Determinism in The Open Boat

The concept of Determinism is extremely influential in The Open Boat and is predominately

represented by the indifference of nature and the universe to the outcome of the individual.

The prominent image of the lack of obligation and interest toward man by the universe is

summarized in the text as “the serenity of nature amid the struggles of the individual” (905).

This quote indicates that man is apparently living in a figurative bubble, in which he enacts

his human drama and feels absolutely entitled to a long and good life, in which he is the

center of attention. This is vividly depicted by the appearance of a blue and gold light, which

is identified as “the furniture of the world” (899), in which man connects domestic material

objects with the universe. As a result, images like that are responsible for elements of comedy

and tragedy in the story and the experience of the characters are presented with a cosmic chill

(cf. Billingslea 1994: 37). Although the characters cannot control the outcome of the events,

they can at least develop and understanding and a rational perception of their fate. This is

effectively represented by the correspondent, who at first is irritated of the situation that he

survived the shipwreck to only potentially die later in a dinghy, but afterwards acknowledges

natures indifference to man and the insignificance of his individual being; “but she was

indifferent, flatly indifferent” (18) and he uses the word ‘ants’ as a metaphor for the

insignificance of human beings. However, this metaphor gives rise to the assumption that the

correspondent has not fully grasped his irrelevant place in the universe since he puts the

human race over another living creature in the universe. From a deterministic perspective, the

existence of mankind is not necessarily more valuable than the existence of an ant, and natural

external forces do not distinguish between the two. An Ant could survive a fire in the woods,

whereas man could die.

Another effective example to illustrate deterministic elements in the text would be the futile

attempt to reach the coast. The men wholeheartedly attempt to impose their free will on the

outcome of the sea voyage and formulate a plan to get to the shore, which is ultimately

disrupted by the external natural forces of the waves and the surf, which would overthrow the

board if they came too close. Their consequent desperation and their perceived absurdity of

the universe is formulated in a kind of “choral lament” (Buitenhius 1959: 248) which repeated

thrice in the story: “If I am going to be drowned, why, in the name of the seven mad gods who

rule the sea, was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand and trees?”. As a result, the

correspondent rebels against fate and the universe and argues that “if this old ninny-woman,

Fate, cannot do better than this, she should be deprived of the management of men’s fortunes

[…]; If she has decided to drown me, why did she not do it in the beginning and save me all

this trouble? The whole affair is absurd” (224-5). This statement by the correspondent

suggests the notion of causality, or causal determinism, which is known as cause-and-effect.

However, the correspondent initially interprets it in a completely contradictory way, since he

expresses a great pessimism when it should in fact be optimism. Considering the cause-and-

effect concept, he should rather assume that because of his survival of the shipwreck (cause),

the chances are quite high that he will survive the whole ordeal (effect).

There is valid ground for the assumption that the oiler died of a similar cause-and-effect

principle, which provides a further example of the importance of Determinism in the text. In

the text it is mentioned, that the oiler worked extremely long shifts on the steamer and he also

exerted himself with all the rowing, which might suggest the cause for is later death since the

corresponding effect of all the physical labor could be s a deficient amount of physical

strength to survive the external forces of the heavy surf. However, his death alone signifies

that man is devoid of free will and at the mercy of predetermined external forces, because he

wanted to live and died regardless.

7.3 Crane’s style

Crane’s values and literary techniques correlate strongly to key characteristics of Naturalism

and are unambiguously reflected in the Open Boat. The most prominent aspect of Crane’s

value, which is in line with a deterministic perception of the universe and nature, is his

notorious irony. “This irony, based on Crane’s perception of the disparity between man’s

vision of a just and meaningful universe and a world totally indifferent to such unrealistic

notions, acknowledges the absurdity at the heart of the existentialist vision” (Gerstenberger

1971: 558). Crane further implies in The Open Boat that the perception of every individual

human being must be wrong, even if that vision includes the acknowledgment of the absurdity

of the universe, which is exemplified by the divide of the different point of views of the

characters. Thereby, Crane demonstrates the utter impossibility to know anything in the

universe with an objective assurance, since the perceptual instruments of humans are simply

to limited and subjective. This is illustrated by the correspondent who looks towards the

windmill at the shore and comes to the realization that nature is indifferent to the plight of

man, which initially seems like a statement about the objectivity of nature. However, by

perceiving the wind tower with a human vision, it is automatically associated with subjective

meaning. The same principle applies to the distant narrator, who despite his outside

perspective of the events would still be wrong about his perception, which additionally

explains the tentativeness of the authors narration (“the whole thing would doubtless have

been weirdly picturesque”). “The human need to translate the open boat into the landscape

terms of “picturesque” immediately falsifies at the same time that it represents a truth of

human perception” (ibid.).

Another method of Crane’s literary style, which also refers strongly to a naturalistic ideology,

is his ironic deflation and non-heroic style of writing, which is extremely prevalent in The

Open Boat. If one visualizes the guiding principles (Darwinism and Determinism), it becomes

evident that heroic deflation is an appropriate tool in naturalistic writings. Crane refuses to

romanticize the absurdity of the experience and does not support the notion of gaining

knowledge or wisdom through a terrible event (see sublime), which is explained by

Gerstenberger (1971: 559): “In much of modern literature, there is a sense in which existential

man sometimes seems to achieve a modicum of heroic stature when he apprehends and accept

the absurd universe, for he has done what man can do […] and stands apart from the common

run of men”. Crane utterly rejects this idea and does not grant the correspondent a heroic

moment or enlightenment through a sublime experience, although he eventually realizes the

indifference of nature and gains a “right” kind perception: “a distinction between right and

wrong seems absurdly clear to him, then, in this new ignorance of the grave-edge, and he

understands that if he were given another opportunity he would mend his conduct and his

words, and be better and brighter during an introduction or at tea”. According to

Gerstenberger (ibid.), Crane insists on the ignorance and faulty perceptions of humans and

“denies the correspondent the absolute sanction so often bestowed as a result of confronting

hard reality”. The depiction of the correspondent’s realization that he would be better and

wiser in an additional opportunity “during an introduction or at tea”, has a tremendous anti-

heroic effect and clearly displays Crane’s refusal of allocating wisdom or value to a suffering

man in a desperate situation. Additionally, crane deliberately utilizes an inadequate and even

awkward rhetoric at times to clearly represent the anti-heroic effect in the story and deny any

form of heroic self-empowerment. This is illustrated by strange metaphors, analogies or

descriptive adjectives, which create a devaluation or overvaluation of events: “By the very

last star of truth, it is easier to steal eggs from under a hen than it was to change seats in the

dinghy”. An abstract, evidently transcendentally connoted expression (“the last star of truth”),

is associated with an agrarian process of stealing eggs, which ridicules and devalues the whole

situation. Another example would be the anger which is displayed by the correspondent

because of their desperate situation: “She cannot drown me. Not after all this work” and his

consequent shaking of the fist at the clouds (“man might have had an impulse), which

illustrates a childish helplessness and represents “no overtones of individual heroic self-

empowerment [and] any tendency of Emersonian sacralization of power, hypberbole, and

self-aggrandizement is commented upon laconically” (Claviez 2008: 146). Another example

of ironic deflation in the text is the statement that “In a ten-foot dinghy one can get an idea of

the resources of the sea in the line of waves that is not probable to the average experience,

which is never at sea in a dinghy”. On top that, it functions as a reminder the perception is

always subjective and betrayed by the language of its conceptualization. (cf. Gerstenberger

1971: 559-560)

In The Open Boat, Crane also represents the theme of brotherhood, which is characteristic for

his style of writing and emphasizes the strong connection between Naturalism and the

Darwinian notion, that nature cares nothing for the individual and only for the type (hereditary

factor). The fact that the oiler is the only character who is given a name could already

foreshadow his determined death, since by naming him he gains importance and identification

as an individual, which is irrelevant in a Darwinian and deterministic environment.

Nonetheless, the oiler is not represented as autonomous person and is dependent on the

brotherhood, which represents the basic society, since is only physically superior to the others

and cannot navigate course in the vastness of the ocean (cf. Billingslea 1994: 28). Therefore,

the notion of interdependence between the characters is supported, which exemplifies Crane’s

belief that mutual trust and confidence between participants of a society, even if it is just on a

small dinghy, is crucial to gain moral strength. Pizer (1976: 29) states that Crane’s perception

of courage is only relevant in a social reality, “that it is a quality which exists not absolutely

but by virtue other men’s opinions, and that the social unity born of a courageous fellowship

may therefore be based on self-deception or on deception of others”. The scene of the

correspondent’s long nights watch, which includes no dialogue, is a prime example for the

significance of brotherhood in a deterministic and Darwinian shaped environment. As soon as

the correspondent is merely reliant on his own hereditary predispositions, the world is

perceived as an extremely hostile and threatening place, which is illustrated by the sudden

appearance of the shark (cf. Schirmer 1982: 277). The different hereditary aspects of the

characters complement each other if a fruitful collaboration takes place and therefore improve

the chances of an overall ‘survival of the fittest’ as a group. By working together, the oiler

benefits from the intellectual skills of the Captain and the physically impaired captain from

the physical maneuvering of the oiler and the correspondent. This underlines the importance

of a constructive and supportive social environment, which is rarely presented in naturalist

fiction and is thus an extraordinary method of Crane, since the focus of Naturalist works is

usually on a regressive and destructive environment. The death of the oiler could also be

justified with that line of argumentation, since he is the only one who fights for his own in the

end and although he is presented as leading “the race” to the shore, dies, since the nature does

not care for Individualism. In contrast, the other three characters maintain the societal bond,

even in the worst situations and overcome it with their complementary hereditary factors.

Spofford (1979: 319) further accentuates the importance of brotherhood by showing that the

correspondents deeply engrained sense of brotherhood leads to a severe intensification of his

feeling of alienation and loneliness, which is exemplified by the “bereft of sympathy” or the

wish that “one of his companions to awaken by chance and keep him company with it” (84).

7.4 Objectivity and Pessimism

The naturalist characteristic of objectivity is unequivocally represented in The Open Boat, but

not entirely consistent throughout the story. The attempts of the author to detach the

omniscient narrator from the story are clearly represented by the tentativeness and uncertainty

of his language. For instance, by using phrases such as “this would have doubtlessly been”,

“might”, or “the wrath of sea was no more to them […]”. The narrator does not express that

he can perceive the horrible experience of the characters accurately and consequently is rather

prudent in his descriptions, which signifies an extent of objectivity and implies a neutral

scientific approach of describing events. However, the narrator shows a tendency of shifting

in tone and becomes somewhat poetic when describing the sea and adds figures of speech

(personification, animal imagery, and similes) and lyricism into his account, which is

extremely atypical for naturalist texts (cf. Rath & Shaw 1991: 98):

A seat in this boat was not unlike a seat upon a bucking broncho, and, by the same token, a broncho is

not much smaller. The craft pranced and reared, and plunged like an animal. As each wave came, and

she rose for it; she seemed like a horse making at a fence outrageously high. The manner of her

scramble over these walls of water is a mystic thing, and, moreover, at the top of them were ordinarily

these problems in white water, the foam racing down from the summit of each wave, requiring a new

leap, and a leap from the air. Then, after scornfully bumping a crest, she would slide, and race, and

splash down a long incline and arrive bobbing and nodding in from the next menace. (69)

This sequence evokes a rather “romantic nostalgia, a longing to return, a recollection in

tranquility at a safe distance” (ibid.) and is presented as a rather pleasant experience, although

the protagonists of this experience are amidst a situation of life and death. Moreover, it is not

in line with the principles of objectivity and expresses subjective imagination for poetry.

Another characteristic and influential factor of literary Naturalism, namely pessimism, is

clearly represented in the text through the predominantly negative perceptions of man towards

nature and the universe. One particular sequence is extremely striking, which is firstly

exclaimed by the correspondent in his faulty self-perception in the universe and repeated three

times throughout the story: “If I am going to be drowned-If I am going to be drowned-if I am

going to be drowned, why, in the name of the seven mad gods who rule the sea, was I allowed

to come thus far and contemplate sand and trees?” (8). As can be seen, the correspondent

expresses deep pessimism of his situation and assumes that the probability of drowning in the

sea must be extremely high. This pessimism is rooted in the already established assumption,

that every character has a faulty perception of himself and his position in the universe, and in

this particular scene, the correspondent feels entitled to a longer life and does not accept the

notion of the indifference of nature and the universe towards men. He further neglects the

deterministic notion of cause-and effect (see above), which quite conversely should elicit

optimism since his survival of the shipwreck was predetermined and may thus lead to the

survival of the whole ordeal at sea. Additionally, pessimism is also illustrated by the ominous

symbolism, which is allocated to natural phenomena, such as the waves and the sea (“The

waves were most wrongfully and barbarously”), since the characters take a negative stance

towards these natural phenomena at the beginning and interpret their existence as hostile

towards man, which clearly signifies the pessimistic view of nature.

According to a Darwinian and deterministic conception of the nature and the universe, man

ought not to be influenced by the insignificant and utterly redundant feeling of pessimism,

since in a universe completely devoid of free will and pre-determined outcomes pessimism

can only worsen the situation and infest people with negative emotions, when they should in

fact embrace the situation as it is and react adequately and in unity to the external forces of

nature. The captain seems to be the only character who has grasped that concept, and is able

to create an optimistic tone in the story by showing affection (“Now, boys”), implying

intimacy with colloquialisms (“going to swamp sure”, “work her in”, “pile out and scramble”,

“keep cool now”) and by establishing the sense of brotherhood (“All we can do now”) (cf.

Schirmer 1982: 226).

8. Comparison: Combination of Structural and Contextual Elements

abbreviation: DITM= Descent into the Maelstrom

TOB= The Open Boat

8.1 Juxtaposition of Key Roles of Nature in Descent into the Maelstrom and The Open

Boat

8.1.1 power of nature

One of the most prominent similarities between Poe’s Descent into the Maelstrom and

Crane’s Open Boat is the immense power of nature. In both narratives, men are situated in an

extremely hostile environment, with the inevitable and unwanted approach to the Maelstrom

in the former and the shipwreck situation and desired approach to the shore in the latter. In

both narratives, natural phenomena, such as the wind, the sea and in Descent into the

Maelstrom, especially the Maelstrom itself are predominately depicted with a powerful and

ominous symbolism, which exemplifies the sheer power of nature and the vulnerability of

men in the face of such powerful natural processes. While the Maelstrom is depicted as the

ultimate embodiment and symbol of the overwhelming power of nature in DITM, the TOB

represents nature as generally powerful and does not accredit superiority to one natural

phenomena over the others, although it is apparent that the processes of the sea, especially the

waves, adopt a very important role in the narrative.

While the power of natural processes is unequivocally represented in both narratives, it is

crucial to understand that the source of power varies tremendously between the romantic

DITM and the naturalist TOB. In DITM, nature is represented as an individual entity, which

functions under god and can be modified by god at any time, since he is the ultimate creator

of nature. There are multiple allegories to a divine presence in DITM (see close reading) and

there is also room for the assumption of a symbolism of hell in the Maelstrom. In stark

contrast to the perception of nature in DITM, the power of nature in TOB stems from a

deterministic universe in which any form of divine providence is rejected and nature is simply

a materialistic phenomenon which is purely governed by a physical interaction between

internal and external forces.

Furthermore, the power level of natural phenomena in the DITM is prone to rapid change and

builds up throughout the course of events, whereas in the TOB it predominantly stays on the

same level. The first evidence in favor of this assumption is found in the beginning of each

respective story. In DITM, the narrative is organized in a frame tale and it starts with the

outside frame on a calm and peaceful natural phenomenon, namely a hill. When the mariner

starts to tell the inside tale, he initially sets it up on a calm ocean, which is used for fishing

and only gradually builds up tension and increases the power level of nature through his story

until it reaches its climax, and ultimately displays nature as that overwhelming and powerful

phenomenon of the Maelstrom. By contrast, in the TOB the characters are immediately set up

in a ship wreck situation and immersed within the natural phenomena of a stormy sea with

massive waves and an increase of the power level of nature is not really palpable. Moreover,

the climax is not generated by an ultimately powerful phenomenon, such as the Maelstrom in

DITM, in which they are sucked into, but rather through a deliberate approach to the shore,

which naturally involves breaking waves and a troublesome surf, and which is not necessarily

presented in a more powerful way. The deliberate approach to the shore of the characters in

the TOB and the involuntarily sucking in of the fishermen in DITM further indicates that the

power level of the sea is higher in DITM. With regard to the underlying contextual factors of

each respective period, this is utterly reasonable since nature as god’s manifestation already

signifies more power than an indifferent materialistic object governed by external and internal

forces in the universe.

Not only the natural processes of the sea represent a significant amount of power in both

stories, but also the aeolian processes of the wind. Firstly, the wind epitomizes the main

impetus of movement on the sea, which signifies immense power. In DITM, the

representation of the wind is so powerful that the outside narrator is anxious that the massive

mountain might crumble under the immense power of the wind. Secondly, the wind in

combination with other natural phenomenon, such as the waves, can exacerbate a problematic

situation. This is represented through the stormy sea in both narratives.

A further powerful aspect of nature is represented through the mentioning and the actual

incorporation of oceanic animals in the stories. In DITM, the inside narrator mentions bears

and even whales who got sucked into the Maelstrom and died, in order to illustrate the sheer

power of this natural phenomenon. If the Maelstrom is able to kill huge sea mammals, such as

whales, one is immediately terrified by the imagination of ending up in the whirl of the Strom.

Conversely, TOB incorporates actual encounters with a shark and sea gulls, which represent

the Darwinian concept of ‘survival of the fittest’ and adaptation abilities, since they are not

affected by the oceanic environment. Additionally, they also represent power, which is

exemplified by the shark who shoots like a projectile through the water. In comparison to

DITM, it is extremely fascinating that DITM uses dead animals to illustrate the power of

nature, whereas TOB uses living animals to illustrate the power of natural phenomenon, given

that one assumes oceanic animals as part of the ocean, ergo of nature, and not as individual

entities.

8.1.2 multi-faceted and indifferent nature

Another shaping and decisive role of nature is the multi-faceted character of individual natural

phenomena in both narratives and their varying impact on man. In DITM, a calm breeze can

turn into a furious wind of god which speeds up the character’s descent into the Maelstrom.

Additionally, some natural phenomena may take on a supportive role, for instance the grass

which provides security in DITM or the sea water in the dinghy, which was comfortably cold

and refreshing. From a contextual perspective, the underlying reasons for a depiction of a

multi-faceted and often contradictory nature are rather conflicting between Romanticism and

Naturalism. In the romantic text DITM, nature is presented as a dynamic organicism and it

opposes the static perception of natural phenomena, which was prevalent in the Age of

Enlightenment. It is a depicted as something to be experienced and as a manifestation of god

and is thus not bound to any restrictions or a consistent ‘behavior’. Key characteristic notions

of romantic literature, such as change and value, further advocate and substantiate an

inconsistency and a multitude of different aspects in nature. In contrast to the romantic motive

of an inconsistent, multi-faceted nature, the naturalist motive, which is exemplified in TOB,

suggests that the character of nature is solely dependent on the perception of the viewer, since

it is simply an indifferent force in the universe which only gets meaning by the interpretation

of men. Therefore, nature should technically not be understood as a force with a plethora of

different facets, which may be displayed at will. Every ‘facet’ of nature is simply the effect of

a cause in the deterministic universe (see cause-effect concept). For instance, the generation

of massive waves in a calm ocean is caused by other forces in the universe and does not occur

arbitrarily, it is all predetermined in a deterministic universe. Thus, nature is only attributed

with different facets by the perspective of a human. This is exemplified by the three-fold view

of nature by humans in TOB (see close reading), which develops from ‘malevolently hostile’

to ‘thoughtlessly hostile’ until it reaches its final state of ‘complete indifference’. The notion

of an indifference of nature in TOB is further underlined by the omniscient narrator, who

depicts the malevolently perceived waves of the characters as even picturesque, which might

imply a subtle understanding of a deterministic universe by the narrator, which is somewhat

contradicted by his tentative and uncertain expressions. In DITM, indifference of nature is

represented through the denial of an inherently evilness in nature (see sublime), and as long as

nature is not utilized and modified by god it is indifferent to man, which is substantiated by

the survival of the mariner in the maelstrom, since if it were in fact malicious the mariner

would have not overcome this tragic endeavor. The spectacle (nature) becomes only

dangerous if the spectator (human) immerses himself into it, which shows some similarities to

the naturalist view of nature in TOB. Another rather extraordinary similarity between TOB

and DITM is the use poetic imagination when describing natural processes. Although this is a

typical romantic characteristic of depicting nature, TOB shows an appreciation of poetic

language and depicts the waves in the moonlight beautifully and romantically at the end of the

story.

8.1.3 dependence on nature

The aspect of dependence on nature by the characters of the stories is unequivocally

represented, although it differs immensely with respect to the underlying notions of the

respective literary eras of Romanticism and Naturalism. In DITM, nature demonstrates a

nourishing role since the fishermen are dependent on a productive catch of fish to fulfill

economic objectives. They are further extremely reliant on the wind as their main driving

force on the sea and on natural processes of the sea (flux, currents) as a further impetus. In

TOB, there is a similar dependence displayed on a textual level. However, in TOB the

underlying Darwinian theories are fundamental in an understanding of the dependence on

nature, which from a naturalist-Darwinian perspective is more appropriately phrased as a

maladaptation. From a Darwinian perspective, one could argue that a dependence on

something is only created when man has not adequately adapted to the situation and his

environment and is thus reliant on external forces. In TOB, the characters are located in an

unsuited human environment, in which they are dependent on technology to survive, and even

technology can fail, which is presupposed by the immediate shipwreck situation of the

characters. With modern means of technology, the dependence of ships on natural processes is

held extremely low, which illustrates the adaptation abilities of humans. In the upcoming

thousands of millennials, given that our species will not have gone extinct and destroyed

planet earth by then, the evolutionary adaptations could enable us, or some inhabitants of the

Earth, which live in utterly flooded areas, to live under water, but this adaptation has not been

achieved by the characters and thus they are susceptible to being naturally selected out. The

aspect of dependence is further rather difficult to substantiate in a deterministic universe,

since according to Determinism man is devoid of free will and cannot prolong his existence

through establishing and maintaining any sort of dependence on something. In DITM, the

dependence on nature has at first an economic connotation, since they aim to reduce labor

through taking certain risks at sea and depend on a great return on investment of fishing in

dangerous areas, but as the plot develops the dependence transcends that materialistic and

static boundaries and turns into a dependence on gods providence. While the two texts

virtually represent an identical dependence of the protagonists on nature on a superficial and

textual level, there exist major differences with respect to underlying contextual concepts and

influences of the corresponding literary eras.

8.2 Juxtaposition of Crucial Effects of Nature on Man in A Descent into the Maelstrom

and The Open Boat

8.2.1 sublime experience (R) vs. pessimism (N)

The major effects of nature on man vary tremendously between the two texts and are deeply

rooted in the underlying fundamental concepts of the respective literary eras. The sublime

experience in Romanticism versus the pessimism in Naturalism are the first themes which will

be regarded for this comparison on the effect on man. In TOB, pessimism is represented

through the predominately negative perception of man towards nature (ominous symbolism)

and the correspondent’s desperate exclaims as why he has been allowed to live so long if he is

now going to drown anyways. In later stages of the narrative, the windmill sequence replaces

pessimism with a recognition of the indifferent universe, which evokes a stoic attitude in the

correspondent. In DITM, the sublime experience is the most influential factor in the effect of

nature on man. The elicited emotions of the sublime are extreme terror, awe, elation and fear

(see Burke “Delightful terror”). The terrorizing emotions are incomparable to the pessimistic

and slightly desperate emotions of the characters in TOB and function on a whole different

and more intense level. The event in the Maelstrom is so terrible, that the surviving mariner’s

physical and psychological condition is extremely impaired. As discussed in the theory

section, according to Burke and other Romanticists, the feeling of terror evokes the strongest

physical and psychological response in human. This terrorizing effect is in strong contrast to

the comparably mild pessimistic state of mind in TOB, which is substantiated in the strong

focus on the individual in Romanticism and the stronger focus on events and external forces

in Naturalism. In the sublime experience of the mariner’s in DITM, the effect of self-

preservation is a prominent reaction to horrible situations. The best illustration of self-

preservation in DITM is represented by the egoistical act of pushing the protagonist from a

supportive ringbolt to save one’s one life, even if it means that one’s brother has to die. The

mariner recognizes that his brother has fallen into madness by the sublime experience and this

depiction is in accordance with Burke’s fundamental concepts of the sublime, which is the

exclusion of the power of reason (see sublime). The mariner’s brother ultimately dies by the

instinct of self-preservation since his paralysis prevents him from acting. In comparison with

TOB, there are also elements of self-preservation included, which are vividly depicted by the

oiler, who swims extremely fast for the shore and acts egoistically since he leaves his

comrades behind. However, in TOB, the form of self-preservation is rooted in the Darwinian

concept of ‘survival of the fittest’ and not in a sublime experience with nature. However, there

is room for the assumption that the omniscient narrator perceives the sublimity of nature to a

certain degree, which is illustrated by his occasional change of tone to a more poetic

appreciation and description of nature but in general, there is “no Kantian ‘raising of soul

power’, no Emersonian ‘instantaneous in-streaming causing’ to be discerned [in the

characters]; those feelings are reserved for those on the observers balcony seat” (Claziez

2008: 147).

8.2.2 transcendence (R) vs. denial of transcendence (N)

Another key effect of the sublime experience in the romantic DITM is the state of

transcendence and salvation of man, which stands in direct opposition to the denial of

transcendence in the naturalist TOB. After the initial negative impact of terror, which leads to

a loss of rational-decision making, the mariner is fascinated and awe-struck by the Maelstrom,

this beautiful manifestation of god and starts to accept his by god determined fate and

appreciates this magnificent way of dying. As a result, he exceeds the boundaries of the

physical and material world and attains a state of self-transcendence and salvation, which is

underpinned by the divine symbolism in the scene. Only by purifying his thought at the brink

of the abyss, is he capable of achieving a reunification with god (see sublime). By contrast, in

TOB the underlying Darwinian principles reject any form of self-transcendence and disprove

the notion of nature being a manifestation of god, which is clearly represented in the text. As

opposed to the divine symbolism in DITM, there are no signs or indications of god’s

providence in TOB. The characters are even displayed as being upset by the fact that there are

no occurrences of divine signs, and express it openly. “As an impressionist work, it denies, as

it must, the transcendental, except as an illusion in the theatre of the mind” (Billingslea 1994:

39).

8.2.3 adoption of distant perspective of nature (R) vs. objectivity (N)

The adoption of a distant perspective of nature to attain a luscious perception of it in the

romantic DITM displays some similarities to the concept of objectivity in the TOB. In DITM,

the initial confusion of the mariner, when directly confronted with the Maelstrom, exemplifies

the shortsightedness of the mariner and shows that he has not yet achieved the shift from

thinking in static mechanism (Enlightenment) to thinking in dynamic organicism

(Romanticism). This is further underlined by the attributed symbolism and personification of

the moon, which maintains a luscious sight of the Maelstrom and is capable of examining it

thoroughly, despite being located at a far greater distance. It is therefore vital to distance

oneself from the natural phenomenon and do not merely perceive the static mechanism that

the eyes can see, but rather adopt a more distant perspective of nature and appreciate the

beautiful manifestation of god and its divine presence. Only then it is possible to attain the

state of lucidity, which the distant moon already has, and the mariner eventually also reaches.

In the TOB, a distant perspective of nature is implied through the naturalist concept of

objectivity. However, the underlying motives for a distant perspective of nature are utterly

contrary to the romantic motives of DITM. In TOB, objectivity is utilized to detach the

omniscient narrator from the event and present him like a scientist who simply observes and

examines what he sees, and in contrast to Romanticism attempts to avoid the concept of

evoking intense sensation and focusing on the individual. This is exemplified by the

avoidance of giving names to three out of four characters, which promotes the sensation of

apathy towards the characters, which was a desired effect in Naturalism. Additionally,

objectivity is represented by the tentativeness and uncertainty of the narrator’s language and

the heroic deflation of the characters (see Crane), to support and correspond to the

deterministic and Darwinian concepts, which do not hold any value for the individual.

Nonetheless, there are shifts of tone in TOB, which presents a poetic appreciation of nature

and evokes a romantic nostalgia, and is thus in rare sequences quite similar to the appreciation

of nature in DITM.

8.2.4 submission to nature vs. fight against nature

Another interesting aspect of comparison are the two contrasting reactions towards dangerous

natural phenomena, namely submission to nature verses fight against nature, which are

exemplified in both stories. In DITM, the protagonist submits himself completely to the

Maelstrom after he has attained his state of lucidity, and literally jumps into it and lives. His

brother on the other hand, fights for survival and wrongly assumes that he might ensure it on

the boat by holding tight to the supportive ringbolt. In TOB, the fight for survival is deeply

embedded in the Darwinian concept of the ‘survival of the fittest’ and is exemplified by the

swimming to the shore at the end of the story. Ironically, the physically strongest represented

character fights against the ocean and swims in an extremely fast pace towards the shore, and

dies (see Crane’s ironies), while the other three characters submit themselves to natural

processes, such as currents and waves, and are saved. In both narratives, submission no nature

outweighs the fight against nature: however, in the romantic DITM, the submission to nature

is associated with a salvation and transcendence of the self and in the naturalist TOB it is

justified by a deterministic view of the universe, since humans are devoid of free will

regardless and thus there is no reason to fight against it.

8.2.5 brotherhood vs. betrayal

In TOB, the problematic shipwreck situation at sea has a bonding effect on the community,

while the encounter with the Maelstrom brings the betrayal of a family member with it. In

TOB, a strong sense of brotherhood is palpable within the surviving members of the

shipwreck. This notion of brotherhood is substantiated in the Darwinian concept, that nature

cares nothing for the individual and is thereby extremely characteristic for a naturalist work.

The characters collaborate harmoniously and every member of the surviving crew contributes

to the navigating of the dinghy at sea. For instance, the captain is responsible for the

orientation at sea and functions as a guide and supportive role for the cook and the

correspondent in the final scene when they attempt to reach the shore. The correspondent and

the oiler, on the other hand, contribute physically and are the main oarsmen. The importance

of brotherhood is further effectively illustrated by the long night of the correspondent, in

which he feels extremely threatened since all of his crew members are apparent asleep he is

solely dependent on his own hereditary predispositions (see Darwin). In DITM, a blood and

family relationship of two brothers is destroyed by the sublime experience of nature, in which

the protagonist’s brother loses his rationality and acts extremely egoistically to preserve his

own life. The mariner feels utterly betrayed, but nonetheless recognizes the insanity of his

brother and even makes futile attempts to save him.

9.Conclusion

In conclusion, I have demonstrated that Edgar Allen Poe’s A Descent into the Maelstrom and

Stephen Crane’s The Open Boat are characteristic expressions of their respective literary era

of Romanticism and Naturalism, by predominantly focusing on the role of nature and its

impact on man. A Descent into the Maelstrom represents the shift from thinking in static

mechanism to dynamic organicism, includes Wellek’s notions of a characteristic romantic text

(e.g. value, change), represents a divine providence in nature which may lead to self-

transcendence and salvation of man through a sublime experience. Additionally, the typically

romantic themes of terror verses lucidity are represented in the text and the short story

presents an effective metaphor against the exploitative and static Age of Enlightenment,

which is represented by the unreliability of technology and the character development of the

mariner (static>dynamic attitude).By contrast, The Open Boat represents Determinism and

Darwinism as fundamental shaping factors, which implies that man is in a constant struggle

for existence and competes with other members of the environment in a ‘survival of the

fittest’. He is further dependent on hereditary factors and is from a deterministic perspective

devoid of free will and is embedded in a cause-effect system. Moreover, God’s providence in

nature is utterly rejected and there is no form of self-transcendence feasible. Other

characteristics of Naturalism, such as objectivity, pessimism and an indifference of nature are

also exemplified in the text.

I have also drawn a comparison between the two texts and contrasted specifically the role of

nature and its impact on man, with a combination of structural elements of the Close Reading

analysis and contextual elements of the context- analysis. The results have shown that there

are strong similarities on a structural level (e.g. power of nature, dependence on nature, multi-

faceted character of nature). However, through a rigorous examination of the underlying

contextual motives of certain natural processes, I have shown that there are critical

distinctions between the two texts on a contextual level and similarities are merely given by

rare implementations of atypical styles of rhetoric (e.g. romanticizing of nature at the end of

The Open Boat).

Lastly, I would like to put forward a suggestion for follow-up research, which would

positively contribute to the perception of our environment. The method I would like to

propose falls under the category of Ecocriticism, which adopts an interdisciplinary point of

view between literature and the environment and enables an illustration of environmental

concerns. I further believe that my two selected texts, A Descent into the Maelstrom and The

Open Boat , would provide an adequate basis for this type of research.

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Nature and Man in Poe’s A Descent into the Maelstrom and

Crane’s The Open Boat

Diplomarbeit

zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades

eines Magisters der Philosophie

an der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz

vorgelegt von

Matthias MILCHRAHM

am Zentrum für Inter-Amerikanische Studien

Begutachterin: Ao. Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. phil. M.A. Roberta Maierhofer

Graz, 2018


 
Table of Contents 
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................................ 2 
A Descent into the Maelstrom / Close Reading ...................................................................................................................... 3 
1 Rationale of a Close Reading Approach .......................................................................................................................... 3 
1.1 Short description ...................................................................................................................................................... 3 
1.2 Three main reasons for a Close Reading approach .................................................................................................. 4 
2 Close Reading with a special focus on the role of nature and its impact on man ............................................................ 4 
Romanticism ........................................................................................................................................................................ 11 
1 Definitions, origin and the romantic thought ................................................................................................................. 11 
2 American Romanticism and the negative Romanticist Edgar Allen Poe ....................................................................... 13 
3 Romantic theme of nature .............................................................................................................................................. 16 
The relationship between A Descent into the Maelstrom and Romanticism ......................................................................... 20 
1 general ........................................................................................................................................................................... 20 
2 nature ............................................................................................................................................................................. 24 
3 sublime .......................................................................................................................................................................... 26 
Close Reading: The Open Boat ............................................................................................................................................ 29 
Naturalism ............................................................................................................................................................................ 35 
1 general: definitions, origins, main currents .................................................................................................................... 35 
2 Crane ............................................................................................................................................................................. 36 
3 Key characteristics of Naturalism .................................................................................................................................. 38 
3.1 Darwinism ............................................................................................................................................................. 38 
3.2 Determinism .......................................................................................................................................................... 39 
3.3 Objectivity and Pessimism ..................................................................................................................................... 40 
The relationship between The Open Boat and Naturalism.................................................................................................... 41 
1 Darwinian Concepts in The Open Boat ......................................................................................................................... 42 
2 The Influence of Determinism in The Open Boat .......................................................................................................... 44 
3 Crane’s style .................................................................................................................................................................. 46 
4 Objectivity and Pessimism ............................................................................................................................................ 49 
Comparison: Combination of Structural and Contextual Elements ...................................................................................... 50 
1 Juxtaposition of Key Roles of Nature in Descent into the Maelstrom and The Open Boat ........................................... 50 
1.1 power of nature ...................................................................................................................................................... 50 
1.2 multi-faceted and indifferent nature ....................................................................................................................... 52 
1.3 dependence on nature............................................................................................................................................. 54 
2 Juxtaposition of Crucial Effects of Nature on Man in A Descent into the Maelstrom and The Open Boat .................... 55 
2.1 sublime experience (R) vs. pessimism (N)............................................................................................................. 55 
2.2 transcendence (R) vs. denial of transcendence (N) ................................................................................................ 56 
2.3 adoption of distant perspective of nature (R) vs. objectivity (N) ........................................................................... 56 
2.4 submission to nature vs. fight against nature ......................................................................................................... 57 
2.5 brotherhood vs. betrayal ........................................................................................................................................ 58 
Conclusion............................................................................................................................................................................. 58 
Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................................................. 60 
 