In modern society, "corruption" connotes financial corruption, dishonest proceedings, or underhanded dealings in business or politics. Authors may waste other people's money and will presumably suffer emotionally, but romantic literature emphasizes the more dangerous effects of internal corruption. For example, “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe and “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne shed light on the paths of corruption taken by the main characters. On the surface, the narrator of “The Black Cat” and Goodman Brown lead comfortable lives full of goodness and love; their wives represent these positive ways of living. As the plot unfolds, the characters experience corruption through temptation, thus causing them to change internally and see the world with a more sinister frame of mind. Both attempt to resist the corruption, but ultimately both submit to the dark force. Although the moral paths of the two characters seem to mirror each other, in reality, the causes of their corruption and the changes they experience differ greatly from each other. Their different trials ultimately cause each character to shun the others' love for different reasons. While each author writes a unique story about his or her character's death, Hawthorne and Poe both demonstrate how a primitive human desire can be the ultimate root of temptation and corruption, and how its fulfillment can have negative consequences. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay From the beginning, the narrator and Goodman Brown have a similar outlook on life. Both strongly maintain some innate characteristics: the Narrator loves animals dearly and Goodman Brown respects pious people. These characteristics go so far as to be held by their own wives. The narrator mentions his joy in “[finding] in my wife a disposition with my” love of domestic animals of all sorts (Poe). Likewise, Brown's wife, symbolically named Faith, is a “blessed angel on earth” whom Brown will follow to heaven (Hawthorne). Both wives love their husbands as much as husbands love the objects of their own affection. Furthermore, both main characters share a similar contentment with life: the narrator announces that he "was never so happy as when he petted or caressed" animals (Poe), just as Brown states that he will "cling to [Faith's] skirts ]" after his evil purpose this evening (Hawthorne). However, when the Narrator and Brown fall into their respective abyss of corruption, both lose their once integral traits. Everyone goes through a trial that changes their perspective on life. They are no longer innocent and loving men, because temptation has corrupted them in a way that makes every man suffer traumatically. The narrator of “The Black Cat” goes through a transformation in which “his general temperament and character…experience a radical change for the worse” (Poe), and on a similar level, Brown doubles down on his former belief in God and gives up his soul to the devil crying “come, devil; for to you is this world given” (Hawthorne). Both of these changes occur within characters as a result of submission to temptation. Nothing outside of their moral beliefs has changed. The characters themselves experience a change in how they see the world, which reworks their beliefs and alters their actions. Ultimately, both reach a state of self-destruction. As a final similarity, none of the characters silently consent to the corruption. Every character endures in some way:.