Darkness, to me, is the essence of twisted people, scary stories, and terrifying remarks. It not only literally can mean the absence of light, but also, at the same time, take on a metaphorical and abstract form. Whenever I think of darkness, I think of secretive, wretched, or simply scary things. Many poems and stories can be classified as "dark". For instance, I would consider all of Edgar Allen Poe's work dark.
The word "darkness" always brings me back to my favorite episode of the show "Dexter". In describing his killing habits and urge, Dexter refers to his violent pressure within as his "dark passenger". To me, this was extremely significant and embodied every sense of the word "dark". The drive that brings the most innocent to commit crimes as terrible as murder can only be described as one thing: darkness.
I already know that "darkness" takes on two different meanings, but they can be also considered the same. Although its abstract meaning (gloomy, pessimistic, tragedy) is entirely different from its literal meaning (no light), both can describe each other. "Gloomy" things generally are seen as having no light, while things containing no light are usually classified as scary or pessimistic.
The idea of darkness interests me. Although the word does not define me, I find myself relating to aspects of it. I can be a cheerful person, but at the same time, I consider myself "out-of-the-ordinary". Dark things seem to break the norms of society, and through my research so far, I have found that, generally, darkness is associated with outcasts. For instance, in Shakespeare's "All's Well that End's Well", he refers to the black prince, that no one likes, and being enveloped by darkness. And although Shakespeare associates evil with darkness, he also identifies it with unfamiliarity.
Also through my research so far, I have learned that the meaning of "darkness" has drastically evolved over time. For hundreds of years, darkness was only seen in the literal "absence of light" sense of the word, but after a while, it slowly became more and more abstract. The most recent definition merely is "obscure". Does this mean that the word "darkness" has entirely transformed to mean "different"?
