A Critical Analysis of The Raven

             Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven, representing Poe’s crisis, is oddly moving and eye-catching to the reader. In his essay entitled The Philosophy of Composition, Poe reveals his purpose in writing The Raven and also describes the work of constructing the poem as being calculated in all aspects. Of all the distressing topics, Poe wished to use the one that was universally understood, death, specifically death involving a loved one.
             The tone seemingly represents a very painful state of mind, an intellect receptive to insanity and the void of depression brought upon by the death of a beloved woman. When Poe had decided to use a refrain that repeated the word "Nevermore," he found that it would be most effective if he used a non-reasoning creature to utter the word. It would make little sense to use a human being since another person could reason to answer the questions. The narrator tells what he remembers about the setting and action at the time of Raven's visit. It was December, the first month of winter and a time when the nights are longest, creating a mood of mystery. Both midnight and December symbolize closure, as midnight is the last hour of the day and December is the last month of the year. “Midnight” and “December” also represent the anticipation of something new, a change to happen.
             To set the mood, Poe uses mysterious and depressing words in these descriptions: "bleak," "dying," and "ghost." To escape his heavy mood, the speaker has been reading; he says it was a vain attempt to "borrow From my books surcease of sorrow," that is, to find something in his books that would take his mind off the sadness he feels about his lost love, Lenore. He reveals that Lenore has died when he says that the angels call her by name. The phrase "from out my heart," Poe claims, is used, in combination with the answer "Nevermore," to let the narrator realize that he should not try to seek a moral in what has been previously narra...

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A Critical Analysis of The Raven. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 12:33, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/52464.html