raven
Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" employs a raven itself as a symbol of the torture, mainly the self-inflicted torture, of the narrator over his lost love, Lenore. The raven, it can be argued, is possibly a figment of the imagination of the narrator, obviously distraught over the death of Lenore. The narrator claims in the first stanza that he is weak and weary (731). He is almost napping as he hears the rapping at the door, which could quite possibly make the sound something he heard in a near dream-like state, not an actual sound. He is terrified of being alone in the chamber he is in when the poem takes place. The "sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain thrilled me-filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before" (731). When the poem opens, he is reading over books of "forgotten lore" (731). His imagination is probably already running wild. His surroundings are conducive to the situation he finds himself in. The word "chamber" itself implies a cold, rigid feel, like the narrator has shut himself away from everything in order to be alone to brood and torture himself. The words "ghost" and "dying ember" give the reader a feeling of discomfort, like something is not quite right with
And he will be forever reminded of Lenore and his loss, as the raven is sitting there above the door-"and the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting on the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door. Death itself is not something to be reasoned through the human capacity of understanding, and neither are the raven's cries of "nevermore. He takes the words of the raven to heart, especially the raven's words about Lenore and the state of her soul, as evidenced by his rage at the raven, "Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore! Leave that black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken! Leave my loneliness unbroken!-quit the bust above my door!" (733). The raven may also represent the narrator's fear of living without Lenore. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall, 2000. Furthermore, the raven serves as a perfect symbol of death as it is a non-reasoning creature. The mind is the most powerful tool of one's imagination, and the narrator's is definitely working in overdrive. He calls the raven a "prophet", but cannot place if it is a prophet of evil or of good. Thoughts are running through his head and it is safe to say that he is frightening himself more than the situation merits at this point. There is also a "tempest", a storm, brewing outside, not good for calming the spirits of the narrator. December is also the time of year when most plants are dead, to which extent the narrator remarks that it is a "bleak December", making for a dismal scene both outside and inside the chamber. All these things can attest to the mental state of the narrator due to the loss of Lenore.
Common topics in this essay:
Poe's Raven,
Greek Roman,
Lenore Paradise,
Night's Plutonian,
Roman Greek,
Lenore Paradise-within,
According Roman,
American Literature,
McMichael George,
death lenore,
River Prentice-Hall,
torture narrator,
chamber door,
answer nevermore,
night's plutonian shore,
nevermore tortures,
loss lenore,
lenore narrator,
raven's words,
nepenthe forget,
night's plutonian,
self-inflicted torture narrator,
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Acceptance Essays
