The Raven
Uploaded by chughes on Feb 18, 2002
In “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe, one sees the internal torment of a man in mourning for the lost love of a maiden, named Lenore that has died. The narrator expresses a sea of emotions over the vision of a raven haunting and taunting him.
As the man sits in his chamber he only seems to notice the negativity of his surroundings in a depressive state of mind over his lost. “..A midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary”. He was, as many people seem to be when they are depressed, in a lethargic and calm state nearly sleeping. He then was disturb by a tapping noise and slowly grew from slight excitement into fear and nervousness over the commotion. “And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain thrilled me- filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before.” The narrator tried to rationalize the situation into some coincidental incident of someone at his door yet, there was no one there. To this he plainly states, “Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,” only to perhaps start to question his sanity until he heard another noise. At this point in the poem one may clearly see his very painful condition and state of mind as he wishfully whispers the word “Lenore”. The marginal state between idealism and reality has blurred.
As the narrator tensely turns to the window to “explore” the disturbance, there the reader meets the raven that has entered into the room and placed himself above the chamber door. Now with this new component in the scene, the narrator “explores” his inner thoughts and fear openly to the reader. The raven seems to amuse the narrator, “Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling, by the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore”. In a jocular manner the narrator initiates a conversation with the raven, still intrigued by its appearance, mannerism, and specially its name, Nevermore. The raven then becomes a materialized symbol of the narrators own inner self, “The Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only that one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour”. Furthermore, the narrator is in the same manner sitting lonely in his chamber chair surrounded by all the things that remind him of his lost love. The narrators own soul is also being outpoured in...