Analyzing Edgar Allen Poe's 'The Raven'

Smith 1 Smith

Mrs. Ruiz

English 3

27 February 2018

The Raven’s Representation “The Raven,” by Edgar Allen Poe, is a great piece of gothic literature. What would you do if a loved one died? Would you wallow in grief and let it drive you crazy? That is exactly what the narrator does. In the poem, the unnamed narrator is sitting in his library desperately studying his books trying to get his mind off his beloved, deceased Lenore. Then a raven flew into his chambers and went through a series of questions with the narrator. Soon after the series of questions between the bird an narrator, the poem ends with the narrator on the floor and us as readers have to kind of guess what has happened to him. “And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating

In the poem the unnamed narrator refers to the raven as an evil prophet. This, being a good guess on his part, I believe that raven represents and or could be the physical or metaphorical the grief, sorrow, mourning and all of the emotions tied with his dea dearly beloved, Lenore. I feel that the bird is representing all the grief just hovering over the narrator. Everytime the narrator asks the raven a question it responds with, “Nevermore”. He asks for the ravens name, it responds, “Nevermore”. He says aloud “On the morrow he will leave me as my hopes have flown before” (59) and it responds, “Nevermore”. He asks “Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn, it shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore, Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore” (93-95), and the raven responds with, of course, “Nevermore”. The raven, I feel is undoubtedly representing his grief towards Lenore. It says “Nevermore” when he says it will leave because his grief over Lenore will never leave. It says “Nevermore” when he asks if he will see Lenore again because through his grief and sorrow, he will not see Lenore in heaven. “To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom’s core” (74). As you can see from this quote, Poe is trying to say that the raven or his grief over Lenore is burned into. It will be there forever. The raven seems to be an exact representation of all the

Considering that the ravens feathers being black are in most cultures a sign of an ill omen. So with the gloomy setting of a dark stormy night, and the death of Lenore. I think it is very appropriate that it is a raven representing the narrator’s emotions and memories of Lenore. The raven was also picked to be the representation of grief and the memories of Lenore because of it being black to represent and go along with the theme of darkness. With the entirety of the theme being pretty dark, with it being a dark and stormy December night. December was also the time chosen I think to represent someone grieving death considering it being winter and nothing really is alive during the winter. “From my books surcease of sorrow, sorrow for the lost Lenore” (10). “Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December” (7).A raven was a good pick to represent these things. Before “The Raven” was published he wanted a parrot to be the representation of these things other than a raven. But, Poe realized how dark the poem actually was an decided that such a colorful bird such as a parrot to represent things so dark such as griefing and dark memories of a dead women. Also Poe wanted an animal that was dumb to mimic and repeat human words without knowing the meaning of the words they are mimicking. The raven also important because it allows Poe to