Gothic Elements In The Raven

In “the Raven,” by Edgar Allan Poe, he perpetuates a sense of gothicism throughout the poem by using literary elements along with structure in both his stanzas and setting. In the poem, the narrator is grieving over the death of his beloved, Lenore; as a result, produces a sense of melancholy carried across the poem. As the poem develops, it is suggested that he has little desire to mend his sorrow and would rather consume himself in melancholy. Poe carries out the gothicism throughout the poem by using rhyming with repetition of words, unity of effect, and setting and stanza structure, which suggests the narrator's submission to depression. The narrator’s resistance towards recovery is because he feels as though there is nothing left for

The setting sets the mood and enforces the melancholy throughout the poem; in addition, it helps to emphasize the repetition of words, while the structure of the stanzas work with the unity of effect to create a spiraling down feeling. The setting of the poem creates an image of a dark chamber and a “chamber door”(5) which leads into a hallway with “Darkness there, and nothing more”(24). This suggests that the narrator's room is a representation of his mind which is filled with his memories of Lenore while outside the room, even if he chooses to mend his feeling there’s nothing waiting for him. The repetition of “nothing more”(6) and “nevermore”(49) in this setting carries this feeling across the poem. The five lines of trochaic octameter followed by the cut off single tetrameter with the rhyme scheme ABCBBB gives the feeling of a spiraling down effect due to the structure the poem is written. The downwards spiral has the effect of creating the idea that the narrator is unable to resist the overwhelming feeling of melancholy from the loss of Lenore as the poem goes on. In “The Raven,” the narrator’s hesitation towards mending his feelings due to the loss of his loved one, Lenore, is because he feels as if a place without Lenore is empty and would rather submit to melancholy so he can keep reminiscing over his memories of Lenore when she was