Poe's Emotions In The Raven By Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe
With his all of his poems and stories, Poe surely captures the imagination of all who read them. While we do not know much of his past, it seems that Poe’s early life was dreary to say the least. Edgar Allan Poe was born of actors, however his father left the family, and his mother died when Poe was at the age of three. ("Edgar Allan Poe." Bio.com. A&E Television Networks) John and Frances Allan adopted Poe and raised him henceforth. John was a successful tobacco merchant in Virginia, and while Poe did not get along very well with his foster father, he and Frances had a pleasant relationship. Poe went on to University of Virginia, but John did not give him enough money to cover the costs, so Poe turned to gambling, but just

The first seven stanzas reveal the narrator’s melancholic state of mind. This story begins at midnight in December; the last moments of the day in the last month of the year -symbolizing death. Even the “dying” fire reflect the melancholic atmosphere. The single room setting gives a claustrophobic and contained feeling. The narrator has lost his wife in death, and he became depressed. He may have had suicidal thoughts, as he was reading uncanny books that no one else would read so as to distract him from his own mind. He keeps hoping for the morning to come, but all he can do that night is mourn his beloved Lenore. When the raven appears, the narrator sits in front of it, wondering why it keeps repeating the word “Nevermore”, which means “no”. He thinks that the raven is actually speaking a word to him, which is understandable since animals sound like they speak quite a bit. He is also searching for answers to questions he has about Lenore, for he has been grieving for her and is in a depression. The raven becomes a permanent fixture in the room, symbolizing a presence that looms over the narrator’s self inflicted mental collapse. The whole story shows the shift between the depressing and sorrow-filled state of mind to a mental and spiritual collapse. (Prentice Hall Literature : Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000.

The narrator starts of the story by saying he will tell a tale of how he killed an innocent man, and will somehow still be able to defend his sanity. This is unlike the story, ¨The Fall of The House of Usher¨ in which the main character, Roderick Usher, who is hypertensive and nervous, admits he feels mentally unwell. (Manning, Matthew K., Jim Jimenez, and Edgar Allan Poe. The Fall of the House of Usher. North Mankato, MN: Stone Arch , a Capstone Imprint, 2013. Print.) The narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart tries to prove that his hypersensitivity is proof that he is sane. Poe delicately and thoroughly chooses his words so as to provide a sense of paranoia and mental deterioration. The narrator masters precise form, but unintentionally tells a tale in which he killed an old man, betraying the madness he so badly wants to deny. (Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Tell-Tale Heart." The Tell-Tale Heart. Xroads.virginia.edu, n.d. Web. 15 Apr.