Psychoanalytic Analysis Of The Raven

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Let’s start by looking at the protagonist of the poem who illustrates a lot of psychoanalytical issues in his ordeal with the raven. From the start of the poem to the end, the reader can recognize and identify many defenses. Some of them include selective memory, selective deception, selective perception, denial and displacement especially towards the end. The most significant issue presented in the poem is the fear of being abandoned. Let me delve deeper into the subject. The poem presents a sad tale whereby the hero tries to believe that the lost Lenore whom they were in love will return to him. At the start he is hopeful that naked reality of Lenore being gone is false. So when the raven comes rapping at his chamber door, the reader can feel that he is desperate that the it is her at the door. However, the hope is quashed when the raven chooses to enter the chamber through the window. To add on, at the beginning of the …show more content…

The Lenore his love can represent someone who is very dear to us and whom when we lose them we will grieve a lot. Poe on the other hand represent the true person who has to bear the loss and go through various stages of losses from denial to anger displacement to even depression. It was very wise of the author ton leave out the suicide part since it would mean that people who grieve after the loss of a loved one will always end up in depression followed by suicide. Though many a times readers and scholars wonder what was really going through Poe’s mind as he was writing this great masterpiece, an in-depth analysis of the language, symbols and the overall theme of the poem can be deduced. These five elements show us the psychological weaknesses of the protagonist in the poem The Raven. The protagonist shows us that he is only human by demonstrating many defenses and a core issue of the