The Raven By Edgar Allan Poe Essay

The dark narratives based on grief, insanity, death, and darkness most commonly correspond with one eerie man. The infamous Edgar Allan Poe was a very talented gothic writer. Poe’s writing was fueled by the grief that stemmed from the death of his mother and wife. Throughout the 19th century, Poe’s pieces became increasingly popular, yet even with the fame he still struggled in a depressive state. Although Poe’s writing consists of supernatural elements, it is heavily focused on the darkness of the human mind, as displayed continuously in his narrative “The Raven”. This short story contains a speaker who is suffering through immense grief of losing his loved one, Lenore and over the course of the story, a raven haunts him resulting in the narrator

“The Raven” is focused heavily on the grief the speaker faces, as he is trying to cope with the death of his loved one. With this in mind, Edgar Allan Poe wanted the reader to not only understand the speaker's grief but to feel the pain he is going through. The speaker mourns, “‘Wretch’, I cried, ‘thy God hath lent thee-by these angels he hath sent thee Respite- respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore; Quaff, of quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!’ Quoth the Raven, ‘Nevermore’” (Poe 81-84). Death is one of the most common types of grief a person can endure, in a lifetime everyone inevitably loses someone, therefore making it a very melancholy topic. In “The Raven” all the speaker wants to do is forget and move past the death of Lenore, but the raven will not let him forget, which is very relatable to many readers. When people experience grief, all they want to do is move on, but most have the internal struggle of not being able to. Henceforth, the fact that the speaker was unable to move past his deep sadness is hugely powerful to its readers because of the ability to connect with him and share his pain. Further displaying how through his writing Poe created intensity, through the melancholy theme of grief making the reader endure the true heartbreak the speaker is

Poe purposefully leaves elements of his narratives up for interpretation; a key example within “The Raven”, is the raven itself. In particular, the speaker pleads, “... Leave my loneliness unbroken!- quit the bust above my door! Take thy beak from out my heart and take thy form from off my door!’ Quoth the Raven, ‘Nevermore’” (Poe 99-102). The raven is haunting the speaker, when the speaker wants the raven to leave the raven refuses. With this Poe constructed a suggestive element, about whether or not the raven was real. The raven could be a supernatural element meant to haunt the speaker, as it was sent in the dark of the night, can talk, and has a demonic appearance. On the other hand, the raven could be a figure of the speaker’s imagination. A subconscious symbol representing the true despair the speaker feels from the passing of Lenore. At this point, it is up to the reader to decide which path they want to take, Poe had created evidence for both sides and successfully made the reader decide on their own. Therefore, checking off yet another element towards achieving his expert