The Raven Gothic

Extension English Edgar Allan Poe Writing Task Weland La
Edgar Allan Poe a writer renowned for his incorporation of macabre themes into his texts has contributed immensely to the gothic genre. The Raven, The Black Cat and The Tell-Tale Heart are all gothic texts by Edgar Allan Poe which we have been studying in class. We categorise them as works of gothic literature, but what is it about them that makes it belong in the gothic genre?
Poe explores numerous gothic conventions in his poem, The Raven to signify its acceptance in the gothic genre. “In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore”, the Raven is a symbolic representation of death and foreshadows the approaching demise of the narrator. Furthermore,

“This latter was a remarkably large and beautiful animal, entirely black, and sagacious to an astonishing degree”, the passage referring to a black cat, symbolises evil and impending bad luck for the narrator. Moreover, the black cat represents the narrator’s doppelganger and alternate identity. A doppelganger’s role in a gothic text is usually to haunt and threaten the rational psyche of the victim to whom they have become attached. This is exactly what happens as outlined, “For months I could not rid myself of the phantasm of the cat”. Consequently, the narrator’s downfall is once again hinted. Poe’s extravagant utilisation of macabre, “I took from my waistcoat-pocket a pen-knife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket!”, “One morning, in cool blood, I slipped a noose about its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree” and “I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain” creates a melodramatic effect. The gratuitous and pornographic descriptions and imagery are driven by intense, emotional responses, a key feature of romanticism. These two passages alone fulfils the requirements of a gothic text, including horror, death, and romance. Revenge is also a prominent gothic convention presented in this text. “Upon its head, with red extended mouth and solitary eye of fire, sat the hideous beast whose craft had seduced me into murder, and whose informing voice had consigned me to the hangman”, the black cat successfully exploits the narrator’s hubris to lead the narrator to his destruction. The black cat acquires its vengeance for the narrator’s maltreatment of his wife and pets, including the black cat itself. The fire evident in the cat’s eye may be symbolic of the narrator’s impending journey to Hell, a spiritual location for people who have committed repressed