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Gothic And Romanticism In The Raven By Edgar Allen Poe

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The gothic genre often gives the ideas of darkness, gore, mystery and trepidation. Gothic literature first appeared in the 1720’s, the most common eerie yet beautiful themes used are death and decay, insanity and internal chaos, as well as the supernatural. Gothic writers often attempt to unmask the dark and horrific side of human nature, the irrational and destructive desires of men. However, Edgar Allen Poe’s literary creations stray away from the conventional and traditional concept of Gothic. The essential spirit of Romanticism which focuses greatly on characters’ passion and inner struggles can also be found in Poe’s macabre tales. Unlike other Gothic writers, Poe does not focus on the sheer terror nor lustful romance like the famous and …show more content…

The rhyming and rhythmic pattern in ‘The Raven’ creates a melancholy and lonely atmosphere which helps to bring out the tumult within the pessimistic speaker. By shortening the last line of each stanza, which only consists seven syllables on top of the regular meter of trochaic octameter and the use of catalexis (shortening and stressing the metric foot at the end of a line) create a sudden shift in rhythm and an alternative abrupt change in mood in the poem, signifying the speaker’s return to reality from his troubling hallucinations. The predominating ABCBB rhyme scheme throughout the poem creates a special rhythmic effect of a drunken man whose mood swings rapidly from depressed to hopeful, amused to enraged, and sullen and heartbroken more obviously. Within the rhyme scheme, the use of internal rhyme like ‘dreamy’ and ‘weary’, ‘morrow’ and ‘sorrow’, ‘uncertain’ and ‘curtain’, along with the use of assonance of the ‘O’ sound such as ‘door’, ‘Lenore’, ‘before’ and ‘nevermore’ emphasizes the hypnotizing effect of the sensory language appealing to hearing. Since rhyming is not focused only at the end of each lines, but within the lines as well. When the poem is read out loud, the intensive use of alliteration when addressing the narrator’s thoughts in ‘Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before’ creates a musical and alluring effect to the readers, so that readers will fell into the narrator’s world and experience his discord. As the speaker is ‘weak and weary’, such alliteration of ‘W’ sound has made echo effect more audible and cannot be easily dismissed, just like the speaker’s memories towards his lost Lenore, forever trapped and displayed in flashbacks. By combining the melancholic rhythm and repetitive rhymes, Poe has successfully lured readers into the speaker’s dreadful and depressing world reconnecting

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