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The Raven Rhetorical Analysis Essay

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An individual who experiences isolation and confusion can become consumed by fear of all that surrounds them. Edgar Allan Poe induces fear in the character featured in ‘The Raven’ which heightens the moods and adds intensity. The fear which is shown connects to the madness of the character who is having hallucinations of his dead wife, Lenore. “Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before; So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating…” Poe juxtaposes “fantastic terrors” to emphasise the fear of the unknown sound that is claimed to be heard. The phrase which follows, “never felt before” is used to explain to the audience that the character portrayed has never felt such emotions in his life. Though these emotions have been …show more content…

This again is a way to portray to the audience the feelings that is going through the character’s mind as the scene is played out. Poe uses the narrating voice of the short story ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ to question the audience about the sanity of himself. Poe uses rhetorical questions in “TRUE! --nervous -- very, very dreadfully nervous I had been an am; but why will you say that I am mad?” and gives reasoning for the narrating voice to prove his sanity. The fact that this is repeated numerous times throughout shows that the narrating voice has fear that he will be found by the audience to be mad. The use of rhetorical questions also involves the readers in the story as it seem that the narrating voice is speaking to them at different times throughout the short story. Poe draws on the fear of the old man in “Presently I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was a groan of mortal terror. It was not a groan of pain or of grief --oh no!--...” The modality in “mortal terror” highlights the fear of the unknown person which has entered the old man’s bedroom whilst he

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