The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

It is only in the seventh stanza that the second character in this story is revealed. Here, the Raven is introduced. Within mythology, the raven is seen often enough that it has it’s own special altar in the world of the supernatural. In the Greek mythology, ravens are used by Apollo, the god of prophecy, as messengers to the mortal world. Even in Celtic mythology, ravens were associated with the goddess Morrigan who also gave prophecies. Also in both Norse and Welsh legends, the ravens symbolized wisdom. Both forms of prophecy and wisdom are presented Edgar Allan Poe in a way that is subtle yet impactful. Wisdom is immediately presented with the introduction of the raven, for it lands on the bust of Pallas who is more commonly known as Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom. However, this raven is something special. It “Perched, and sat, and nothing more.” The tone of something eerie and supernatural continues to be carried out.

Another obvious symbol is the bust of Pallas, the Goddess of Wisdom. This use is symbolic as it leads the narrator to believe that the raven speaks

Poe will never see his lost love again when uttering, "forget this lost Lenore," in line 84.

The narrator mentions that the raven lands on a bust of Pallas-Pallas Athena-who, according to Roman and Greek myth, was the goddess of wisdom. The narrator can consider that a Freudian slip of sorts; that the raven speaks the truth because it

The poem, “The Raven,” written by Edgar Allen Poe shows the deep depression and confusion that the narrator is experiencing since the death of his beloved wife. The gloomy setting of the poem predicts the visit of the Raven, whom is a sign of misfortune, darkness, and death. Throughout the poem, the narrator is continually mourning his wife, Lenore. He secretly hopes that the Raven will bring good news regarding his wife and his future; however, the Raven informs him that he will forever remain depressed. Furthermore, Poe uses setting, strong word choice, and symbolism to illustrate the Raven as the messenger of darkness and explain the narrator’s emotional state.

In some ways, "The Raven" shows Poe at his greatest image-making power, in which part of his life serves as a blueprint. His perfect illustration of the prison-like environment, on top of the inner turmoil of the narrator, creates a detailed, terrifying picture for the reader. At first glance, it is easy to see that Poe wrote this poem in reference to someone he truly loved. The problem is to know exactly who that person, Lenore, is, because without having that information, it would be impossible to understand the four points Poe is trying to make.

Edgar Allan Poe tells the story of a bereaved man who is grieving for his lost love in the poem, “The Raven.” During a dark and gloomy night, the man hears a knock at his door. Hoping that it is Lenore, his dead lover, coming back to him, he goes to open the door. Unfortunately, he is only met with emptiness and disappointment. Shortly after, a raven flies into the room through the window and lands on the bust of Pallas. The man begins to converse with this dark and mysterious bird. In response to everything the man says, the raven repeats one dreadful word: “Nevermore.” The symbolism of the raven being connected to death, and the man’s interaction with the dark bird reveals to readers that he is going through the stages of dying.

It is about how a man should be happy that a beautiful young woman is dying. He should exalt the fact that the woman is going to a better place, also known as Paradise or "Aidenn" in this poem. Thus, the echoing of "Lenore" first hints to the reader that this "Lenore" represents Poe's suffering wife, but in this poem, she is characterized as the speaker's already dead wife. The reader knows that the speaker's wife is already dead since later in the poem the speaker says he wants the raven to leave him in "unbroken loneliness." That is, Poe is trying to imagine getting news of the death of his wife through the speaker in his poem so that when his wife does die, he will not be terribly traumatized. Later, the speaker hears more rapping at his door. This time when he opens it, he finds a raven so noble and majestic that it would even dare to perch on Pallas Athena's, the Goddess of Wisdom and War's, bust, or breast. The first question he asks the raven is what its name is since he believes it to be from the "Night's Plutonian shore," which means a messenger of Ares, the God of the Underworld and dead. God Ares. The raven simply replies "Nevermore" and answers every question with this word. The raven's name as "Nevermore" also furthers the statement that it is a symbolization of death. At first the speaker makes himself believe that when the raven says "nevermore," he is muttering the fact that

Edgar Allan Poe embodied the murkiness of the poem, “The Raven”, by using the placement of the Raven. The Raven enters the poem presenting a dark and hideous imagery. As the young man asks questions, the Raven gives only one unwanted response, “Nevermore.” Throughout the poem, the Raven stays perched above the door immovable. The Raven is a static character that plays an important role in the bleak storyline.

The Raven tells a story of a man with much grief over this loss of his love, Lenore. As the poem opens, the narrator is trying to find peace through his books. He states, “…while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,” (862). The setting, a chamber in a house, is described in such a way that creates a very dark, almost melancholy style. The narrator, while trying to find comfort for his loss, hears a tapping at his window. As he opens the window, a raven, a long time symbol of death, flies in, and refuses to leave. Poe uses the symbol of the raven, and his repeating word of “nevermore”, to show that the narrator will never get over the loss of his love, Lenore.

Many people often dislike hearing scary noises in a desolated place where there is no one around. Any noise can be very frightful to the mind and to the heart. Our mind can sometimes create an image that does not exist and would essentially make anybody go crazy at the moment of hearing those scary noises. Edgar’s Poem, “The Raven’’, basically tells the story of a man that has lost everything including his beloved wife who he misses very much to the point of having hallucinations of the wind calling her name “Lenore“. He experiences realism and fantasy with a raven that shows up in his chamber door. The person in the story appears to be alone in his house and depressed about the loss of his wife Lenore. Then, standing at the chamber door, a raven will respond to the narrator’s arguments with the word “Nevermore” making the story more allusive and suspenseful as it develops. Each time, the raven becomes more mysterious and it is scary to hear the raven say the word “nevermore”.

Although now seen as the father of the modern horror story, Edgar Allan Poe was previously viewed as a drunken failure. Within Poe’s writings much of his own life riddled with guilt, anxiety, alcohol, depression and death shines through resulting in works that appear unrelated yet once dissected prove similar. This is true for Poe’s works “The Raven” and “The Black Cat”. Poe’s examples of gothic fiction share the use of the color black and a rapid digression of the narrator 's sanity while seemingly unveiling Poe’s internal pain. Despite these similarities, Poe’s works also differ immensely. “The Black Cat” focuses around death while “The Raven” is fixed around discovering the reasoning for a bird 's arrival. Moreover, gothic themes seen within “The Raven” do not necessarily remain constant when compared to “The Black Cat”.

Poe wrote the raven was perched on a bust of the Roman Goddess, Pallas. Pallas is the Goddess of wisdom. This becomes symbolic that the Raven can see his intentions, and that wisdom is gazing into the author’s eyes, “On the allied bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;/ And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,/ And the lamplight o’ver him streaming throes his shadows on the floor;/ And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor;” (trans.Poe, 18. 2-4). Poe described the raven as a demonic creature, which could be seen as death attempting to make it’s call on the author, “ Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly shore-/ Tell me what lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!,” (trans. Poe, 8.4-5). Poe capitalized the words: Night, Disaster and Hope in the stanzas, the narrator is stunned in his room, while it appeared to him that he had a fight between Heaven and Hell in front of his eyes. The Raven appears like the messenger of hell that is attempting to drag the narrator down into it. Loneliness is a state of hell. The author’s mind is dragging him across the room that he is in. His memory and imagination is torturing him, and he cannot

In the popular television show, “One Tree Hill”, Lucas Scott once stated, “Some people believe that ravens guide travelers to their destinations. Others believe that the sight of a solitary raven is considered good luck or more than one raven together predicts trouble ahead.” People have many different opinions about what ravens signify. In Poe’s “The Raven” it becomes clear that the raven symbolizes emotional suffering and also portrays a vivid understanding of reality.

"The Raven" is one of the most famous compositions of Edgar Allan Poe published in 1845, and for me is certainly an exceptional poem. Each time I read it is impossible for me not to think about the meaning of the raven as the protagonist and the connection the image has with society for many years. In some cultures, the raven is a symbol of eternal life, whereas in other places, like in my country (Colombia), the raven is an image of myths and dead. Likewise, the choice of a raven as the protagonist of this poem is suitable for a number of reasons(as he himself explains) Indeed, not many animals are capable of carrying out human-like sounds and at the time it was wrote this black furred animal was conceived as a bad sign.