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What Does The Room Symbolize In The Raven

Decent Essays

“The Raven” is defined as a narrative poem by the popular American author Edgar Allen Poe. The poem is praised for its paranormal atmosphere, formalized language, and musicality. It outlines the mysterious rendezvous conducted between a man and a talking raven, which gradually trace’s the man into a state of insanity. “The Raven” tells the tale of a man who has recently lost his lover, Lenore. To help cope with this loss, he sits secluded in his study, becoming a loner as he reads various books in an attempt to distract himself from the reality of the situation at hand. In the middle of the night, “suddenly there came a tapping...as of someone gently rapping, rapping at [his] chamber door” (Poe 1205). Upon investigation, the narrator discovers …show more content…

Readers can relate and connect to this story because it allows for them to follow the journey of a person that is submitted to drastic life changes, changes that the readers themselves may also be struggling with. Poe uses several different symbols to to take the poem to a larger scale. The chamber in which the speaker is located throughout the tale signifies the loneliness of the man, and the sorrow that he is encompassed with for the loss of his love, Lenore. The room is furnished and helps to remind the speaker of his lost lover, generating an implementation of beauty. The symbolism that resides within the phrase that is repeated by the raven explains that not only has the speaker lost his lover, but he will “nevermore” be the same person he was previously. The tone of “The Raven” is dark and melancholic, and represents Poe’s own introvertedness. Poe aspired to use the melancholy topic of the death of a beautiful woman, which he was in love with. The tone exhibits a painful and vulnerable state of mind that is driven to madness. The overall tone is despairing, which connects to the central meaning/idea that the narrator’s life will never be the same without

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