Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven

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From the very first line in Edgar Allen Poe’s poem, The Raven, he sets the mood and creates a depressing and eerie atmosphere. It’s late, “dreary” and“bleak”. It’s also in December so we know it’s cold. The unidentified narrator sits home alone napping when a tapping comes at his chamber door.
The sorrow of losing a loved one can come in many forms. In Edgar Allen Poe’s poem The Raven, the unidentified narrator’s sorrow comes from losing his beloved Lenore. His sorrow happens to take shape of a raven. The narrator hears a tapping at his door and he immediately assumes it’s Lenore, which to me shows that he can’t let go of the fact that he still misses her and wants her to come back. He is then surprised that a bird flies in through the door …show more content…

There are a lot of theories of what the Raven could symbolize, what do I think it symbolizes? I presume that the Raven symbolizes mournful; never ending remembrance of his Lenore. The narrator asks the bird questions but the bird only answers with the same statement at the end of each stanza, “Nevermore.” So why does it keep saying this phrase over and over again? I think this bird is referring that the narrator will never see his Lenore ever again. This is the last thing the narrator wants to hear, he can't break the grip of his love to his lost one. The Raven I think is also saying “nevermore” due to the fact that he will never leave. It says, “But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour. Nothing farther than he uttered - not a feather then he fluttered-Till I scarcely more than muttered, “ Other friends have flown before-On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before.” Then the bird said, “Nevermore (55-61).” This man is beginning to be driven mad by this birds presence. Was this bird just a pigment of his imagination, or was this bird …show more content…

I think that this man’s mind is so puzzled he cant make sense of what’s real and what isn’t. It almost seems as if this man suffers from schizophrenia. Schizophrenia according to Dictionary.com is a long-term mental disorder of a type involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behavior, leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into fantasy and delusion, and a sense of mental fragmentation. I think that the side effect of this mental breakdown is making his mind display this eloquent bird. So why is it a raven, out of all animals, his brain chose one? Ravens are typically known as the most intelligent birds among the bird species. In lots of horror films you typically see ravens, I think it’s due to the fact that their complexion is intimidating, bold, and

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