The Raven and Poe's Real Life

The life experiences of Edgar Allan Poe shaped his works as deeply as those of any other artist of his stature. In Poe's case, the author experienced a significant number of deaths of family members and loved ones, from leaving him an orphan to witnessing the death of his beloved wife. As Lindsay (1953) explains, "Always haunting him was the thought of the death of his mother, then of the death of women he loved, then of the death of his foster-mother, and finally his wife" (p. 11). The themes of death and the spirit world as a malevolent force are evident in many of Poe's stories and poems. Braddy (1973) explains that Poe creates "ghostly poems" that exhibit the death, near-madness, and indifferent world that were part of Poe's existence (p. 5). This analysis will explore the themes of death and the spirit world as they are conveyed in one of Poe's most haunting and famous poems, The Raven. A conclusion will address what might have driven Poe to focus on these kinds of dark themes obsessively in his career.

Poe's haunting by death, his belief in malevolent forces in the spirit world, and his use of hallucinogenic substances are all expressed in the setting, tone, and character of The Raven. The poem is eighteen stanzas long, and Poe (2008) sets the tone of loneliness and despair in the first stanza that depicts the old and alone, half-asleep narrator, "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, / Over many a quaint and curious vol

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tening, like maintaining he is "saintly" from the "saintly days of yore" (Poe, 2008, p. 1). This also shows the speaker's tendency to dwell in the past where his aspirations might have been possible with his beloved Lenore. Word choice and imagery continue to be used by Poe as the Raven becomes "ghastly grim" and begins chanting one word only in answer to the narrator's questions, "Nevermore" (Poe, 2008, p. 1). At this point the Raven becomes a threat from the darker aspects of existence and the spirit world. The speaker's character continues to reveal itself as he imagines the Raven will leave him "as my Hopes have flown before" (Poe, 2008, p. 2). This shows the speaker has been disappointed in life and exhibits little hope. Instead, the Raven continues to whip the speaker into a state of frenzied anxiety until he curses it. Once more showing the impact of loss and the haunting by death in Poe's life, the speaker tells the bird he thought his presence was to comfort, "Methought... / Wretch, thy God hath lent thee-by these angels he hath sent thee / Respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore" (Poe, 2008, p. 2). We see the loss from death and mourning of the narrator and that he admits he uses substances to s

Category: Literature - T