Literary Analysis of Edgar Allen Poe's - Essay Example

This research will begin with the statement that in “The Raven”, Edgar Allan Poe addresses the theme of tragic longing through a character who seems locked in his chamber and has plunged himself into the pool of knowledge as if hoping that emerging wise thought can render for him a cure from despair. So in the initial setting may be pictured the speaker who claims to be in pondering among old books or what he describes as “many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore” until something comes as a mild disturbance that would gradually satisfy his curiosity of the world beyond his lonely chamber.

The second stanza reveals the speaker’s sorrow for the “lost Lenore” and Poe makes use of the name Lenore even in his other works signifying that the woman bearing such name must be immensely special as to create the primary conflict which the chief character in the poem would be found struggling to overcome. Between the “rapping” at the chamber door and the sorrowful feeling of loss of a beloved rises an element of terrifying suspicion as indicated in the third stanza so that the man eventually supposes “Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door.

” Then comes the point of departure from oneself, from the comfort zone as the speaker enters the outside of the chamber, and starts to seek after certain answers, as though to find relief in this certainty that his summon of “Sir” and “Madam” might be attended to by something or someone at a later time.. gulfed by the space inside until there occurs some relevant response or that which is able to materialize vague speculation to some degree of truth for him. As anticipated, silence is broken at the louder tapping via the lattice window where he suddenly thinks of exploring the mystery and discovers ‘Tis the wind and nothing more!

’ but a little afterwards, fluttering takes place and this time, the speaker does not only hear for he can also see ‘what perched’ above his chamber door. To this extent, the reader becomes acquainted with the “raven” whose perching action the man notes with some intent focus prior to a peculiar observation of the “bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling.” Here, the narrator likely expresses a feeling of comfort for the amusement toward the raven implies a sign of company to become relieved with somehow of the awfully sad remembrances of the past.

When he mentions “Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door”, he could be imagined to have uttered ‘bust of Pallas’ with an enthusiastic tone since Pallas is known to be a Greek titan god of war craft which may well represent power and at that moment, the speaker looks to have willed strength to be mustered for him to be able to defeat the main enemy -- the tragedy of losing the most loved ‘Lenore’. ‘Raven’ is a bird of mystery and omen and Poe is bound to establish a resolution with it in connection to the speaker who yearns for the settlement of his unrest and brokenness.

While each ‘nothing more’ is said without pertinent or useful meaning in the preceding stanzas, the arrival of the raven, apparently symbolic of hope, replaces the ending phrase with “Nevermore” whom the man in agony hears the raven declares as its lordly name to match the