Psychotic Disorders In Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven

Psychological View Many Americans, until this day, have been diagnosed with psychotic disorders. According to the Schizophrenia Health Center, psychotic disorders are a group of serious illnesses that affect the mind. These illnesses affect a person’s responsibility to think clearly, make good judgments, respond emotionally, communicate effectively, understand reality, and behave appropriately. When symptoms are severe, people with psychotic disorders have difficulty staying in touch with reality and often are unable to meet the ordinary demands of daily life. In Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven”, we can see that the speaker of this famous piece of American literature is a man grieving over the death of his beloved, Lenore. The speaker tries
to go on with his life, but he always feels grief for the person he lost. No matter what he does, the feeling comes back, and he cannot ignore it – just like we couldn’t ignore a bird in our room who was always staring at us. Based on my reading on “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe, the speaker was hallucinating images, suffering depression, and struggling through delirium tremens. After reading Poe’s poem, we can clearly see all of the speaker’s psychological conditions.
Throughout the poem “The Raven”, the speaker suffered hallucinations. The loss of his beloved Lenore hit him hard, especially psychologically. “That I scarce was sure I heard you – here I opened wide the door; - Darkness there and nothing more” (page 468 lines 23-24). Through this quote, the speaker shows auditory hallucinations. He’s sure he heard a knock on the door, but when he opened it, there was nothing but darkness. According to my understanding of the poem, the speaker also suffered visual hallucinations, unless we assume that the speaker really did see a raven. However, it does work well as a symbol for mental disorder, especially as a raven is known for its color, and depression is often referred to as the black dog. People who have hallucinations may hear sounds or voices or see things that are not really there, just like the speaker from “The Raven” thought he saw a raven.
The speaker’s loss of his beloved Lenore brought great depression upon him.
“Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow from my books surcease of sorrow – sorrow for the lost Lenore – for the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore” (page 467 lines 9-11). The speaker is grieving for his ‘lost Lenore’ and it is almost as if the raven has been sent as a messenger from the underworld to torment the speaker even more. According to the Depression Health Center. feeling depressed can be a normal reaction to loss, life’s struggles, or an injured self-esteem. Left untreated, depression can lead to problems at home, work, school, drug abuse, and even tragedy. Depression is a mental illness that affects most of the world’s population, but if treated correctly it could be cured. The loss of the speaker’s beloved Lenore made him fall into depression, and sadly he couldn’t get himself any
help.
Based on my understanding of the “The Raven”, the speaker is struggling through delirium tremens.
According to an article from Medline Plus, delirium tremens is a severe form of alcohol withdrawal that involves sudden and severe mental or nervous system change. The speaker of “The Raven" had too much going at one time of his life, so most likely he turned to alcohol as a nepenthe. Nepenthe was an ancient Greek concept of a medicine for sorrow, it would be what today is classified as an anti-depressant or a "drug of forgetfulness”. Scholars have thought of it as a substitute for Opium or Wormwood. We can tell he had some drinks because he was feeling weary. “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary…Ah, distinctly I remember it was in bleak December” (page 467 lines 1 and 6). The speaker mentions that it is night time and that he’s in his chair feeling weak and weary. This could be possibly due to extreme alcohol consumption especially since the poem mentions that it is December, a time to be ‘merry’ with our loved ones, or perhaps just alone and drunk if we have lost our loved one just like the speaker in “The Raven” did. According to an article all about delirium tremens, the main symptoms of delirium tremens are confusion, disorientation, agitation, and fever. The speaker seemed confused and disorientated because he was still grieving the loss of his beloved
Lenore.
“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most famous poems in American literature. Among other achievements, the poem is a detailed examination of hallucinations, depression, and delirium tremens. Poe’s protagonist moves through several specific stages of grief until he sinks into hopelessness at the poem’s conclusion. He does not come to accept his loss; he only suffers and attempts to deal with it. The raven symbolizes grief. The speaker tries to move on with his life, but something keeps pulling him back, and he can’t ignore it – just like the raven that sat in the room, staring. Throughout “The Raven” we saw many psychological conditions the speaker had to deal with. It’s very sad knowing how loosing someone we love can affect our life to a point where we just feel hopeless.