Preview

Symbolism In The Raven

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
78 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Symbolism In The Raven
One literary device in the poem is symbolism. Symbolism is the practice of using a word to represent an idea. There are several symbols in the poem “The Raven”, but the main symbol is the raven itself. The Raven symbolizes the man’s memories of his wife, Lenore. The bird stands as a memory of his loneliness and misery. When the bird said “nevermore” it was more effective than the human saying it. The raven represents evil and death.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Raven is about a man who lost his beloved lenore, and he cannot stop thinking about her. The way it shows romanticism is because of its extreme emotion of what love can do. A man who is laying in his bed trying to sleep one night cannot stop thinking about his beloved Lenore. He hears knocking, voices, and steps from outside of his room and door. He tries to believe it is wind, but he knows it's not. Finally, he stand up to go to his door and opens it, and it is the literal door to hell. Soon after this door opens a raven comes in and lands on his statue of athena (the god of wisdom). The raven and athena are representing how his life has been blocked by the death of his beloved. He asks the raven many questions about lenore spanning from if he will be happy to if she has found peace in heaven. The answer the raven gives is never more. Essentially by the end of the story the man knows he will never find love or peace without Lenore for the rest of his life. Edgar Allan Poe models his stories after his life. His wife had died, and he never got over this. So in his stories he uses romanticism to show the story of his…

    • 1027 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Afterwards, a series of tapping sounds come from the window, and as he opens it to investigate, a raven flies in. “Obeisance” is used in line 39 to show the Raven’s lack of respect towards the narrator as it sits atop a bust of Pallas, the Greek Goddess of Wisdom. Directly after, the use of “beguiling” and “countenance” in lines 43 and 44 describe that the bird’s trickery and facial expression made the narrator smile. In line 47, when asked for its name on the Nightly shore of Pluto, Roman God of Death, the Raven replies “Nevermore.” This is the only word the Raven says throughout the course of the poem, and it causes the narrator to worry; he describes the bird as ominous, foreshadowing evil, line 70. Then, in lines 79 and 80, he claims to feel the presence of Seraphim, the highest rank of angels, swinging a censer and causing the air to thicken. The narrator turns to nepenthe, a kind of drug, to forget about Lenore, line 83. However, regardless of his efforts, the Raven will not leave, so he does not stop drinking and dies in the end, but the Raven still sits upon his door, casting a shadow…

    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe is about a grieving man who is visited by a strange Raven who can only say the word “nevermore”. Believing the Raven to be some sort of prophet, he asks him a series of questions, which the Raven may only reply with “nevermore”. The man continues to ask the questions, and becomes more and more distraught with each one, until he ultimately decides that he will be mournful for eternity, which leads us into the theme of the poem: if you dwell on their grief for too long will be the cause of their own anguish.…

    • 562 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When the raven is seen by the narrator he thinks it is a sign from his beloved Lenore. The narrator’s insanity leads him to believe that the raven is a sign that maybe Lenore is not gone. His obsession with the loss of Lenore makes…

    • 685 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Raven Analysis Essay

    • 546 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In this essay, I will discuss the elements involved and my interpretation of the poem The Raven, by Edgar Allen Poe. Many poems, including this particular one, are made up of a number of elements which are combined to give the reader a certain thought or feeling. I will also discuss the poet's philosophy on poetry and how this plays a role in The Raven.…

    • 546 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Conspiracy, unkindness, and death are a few words associated with one of the most popular birds in the world. The raven is commonly seen in works of art, literature, and movies to set the tone or scenario for things that are coming next. In Poe’s, “The Raven”, the ebony bird symbolizes grief upon the man who is trying to forget his recent lost love, Lenore. The raven represents loneliness, void, and demise from the moment he tapped on the window until the bird spoke for the last time.…

    • 737 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Another symbol is the Pallas. In the whole room the raven decides to perch on the Greek Goddess of Wisdom, why? Could he be trying to lead us to believe that the raven speaks from wisdom? Or was Poe just using a word only some could…

    • 295 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    The word "gothic" evokes feelings of doom, depression, death and decay. It suggests old extravagant cathedrals and falling down buildings. "Gothic" also suggests doomed relationships and lost loved ones. Gothic literature is meant to scare readers as well as to remind readers of their own darkness, of the darkness that they are capable of being. In the gothic poem 'The Raven, ' Edgar Allen Poe uses symbols and allusions to other works of literature to create a poem that describes the madness man can develop at the loss of a loved one.…

    • 1216 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    "Poe's Life Reflected in The Raven" Edgar Allen Poe is a well known writer and poet. He wrotemany tales of mystery and macabre. I once read his book, 'The Masqueof the Red Death'. The story was so heavy and dark that I felt scaredwhile reading the book. When I was about to read his poem 'TheRaven', the title already gave me the similar image of 'The Masque ofthe Red Death'. Individuals may have different ideas about raven.Some have a positive images on raven because it is considered to bringgood luck in some countries. They believe that ravens guide and helppeople findtheir destination. Others have a negative images on raven becauseraven is a symbol of death in some countries. I also have a bad imageabout raven. Even though I do not believe that raven brings death, Ido not feel good about it. Maybe that's why the title reminded me ofthe story 'The Masque of the Red Death'. Maybe it's not exactly thestory but the atmosphere of the story.There are many other birds which give us more affinity andpositive images such as eagle and bluebird. At first I wondered whyPoe used raven as his messinger. After reading the whole poem,however, I realized why he used raven. I believe that Poe wanted togive readers more reasons to wonder about what this bird means, whereit comes from, and what it might represent. Also, by using raven'sdark image he may want to convey the dreary atmosphere and mysterytone of the poem. It seems obvious that the raven symbolizes emotionalsufferings and portrays a vivid understanding of reality.The story of the poem is about a man (narrator) who lost hislover, Lenore. He is awfully depressed and lonely. I can assume hisemotional condition. He seems very tired and weak. Poe used the word'dreary' to creat the weak and weary atmosphere of scene in the firsttwo lines. I can empathize with his heartbreak because I myself haveexperienced the loss of beloved ones. The line 7 gives a specificinformation about the background. It is December, and the…

    • 1137 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The Raven” is an exploration into the loneliness, despair, and insanity associated with the loss of a loved one. Through the clever use of structure, repetition and symbolism Edgar Allan Poe manages to draw us into this feeling of morbid despair and with every use of the haunting refrain “nevermore” upon which the chilling cadence of this poem is built Poe transforms a story steeped in sorrow into a tale of supernatural fear and insanity as only he can.…

    • 1196 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Raven: A Close Reading

    • 2241 Words
    • 9 Pages

    The entire poem including the first stanza, as scanned here, is octametre with mostly trochaic feet and some iams. The use of a longer line enables the poem to be more of a narration of the evening's events. Also, it enables Poe to use internal rhymes as shown in bold. The internal rhyme occurs in the first and third lines of each stanza. As one reads the poem you begin to expect the next rhyme pushing you along. The external rhyme of the "or" sound in Lenore and nevermore at then end of each stanza imitates the haunting nature of the narrator's thoughts. The internal rhyme along with the same external rhyme repeated at the end of each stanza and other literary devices such as alliteration and assonance and give the poem a driving chant-like sound. The musicality of the rhyme also helps one to memorize the poem. This helps keep the poem in your head after you've finished reading it, lingering in your thoughts just as the narrator's thoughts are haunting him. The rhyme also helps to produce a humming beat in the readers mind driving him on steadily..…

    • 2241 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Edgar Allen Poe the Raven

    • 2112 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Raven" is it's saturation of symbolism. The raven (see Appendix R) itself is the main symbol, representing the man's self-torture uncovered in the work.…

    • 2112 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Raven creates a sense of doom for the speaker by confirming the fact that he will never be able to get rid of his sorrow. He will always be sad as he longs for his lost love, Lenore. In the poem, there’s a part where the Speaker is irate and driven to madness by the Raven. He screams at the Raven, “Leave my loneliness unbroken! – quit thy bust above my door! / Take thy beak from out my heart and take thy form from off my door” (Poe 17). The Raven gives the Speaker despair. The Speaker tells the bird to take its beak out of his heart because the bird is deepening his pain and causing agony. It also shows how the Raven is real because the speaker sees it above his door. The bird does not literally have his beak in the Speaker’s heart but he is lying above his door, haunting the Speaker. Although the bird has no intent to cause the Speaker pain, the Speaker interprets the Raven saying “nevermore” as a way of saying his pain will never end, thus creating his own sense of…

    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As my creative response to the poem, The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe I chose to make a collage because I felt it was the best way to represent the various themes throughout the poem. My intentions for the creative response were to make a heart sharped collage with a break down the center, on one side of the break I wanted to have dark and sad sayings, words and pictures to represent the darkness of the poem and the theme of madness. On the other side of the break were the happy sayings, words and pictures to represent the theme of love that is displayed. The themes of madness and love that are represented in my creative response and in the poem itself are universal and this is why The Raven by E. A. Poe is an enduring classic.…

    • 686 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Symbols and allusions in the raven By Edger Allan Poe Introduction • An allusion is a reference in a literary work that shows something without mentioning it directly. • Symbolism is a figure of speech that uses an object, person, situation, or word to represent something else like an idea. Symbols • Lenore symbolizes idealized love, beauty, truth, or hope in a better world.…

    • 420 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays