The Raven and Madness

In Edgar Allen Poe’s poem, “The Raven”, he uses symbols and figurative language to enhance his theme of madness. The theme of madness gives the poem an air of mystery and evokes many questions in the reader’s mind. The reader begins to wonder if the speaker is sane, or even if the Raven is real. The poem starts out fairly normal until the bird speaks, which is definitely out of the ordinary. Up until this moment, we have no reason to believe that the speaker is anything but sane. However, continuing on from this point of the poem’s first hint of madness, the reader says, “Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed by an unseen censer Swung by a Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.” This is where we start to compile evidence that the speaker may be imagining some of the events in the story, such as a bird talking to him, or angels perfuming the air in his room. After these events, towards the climax of the story, the speaker begins to yell at a bird because it is unable to tell him whether or not he will see his dead wife or not. Throughout the story, the sense of madness is enhanced as the speaker’s actions get more desperate and unorthodox, such as screaming at a bird and telling it to leave because he believes it is of the devil. Poe uses many symbols in his poem that enhance his theme of madness. He gives the story and ominous feeling as he states that the story took place on a “Bleak December,” obviously, this is not a happy season for the speaker. Before this, Poe alludes to the setting of an unhappy time with the words, “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,” this lets us know that not only is this story occurring at an ominous time, but the speaker is not currently in his best state of mind. Another symbol that adds to the theme of madness is the Raven which is one of the most important symbols in the poem. Ravens often bear ominous omens and are often associated with death. If Poe had chosen another animal in