Essay on The Raven

Submitted By Brooke-Swallows
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Pages: 4
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Many people believe that Edgar Allen Poe's work was the result of a deceased or demented mind, but in fact I believe that it came from a lifetime of tragic circumstances and death of loved ones throughout his life that molded him into the unstoppable writing force he was, as shown in his poem "The Raven". Like in real life, Edgar's character in the Raven finds solace in the loss of his love Lenore in books and stories. Much like how Edgar himself channeled the loss of family and loved ones by writing poems and stories. I believe the story is much better because he has made a personal connection with the character hes writing about making the emotions portrayed in it to be much more believeable and intense. It's easy for people to understand the grief that one feels at the loss of love and life. It starts out a little painful and soon you believe that things will never be right ever again. Much as is comparable to the fact that in the poem Edgar talks about how the raven knocking on the door starts off softly as if you aren't sure there is even someone knocking on the door at all. Then leads into a sounds that is impossible to ignore, constantly pulling him back from the things that are making him happy, like reading his books. Just like in real life its so hard to find something to make you happy and smile when something tragic happens in your life. Edgar wants more then anything to have his love come back to him. So much so that he even calls out into the darkness when the raven knocks hoping its her. When he knows good and well that she isn't coming back but his grief and desire to have her back is so intense that he'd believe that maybe, just maybe, it was her. Only to be surprised by the entrance of the raven, there as if to remind him about death and loss personified. The Raven, an enigmatic piece of the story has been interpreted in many ways but the way I was able to understand and interpret it, was that the raven presents the stage of grieving where you bargain to have returned to you what you've lost. As I'm sure that Edgar understood first hand. That by the end of the poem the character is demanding that the raven return Lenore to him, or at least explain when she was taken from him, why she deserved to die. Someone so pure and wonderful as Lenore didn't deserve to die. Only to have the Raven continue to answer "NEVERMORE" over and over again. Just as in grieving we wish for answers to these questions and never get the answer we want. The poem doesn't have a happy ending, like every story in Edgar's life, ending with tragedy. It's very real in the aspect that we as people lose loved ones to death, either in life, or in relationships. He pleads to know if one day in death too if he will ever see Lenore again. Only to have sadness and loneliness personified in the taunting raven reminding him that he will see Lenore again nevermore. We can understand this same feeling in the
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