Irrationality In Poe's The Raven By Edgar Allan Poe

One of Edgar Allan Poe’s most famous works is his poem, “The Raven”. Through the narrator’s interactions with the grating bird, we begin to see feelings of irrationality due to the longing for his lost love, Lenore. Immediately upon reading, the audience is able to feel the creepy undertone due to the dreary, December night. The narrator hears a repeated knock at the door and convinces himself that it is just a visitor. Yet, he expresses this deep sorrow in line 10 due to the loss of Lenore. It appears that he almost believes it is her knocking on his chamber door. The knocking continues and his heart begins to beat quickly. He finally opens the door after more insistent tapping. However, no one is outside. It is just the narrator alone with the darkness. He continues looking for quite some time, but eventually closes the door. The tapping begins again so he opens the shutter to look outside. Suddenly, a raven flies in and perches himself on the bust of Pallas, who is the god of wisdom. The narrator …show more content…
After the loss of Lenore, he is trying to discover some sense of an afterlife. In Philosophy of Composition, Poe expresses that melancholy and sadness are the most effective tones that a poet can use (678). Since the raven is a bird of ill omen, it suited the tone of the poem well. As a continuation of this sadness, Poe writes about death in relation to beauty. This dichotomy of such a beautiful love dying creates such a dismal experience for the narrator that will get a reaction from the audience. We are forced to deal with loss, but at times, even after moving on, there are dark moments where the thoughts of the loss are still overwhelming. The dark winter night sparks memories of his deceased love. During this time, the raven interrupts his thoughts instead of giving him hope of seeing her in an afterlife. Once the raven has fled, he is left with no hope