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He has, first of all, created a room which is quite empty, devoid of life and perhaps a representation of loneliness, consequently reflecting the protagonist who has isolated himself. The aforementioned is also referred to as ‘European Gothic’ according to Craig white of the University of Houston Clear Lake4. Poe then continues by describing the scene as “Once upon a midnight dreary” and “bleak December”, setting the gloomy and sombre tone characteristic of gothic literature. To add to this, Poe uses a variety of words that fuel the darkness and ominousness of the …show more content…
For Poe, this genre might have offered him the chance to write about his sorrows, since, at the time The Raven was written according to Joy Lanzendorfer of Mental Floss6, his wife was deathly ill, he had already lost many to tuberculosis and he must have known, in his bosom’s core, that he was to sadly let another one of his beloved go. This is where both the genre and a dark, ebony omen come into play. It can be said that the gothic genre allows us to discuss quite painful subjects through use of various symbols and parallels and that we can see the effects of such heartbreaking things on the human mind, that we can gradually follow the decline, the decay one might go through after the traumatising event of losing someone close to oneself. The raven, further, is of importance for it, according to Poe, symbolised “mournful and never-ending remembrance.”7, the type we see in the poem when the bird repeats ‘nevermore’. The protagonist dreads the word for it reminds him of how he is incapable of perhaps ever seeing his dear Lenore ever again and how he is unable to ever forget her, as she has left her mark, like our beloved do on us, on his