Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality. In The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe allows his audience to believe that supernatural things make your mind exaggerate the results. The raven and the narrator are the two characters present in The Raven. These two characters are fully on board with the topic of supernatural. The narrator believes that this talking raven is really in his chamber to harass him. Lenore, the narroraters dead wife, is only spoken of. It is inferred that she is the inspiration behind this poem. When the narrator hears the bird talk for the first time he is not very stunned. This may show that the narrator is either losing his mind or that he knows that the bird is a supernatural thing from the start. The narrator
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He incorporates many allusions into his poem. One allusion that stands out to me is when the narrator says, “Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!” (page 5). This is an allusion to a mythological drug that someone might take to forget their grief. Quaff means to drink and the narrator is literally saying drink this kind of drug to forget your troubles. The narrator sort of envisions nepenthe when he’s in this hallucinated state. He thinks that God himself has sent the nepenthe and wanted to help him forget his misery. Another allusion that sticks out to me in this poem has to do with the plutonian shore. The narrator questions, “Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!” (page 4). When Poe states “Night’s Plutonian shore”, it is complicated image that readers invision. The phrase has three words, and each word has different meaning. Poe intends for The Night to stand for darkness, mystery and danger. The power of the setting allows the reader 's imagination to take their minds in different directions. Plutonian is an allusion to a Roman god of the underworld. Saying this associates the poem with the underworld. When thinking about the underworld, it’s often not rainbows and sunshine. It usually relates to darkness and death. When Poe uses shore he may be wanting his audience to imagine the chamber becoming closed in. Just as the sand is compressed and closed in each time the
He incorporates many allusions into his poem. One allusion that stands out to me is when the narrator says, “Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!” (page 5). This is an allusion to a mythological drug that someone might take to forget their grief. Quaff means to drink and the narrator is literally saying drink this kind of drug to forget your troubles. The narrator sort of envisions nepenthe when he’s in this hallucinated state. He thinks that God himself has sent the nepenthe and wanted to help him forget his misery. Another allusion that sticks out to me in this poem has to do with the plutonian shore. The narrator questions, “Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!” (page 4). When Poe states “Night’s Plutonian shore”, it is complicated image that readers invision. The phrase has three words, and each word has different meaning. Poe intends for The Night to stand for darkness, mystery and danger. The power of the setting allows the reader 's imagination to take their minds in different directions. Plutonian is an allusion to a Roman god of the underworld. Saying this associates the poem with the underworld. When thinking about the underworld, it’s often not rainbows and sunshine. It usually relates to darkness and death. When Poe uses shore he may be wanting his audience to imagine the chamber becoming closed in. Just as the sand is compressed and closed in each time the