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In this case, the "rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore..." is the one lost. Why did an angel name Lenore, one has to wonder? Is there something associated with death or the afterlife in this image?
In fact Poe builds up the beauty of "lost Lenore" in sharp contrast to him saying that it was a "bleak December," and "each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor" and adds that when he awoke from his nap, and looked out his chamber door, there was only darkness "and nothing more."
So the poet is giving a narrator's identity as a person who hears a tapping first, then sees nothing but darkness, and hears an eerie echo of his own voice saying "Lenore!" The reader knows that the narrator is kind of weird, when a raven, a symbol of a scavenger and death makes him happy ("this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling"), but later in the poem the bird is a "thing of evil...if bird or devil!"
The narrator is obviously troubled, and maybe delirious, over the loss of his loved one. And how did she die? Did the narrator have anything to do with her death - and now, the raven is coming to extract guilt from the narrator? This is a possibility, but it could also be that Poe just wanted to keep the reader off-guard, and not give the obvious answer as to what the poem is trying to say.
All the raven ever says is "nevermore," even though he is asked several questions. Is that what the raven's previous owner taught him to say? Was that the raven's name ("we cannot help but agreeing that no living human being....with such a name as "Nevermore."
While most readers, as was stated before, see the poem as reflecting the anguish of a man who lost his love, and goes through some psychological turmoil which is made more intense by the raven tapping on his chamber door, there are scholars who read a lot more into the poem, and think that Poe is in a way rebelling against the world of poetry where there is meaning within the metaphors. It is known that Poe was emotionally stressed out at different times in his life, and that he liked to put the real world in contrast to the artistic world (of unreality) for poetic comparison, and there could be some link...
Or maybe it is a way of just showing how desperate the narrator is in his life at this time.
Works Cited
Cervo, Nathan. "Poe's 'The Cask of Amontillado.'" The Explicator 51.3 (1993): 155-157.
Delaney, Bill. "Poe's 'The Cask of Amontillado.'" The Explicator 64.1 (2005): 33-36.
Graham, John Stott. "Poe's 'The Cask of Amontillado.'" The Explicator 62.2 (2004): 85-89.
Griswold, Rufus Wilmot. "Death of Edgar Allan Poe." (New York Daily Tribune). Edgar
Allan Poe: The Critical Heritage. Ed I.M. Walker. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986, 294-302.
James, Henry. "Pioneer American Critic of Genius." Critics on Poe. Ed. David B. Kesterson.
Coral Gables, Florida: University of Miami Press, 1973. (no page numbers available)
Masters of Horror & Suspense: The Interlopers, The specter, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989.
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Raven." Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Ed. Thomas
Olive Mabbot. Vol. 1: Poems. Cambridge: The Bellnap P. Of Harvard UP, 1969.
Ransome, Arthur. Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Study. London: Martin Secker, 1970.
Rein, David M. Edgar A. Poe: The Inner Pattern. New York: Philosophical Library, 1960.
Shulman, Robert. "Poe and the Powers of the Mind." ELH 37.2 (1970): 245-262.
Stedman, E.C. "Poe's Enigmatic Reputation." Critics on Poe. Ed. David B. Kesterson. Coral Gables, Florida: University of Miami Press, 1973. (no page numbers available)
Willis, Nathaniel Parker. "Edgar Allan Poe." (Home Journal). Edgar Allan Poe: The Critical
Heritage. Ed I.M. Walker. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986, 307-312.
Whitman, Walt. "Poe's Significance." Critics on Poe. Ed. David B. Kesterson. Coral Gables,
Florida: University of Miami Press, 1973. (no page numbers available)
Works Cited
Cervo, Nathan. "Poe's 'The Cask of Amontillado.'" The Explicator 51.3 (1993): 155-157.
Delaney, Bill. "Poe's 'The Cask of Amontillado.'" The Explicator 64.1 (2005): 33-36.
Graham, John Stott. "Poe's 'The Cask of Amontillado.'" The Explicator 62.2 (2004): 85-89.
Griswold, Rufus Wilmot. "Death of Edgar Allan Poe." (New York Daily Tribune). Edgar
Edgar Allen Poe's 1843 short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" is about a young man who becomes mortally obsessed with an old man's creepy eye and ultimately kills him. Thomas Hardy's 1902 poem "The Man He Killed" is about a soldier who has become used to killing people just because they are on the other side of the war. Both of these narratives lend insight into guilt related to death, told
..it is sadomasochism made acceptable to a mass readership by the elimination of any ostensible sexual element. Imbedded in the tale is the psychological journey of an egocentric who derives pleasure from cruelty."(Pritchard, 148) While this explanation stands, it must be observed that Poe's intention went beyond the psychological investigation: his description of evil doing is almost always accompanied by a certain symbolism that alludes to the intrusion of the
Such evidence as there is can be taken up at a later time. But of one thing we can be sure. If Virginia was the prototype of Eleonora she was not the model for Morella or Berenice or Ligeia."(Quinn, 255) These feelings can also be inferred from Poe's letters to Mrs. Clemm, Virginia's mother: I am blinded with tears while writing this letter-- I have no wish to live another hour.
Poe refers to an ebony clock throughout the writing, Butler, uses a tree in the back yard, as well as the corner of the footboard that he is able to see from the cage. Poe uses terminology that is more complicated in his writing and gives the reader a more formal feel to his overall writing. Butler on the other hand uses basic terminology, as has a relaxed atmosphere about
Edgar Allen Poe is one of the most famous American authors, but many of his works are not explicitly about the American experience. His "gothic" fiction is filled with suspense, the macabre, the grotesque, and the dark side of human nature. However, a deeper analysis of Poe's works can reveal parallels between his fiction and the American experience. One of Poe's works that can particularly symbolize and exemplify the American
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