Running head: FEELINGS OF MELANCHOLY AND DEATH

Feelings of Melancholy and Death through the use of symbols and imagery in The

Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe

Carolina Andrea Bustos Martnez

Universidad Austral de Chile

FEELINGS OF MELANCHOLY AND DEATH 2

Abstract

The influence of the figurative language and its resources within Literature has

always been a matter of discussion among authors, analysts and readers. Edgar Allan

Poe, one of the greatest authors of all the times, wrote The Raven, a poem considered

undeniably meaningful because of the presence, in almost its totality, of different

symbols and images. In this paper will be analysed the impact of the literary devices

within the poem and its effects on the interpretational process of it through the use of

Symbolism, Imagery, and other literary devices, which emphasize the feelings

developed on The Raven.

Keywords: Melancholy, death, symbols, imagery, Symbolism, The Raven, Edgar

Allan Poe, rhetorical devices, figurative language, poetry, Literature, American authors.
FEELINGS OF MELANCHOLY AND DEATH 3

Feelings of Melancholy and Death through the use of symbols and imagery in The

Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe

North American literature has, among all its representative authors, a great one

who created a series of important works regarding literature. This paper will be focused

on Edgar Allan Poe and his Raven, written in 1845. Poes life is certainly a matter of

discussion among people devoted to literature and, also, it is impossible to discuss

American Romanticism and not including him, his lifestyle and his influences, because

these had a direct impact on the works he wrote during his short life. However, it is not

the purpose of this paper to go through the details of his tormented life. In these lines, it

is intended to have a depiction on the themes developed in The Raven. To start, it is

important to state that the thesis of this paper will be centred in the fact that this poem

evidences a series of symbols that lead readers to evoke melancholy and death as

principal themes, and also in the use of imagery to express abstract ideas and emotions

that make readers feel as if they were inside the poem.

Firstly, and in Chadwicks words (1971), Symbolism can be defined as a

technique used to express ideas and emotions not by describing them directly . . . but

by suggesting what these ideas and emotions are, by re-creating them in the mind of the

reader through the use of unexplained symbols (pp. 2-3). In other words, one can

understand Symbolism as an alternative way to portray complex or elevated ideas that

require a different description for the sake of a literary work. In this way, it is possible

to locate inside the poem different symbols that are able to analyse, such as the raven

with his plumage colour or Lenore. The raven, known as a symbol of death (because of

his black plumes), destiny and changes, is for Poe an emblem of the dreary and

perpetual remembrance (Buranelli, 1972, p. 127) and recurrent obsession of whom

does not accept the loss of a beloved one. Also, one can find that the lyric speaker
FEELINGS OF MELANCHOLY AND DEATH 4

states some characteristics of the bird, such as grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and

ominous (The Raven: line 71), that help readers to interpret that the raven is a

messenger or a bearer from afterlife or, in words from the poem, a Prophet! . . . Thing

of evil! (line 85) with fiery eyes (line 74) that have all the seeming of a demons

that is dreaming (line 105). Another symbol within the poem is the chamber door

(then, the window) that suggests a division between the reality of the speaker and an

imaginary world which is accessed through the sadness and pain after the beloveds

death (Romero, 2013, p. 207)1. Then, the bust of Pallas the Greek God of wisdom

represents the knowledge in which the lyric speaker has fallen in order to hide the

constant pain and melancholy2. This symbol has an important role as a female one,

because it represents the unachievable and frightening woman (meaning developed

because of the busts location) that the speaker wants but cannot reach. As well as what

have been said, one can analyse the Nights plutonian shore, a symbol that emphasizes

the ideas of darkness, loneliness and melancholy that may be understood as a deep

hellish darkness considering the note that appears in The Norton Anthology of

American Literature (2007), in which is explained the meaning of Plutonian: Black, as

in the underworld ruled by Pluto in Greek mythology (p. 1538); the Nepenthe, symbol

used as an allusion to the mythological drug used to forget and as way that the speaker

desperately needs to remove the suffering and mental pain that the death of Lenore and

its constant reminder provokes to him; the bleak December, as a symbol of death,

because in the northern hemisphere December is synonym of winter and, in winter,

nothing grows nor lives; and Lenore, who represents the obsessive thoughts of the

speaker, but also the memory of the dead beloved. As one can see through this brief

analysis, Symbolism is a resource used in the poem to evoke in readers through

1
Original quote: al que se accede a travs del dolor y de la tristeza tras la muerte de la amada.
2
Also, this symbol contrasts with the raven: white the bust, black the raven; wisdom in one, destiny in the
other.
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worldwide know elements feelings, emotions and ideas that can be helpful at the

moment of understanding the sense of this writing in a better way, as well as to have an

interpretation, which is linked to the feelings of the author and his conception of the

piece of work when he wrote it.

Another device utilized in The Raven was the imagery, which is a language that

evokes a physical sensation produced by one of the five sensessight, hearing, taste,

touch, or smell (Kirszner & Mandell, 2001, p. 389). Some words in the poem bring to

mind the feeling of melancholy, agony, loneliness, desperation or madness, such as the

description that the speaker makes about himself and his condition while he is at the

chamber door: I stood there wondering, fearing, / Doubting, dreaming dreams no

mortals ever dared to dream before (lines 25-26). Some other examples of imagery on

the poem are: And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain (line 13)

which makes one believe that the sound of the curtains was monotonous and dark but

soft; the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer (line 79), which evokes

smelling and a breathless sensation; and his eyes have all the seeming of a demons

(line 105), imagery that brings to mind a raven with red eyes (sight). Taking in account

that the different images used in this resource may have emotional associations, or

connotations (ibid.), one can establish that the readers response will vary according to

their own experiences and the positive or negative connotations that they will give to

the images presented, even when the poem accurate enough in its word choice with the

purpose of to evoke the same feelings in the readers, regardless of their contextual

knowledge.

Although imagery is one of the most recurrent rhetorical devices in The Raven,

it is possible to find some other resources that add more emphasis to the feelings

developed within the poem, such as alliteration, repetition, personification and

FEELINGS OF MELANCHOLY AND DEATH 6

apostrophe. Regarding the rhythm, alliteration gives to the poem a bonus because, even

when the reader gives his own emphasis to the reading, this literary device makes the

process of interpretation even more attractive and harmonious through the use of words

with similar soundssuch as weak and weary (line 1), nodded, nearly napping

(line 3) or Doubting, dreaming dreams (line 26). In addition, repetition helps in

this task and gives a deep sense of melancholy with words like Lenore, chamber door,

nothing more or the meaningful Nevermore. Focused on the characters, one can

differentiate personification and apostrophe. The first one is defined, by Kirszner and

Mandell (2001), as a special kind of comparison . . . that gives life or human

characteristics to inanimate objects or abstract ideas (p. 403) and, within the poem, it

can be found clearly on the raven character and his nevermore Quoth the raven,

Nevermore (line 48). However, this example does not only represent personification,

because it leads the readers to understand apostrophe, a device of the figurative

language that presents a constant dialogue (from the 8th stanza) between the speaker and

the bird, as a desperately try to get away the raven from the bust of Pallas and,

obviously, from his life. This resource can be appreciated in a better way knowing what

Poe wrote in his essay The Philosophy of Composition (1846), which says regarding

the conversation between the characters that the speaker experienced pleasure when

he asked and waited for the raven to answer him nevermore, describing this word as a

delicious answer due to the intolerable sorrow he felt (para. 21).

Concluding, one can affirm that the use of symbols and images, in addition to

the utilization of figurative language, add more emphasis to the intention of the poem

and, at the same time, incite to highlight feelings, ideas or memories among readers,

that will help them to comprehend what was going on within the poem and within Poes

life. Also, it is important to state that The Raven is one of the most interpretable poems
FEELINGS OF MELANCHOLY AND DEATH 7

that E. A. Poe wrote and, as one of the greatest and mysterious works of all the times,

readers should never know certainly about what he wanted to express through the

presence of the raven and its sad answer, Nevermore! (line 66), because every single

symbol or image used through the development of this poem will always have a

different meaning, and this meaning will vary (totally or partially, and including its

connotation) depending not only of the emotional state of the reader but also of what is

going on outside his or her mind.

FEELINGS OF MELANCHOLY AND DEATH 8

References

Buranelli, V. (1972). Edgar Allan Poe. Buenos Aires: Compaa General Fabril Editora

S.A. (Original work published 1961)

Chadwick, Ch. (1971). Symbolism. V.16 of Critical Idiom. London: Methuen & Co Ltd.

Kirszner, L. & Mandell, S. (2001). Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Boston,

MA: Heinle & Heinle Publishers.

Poe, E. A. (1938). The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. New York:

Random House, Inc.

Poe, E. A. (2007). The Philosophy of Composition. In N. Baym (Ed.), The Norton

Anthology of American Literature, Vol. B (pp. 1617-1625). New York: Norton.

Romero, D. (2013). El trasfondo ocultista del cuervo: desde su simbolismo potico a los

topoi modernistas. Ilu. Revista de Ciencias de las Religiones, 18, 201-218.

Retrieved from: http://dx.doi.org/10.5209/rev_ILUR.2013.v18.43048