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Running Head: Feelings of Melancholy and Death
Running Head: Feelings of Melancholy and Death
Feelings of Melancholy and Death through the use of symbols and imagery in The
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 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
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,
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
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.
FEELINGS OF MELANCHOLY AND DEATH 5
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
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
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
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
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
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,
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
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
References
Buranelli, V. (1972). Edgar Allan Poe. Buenos Aires: Compaa General Fabril Editora
Chadwick, Ch. (1971). Symbolism. V.16 of Critical Idiom. London: Methuen & Co Ltd.
Poe, E. A. (1938). The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. New York:
Romero, D. (2013). El trasfondo ocultista del cuervo: desde su simbolismo potico a los