What Is The Symbolism In The Raven

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What would it mean to you to have someone you love very dearly move on to the next life? A symbol is something that represents something else. In the poem “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe, the raven is a symbol. At the beginning of “The Raven” the narrator is reading, and it is late at night. He reads to hopefully rid his sorrow of his wife’s death. The narrator doesn’t take his wife’s death lightly and is suffering from sorrow. The raven represents Lenore, his long lost love. The narrator was sitting quietly reading, until all of a sudden he hears a tapping sound. “Tis some visitor..tapping at my chamber door” (line 5). Many thoughts run through his mind. He has a hope that it is his dead wife Lenore, or maybe her ghost. He is filled “with fantastic terrors never felt before” (line 14) and “hesitating no longer” (line 19) he opens the door not exactly knowing what to expect. “Darkness and nothing more” (line 24). He then is puzzled and doesn’t do anything. A moment later he hears another tapping but this time at his window. “Tis the wind and nothing more!” (line 36). The narrator doesn’t believe there is actually someone tapping on the window and believes it is nothing but the wind. He opens the shutter and in flies a raven…show more content…
It is also a reminder of his wife’s death and how depressed he feels about it. The answer “nevermore” he keeps receiving from the raven, makes him mad because he doesn’t want to accept the fact that his wife is gone. It is interesting how Poe chose the animal raven. The fact that the raven is perched on the greek god Athena shows that the raven is smarter than the narrator and may also know things the narrator doesn’t and also the fact that all it says is nevermore, is that in some cultures the raven is considered as a bad sign or bad luck. The animal raven is black and the poem takes place at midnight when it is pitch black outside. These symbolize death and
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