Essay On Comparison Of "the Raven" By Edgar Allen Poe And The Movie "the Raven

The Raven a 1935 film directed by Lew Landers is an American horror film. Derived from Edgar Allan Poe famous poem, the film has received much criticism both positive and negative for focusing on telling a story that had already been written in form of a poem. Some critiques argue that the film convey the same message that conveyed in the poem by Poe. In the poem, we see a different storyline from how the poem was executed. Even though there are several scenes where the choice of action resembles what the poem the raven was all about, it is evident that both the movie and the film share different ideology in terms of the message and storyline. In the poem by Allan Poe, we are introduced to the speaker sited inside a room, holding a book and fall asleep. He is reminiscing about his past love life when a sudden sound hits his house. The sound that hits his house remind him about his lost love who he was thinking about a few minutes ago. It is a sound of a door knock. He walks towards the door with expectations that it is someone knocking his door. Even though he finds no one standing in the door, he starts to reassure himself that it is the wind that had blown his window. This essay is a comparison on the film the Raven of 1935 and the poem the raven by Edgar Allan Poe.
In the poem, we are introduced to a speaker who is sitting in the living room holding a book with his thoughts having forced him to sleep. Suddenly, a voice like a knock hits his door which relates to what he was dreaming about while sited in the chair. While he was dreaming, he was expecting his lost love to come back and now there is a knock in the door. This creates certain tension in the poem and to the reader. Upon opening the door, the narrator finds no one in the door. He assumes that the sound was the pressure of the wind against the window. He goes to open the window. Flies which the narrator calls them a raven settles slightly above the door. The narrator first instinct towards the Raven is to talk to it. Just like any strange situation where a stranger walks inside your house, you would probably ask them their name. The narrator asks the Raven for its name. Strangely, the Raven answers back. “Nevermore.” This situation starts to get stranger to the narrator who continues to ask for more questions. All the vocabulary the bird could pronounce is Nevermore. The more the question the narrator ask, the more the situation gets personal and painful which leads to the narrator to lose his wisdom.
In both the above scenarios, main character seems to be controlled by something that his beyond his ability. In the film, Judge Thatcher is controlled by emotional feelings towards his daughter even though the decision lies to his daughter who seems to befriend doctor Vollin even more when the judge is threatening the doctor. His thoughts towards the doctor make him convinced that the doctor is interested in pursuing his romantic ambition on his daughter. This is negative objectivism towards another person. In the poem, we see the narrator being controlled by his thoughts about his lost love. This influences him to even believe that the flies are related to what he was dreaming about when he first heard the sound of door knock. The narrator questioning the flies leads to him overreacting when the flies cannot answer with any other answer apart from Nevermore. Nevermore gives an impression to the narrator that it is the answer to his lost love that he was thinking about a few minutes ago. He was optimistic about his lost love returning but now there is a mystery in the door frame saying that he will never show up again. The love is all gone.
In these two scenes, the cause of the current events in the scenes in the centre character whom the outcomes in the scenes affects their expectations. In the film, Jean in the centre character and she is the cause to his father meeting up with the man who Jean would befriend after she is rescued from death. Whatever happens in this scene would affect Jeans expectation about Vollin becoming his lover. Judge Thatcher is not happy with Vollin expressing his romantic desires towards his daughter which angers Vollin. Vollin is determined to punish the judge even though he does not want to hurt his new lover Jean. In the poem, the narrator is the centre of this scene where his thoughts and the flies’ decision will affect his expectation about his dream to have his lost love back. The Raven chooses to answer him with the word nevermore which answers the narrator expectation about his lost love. The narrator is angered by the flies’ inability to answer his entire questions which causes pain in his life. He was expecting to have his lover back but the outcomes of this scene affect his expectations. Both scenes have differing expectation but the outcomes are influenced by the events that happen in these two separate scenes.
Both scenes are connected by the theme of love which is main theme in the film and the poem. In the poem, the narrator is in love with a woman named Lenore. When the poem begins, we are introduced to man sited in a chair dreaming about his lost love. They were in love before but it seems that there is something that happen which has lead to their relationship falling apart. The narrator is concerned about their relationship with Lenore who according to the Raven will never come back. In the film, we are introduced to a doctor who falls in love with his patient who he has saved his life. The patient (Jean) starts to befriend Vollin after he saved his life after the accident. However, the father to Jean is the obstacle that is stopping Vollin from loving the person he has started develops affection towards. The judge is against this relationship developing any romantic affection and this lead to Thatcher going to warn Vollin in several occasions. Love is the major theme in the poem and the film and is brought in different way making the film different from the poem.
There is thin line between love and obsession in both the film and the poem. In the poem, the narrator is obsessed with his lost love that according to the Raven Lenore will never be back. Obsession is defined by his frustration when the Raven relies that Raven is nevermore. This is artistic style of writing which Poe uses to substitute the words that your love will never come back or your love is no more, he is gone. If he really loved Lenore he ought to have respected the decision of the Raven who seems to pass the message from Lenore. In the film, both the Judge and Vollin are obsessed with Jean. The judge obsession with his daughter is as a result of being over protective with his daughter falling in love with a retired man. This leads him to threaten Vollin to stop his romantic ambition of having Jean as his daughter. Adding to this, Vollin obsession with Jean is develop by Jean showing gratitude towards him after helping her recover from that injury and save Jeans life. He has now developed obsession towards Jean after realizing that he could make Jean to become his romantic partner.
Finally, looking at the film, the director adopts the concepts in the poem in an artistic way that will help the viewers understand the meaning of the poem from a subtle point of view to a subtext point of view. This helps the viewer to be in understanding with what Edgar Allan Poe wanted the reader to understand in his poem. In the poem, the scenes analyzed in this paper reflect on the subtext of the poem. There is a general message that the poet wanted his readers to understand from the poem. We are introduced to an obsessed man who is still dreaming about his lost love. This concept is adopted in the film but brought out in different manner. In the film we are introduced to man who obsessed with a girl he was reluctant to heal after he was invited to perform medication on her. It is evident that the scenes in the film are in some way related to the scenes in the poem though they are brought out in different ways that make it different from the poem. The more you watch the film is the more you realize the film has different ideologies from the poem.