Edgar Allen Poe wrote “The Raven” in 1945. The poem shows how lost love can lead to depression. Depression, and mental illness in general, is a topic common to many of Poe’s works, and he often uses an unreliable narrator as one of the primary means of showing such depression. Following the death of the woman he loved, a male speaker narrates “The Raven,” and through this first person account, the reader is allowed a glimpse of his descent into madness. Through the poem, Poe demonstrates to how the experience of losing a loved one can propel someone into depression.
The narrator in “The Raven” loves, and is grieving for, a woman called Lenore. This simple fact is one of the reasons for the poem’s pleasing balance. While at times the language is overly fancy and complicated, the real story is that a man loves a woman, and he desperately wants her back. However, he can never have this, and this knowledge leads him to depression. As Ira Halper asserts, “It is common for depressive episodes to be triggered by life events, but then to develop a biological autonomy such that reduction of the stress does not lead to relief of depressive symptoms” (Halper 9). It certainly seems true that the speaker of “The Raven” has suffered a serious life event, the death of Lenore, and this has triggered off depression. According to Halper, this depression may stay even once the grieving process has progressed to a more manageable level. However, the reader is only aware of how the speaker is at the time in which the poem is written. The memory of Lenore is perhaps the poem’s most repetitive symbol. This woman is the key focal point of the narrator’s obsessive feelings. He mentions her continually, and even when he attempts to focus on a different matter or object, his mind returns to Lenore. In spite of his obsession, however, readers are not told many details about her. Poe never mentions, for example, what she looks like, or her relationship with the narrator. She remains a memory, rather than a person. In fact, it is possible that she never existed at all, and the speaker is even more unhinged than previously thought. The reader is first introduced to Lenore’s name in lines 10-11, while simultaneously being told that she has gone. There are countless mentions of Lenore through the poem, but line 83 is important as the narrator dreams about forgetting the woman forever. The memory of her has encompassed him, caused him great pain, and he longs for respite from her metaphorical ghost. The final explicit reference to Lenore is in lines 94-95. The speaker’s love is perhaps most apparent in this section. He uses elevated words such as “sainted,” and “radiant.” In this way, Lenore no longer resembles a normal human being. Instead, she seems to be symbolic for how the speaker believes to be an ideal woman.
The poem depicts a dark side of love: what can happen when it is taken away. The author never actually uses the word “love” in the poem, but its theme runs through the work constantly. The speaker is experiencing many strong emotions as a result of losing Lenore. According to Lynn Rehm at the University of Houston, emotions are an essential factor of normal human experience. She goes on to say that emotions are: “functional experiences and our capacity to experience them is “hard-wired” into human beings” (Rehm 258). Clearly the protagonist of “The Raven” is experiencing some intense emotions, which are completely normal. She claims that: “Normal sadness develops in children as a natural response to loss, it affects behavior and relationships, it becomes attached to symbolic losses, and, importantly, it dissipates with time” (Rehm 258). While the poem’s speaker is arguably experiencing sadness after his loss, his sadness does not seem “normal.” He is experiencing very dark thoughts and delusions, implying that for him, sadness has moved into depression. In the following two lines, the reader learns a great deal about the speaker and his depression: “From my books surcease of sorrow – sorrow for the lost Lenore – / For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore” (Poe 11-12). These lines inform the reader of the speaker’s background, and why his mental health is deteriorating. The writer tells sets the scene in phases, eventually revealing that the woman he loves is dead and this is why the speaker is so depressed. Poe never makes clear in what capacity the protagonist loved Lenore. Although it is assumed by many readers that the woman was his lover, she may have been his sister, or a friend. However, he most certainly loved her, and has become depressed since losing her. The speaker feels Lenore everywhere, as is evident in the following two lines: “And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, “Lenore?” / This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!" (Poe 28-29). Here, he almost believes that he can hear Lenore’s name being spoken, whereas in fact it is the echo of his voice speaking her name. He is driven by love, but love and loss are interconnected in this narrative. The speaker’s love for Lenore becomes stranger as the poem progresses, and as his mental health deteriorates. This is shown in the lines: “But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o'er, / She shall press, ah, nevermore!” (Poe 77-78). The speaker sees the cushions in his house and straight away imagines the woman sitting on them. While it is normal for a person to think of their lover a great deal, that the speaker is even thinking of her in the context of the sofa cushions indicates that he is becoming obsessive.
Poe’s theme of the relationship between love and depression is mainly played out through the protagonist, who comes across as unconventional, unstable, and unreliable. He uses dramatic and passionate language: “Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe!” (Poe 83). While such words and tone is startling at times, the speaker narrates a gripping poem; it is never dull, partly thanks to the colorful and unpredictable language. Nevertheless, some critics have found the narrator, and in fact the whole poem, to be deficient in emotional strength. Howard Mumford Jones argues that Poe was: “a vulgarian, a journalist, a literary mechanic” (Jones 127). He then claims: “If you want to see his shallowness, read “The Raven”” (Jones 127). This is just one example of a negative review of Poe’s work. However, Poe’s enduring popularity speaks for itself and, arguably, he has only received as many negative reviews as any other controversial writer.
The poem leads the reader on a journey of the speaker’s descent into madness but, as Alfredo Morelli points out, this dynamic of lost love leading to depression is not uncommon in literature. He says that the topic is “an ancient literary cliché: the melancholic, crazy lover, totally subjected to his darling, typical of the Meleagrean tradition, as well as of the Roman elegiac one” (Morelli 37). “The Raven” does seem to fit with this cliché, especially as the speaker becomes evermore melancholy as the poem progresses. It is also true that this dynamic is popular through literary history and in no way unique. However, “The Raven” is unique in many other ways and so through it the topic is presented in a way that is different to the countless other examples.
The speaker’s depression is not pointed out in the poem explicitly, although this omission adds authenticity, as a truly mentally ill speaker is unlikely to have full self-awareness of his distress. He mentions questionable concepts such as imaginary perfume, wild dreams, and his burning soul, for example: “Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer / Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor” (Poe 79-80). In this passage, the narrator begins to hallucinate. He fantasizes that perfume or smoke is engulfing the space. Shortly after this, his delusions develop to seeing angels. This scene appears to have supernatural qualities. While the speaker’s deteriorating mental health is probably to blame for such hallucinations, it is possible that there is something genuinely supernatural occurring. Perhaps readers who interpret the speaker as insane are doing him a disservice. If the angels are indeed present, then it seems possible that Lenore could also enter the room and comfort him. However, perhaps sadly for the speaker, this does not happen.
It is important to note that if the speaker really is suffering from clinical depression, it is possible that many occurrences he reports on are not as they seem. For example, the raven may not actually speak to him or, in fact, the raven may not even exist. The idea of the speaker’s madness is brought in slowly to the poem: “Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;” (Poe 14). At this point in the piece, it is still possible that the protagonist is experiencing a pensive, albeit strange, evening, and nothing more. However, the speaker then goes on to speak in a yet more erratic way, saying that he was both thrilled and scared by the “rustling of each purple curtain” (Poe 12). This will alert most readers, as it is unusual to hear such emotions occurring as a result of a curtain. Further in the poem, the narrator’s mind appears to move even further into distress: “Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning” (Poe 31). At this point in the poem, action has been scarce. Instead, the speaker’s thoughts and feelings have been the main focus. However, soon the narrative shifts as the raven is introduced to the poem; this is a pivotal moment as the raven upsets the speaker to a new level. He speaks of the raven: “whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom’s core” (Poe 74). It is notable that this is yet another mention of burning, a key image in the piece. This line also provides a further glimpse into the speaker’s paranoia. Ravens are not generally believed to be frightening, and an objective observation reveals that their eyes are not literally fiery. It seems that the speaker is experiencing paranoid delusions. The raven provides perhaps the most important symbol of the poem. It is the title, but also is the central image. While other images are introduced, such as Lenore and the man in the chamber, the raven image is probably the most memorable to most readers. According to Joseph Jones, the raven was an important symbol to Poe, due to the bird’s capability to repeat speech without the ability to reason (186). While Poe had originally used words like these to describe a parrot, a raven has the same capability of repeating human speech, but is potentially much scarier than a parrot, primarily because of its black feathers (Jones 186). The raven enters in lines 38-40, and Poe describes him as almost regal and entitled in his stance. He uses words such as “stately” and that it acts like a “lord or lady.” Although somewhat nonsensical, this demonstrates the speaker’s feelings of intimidation when seeing the raven. Line 48 has since become very famous: “Quoth the Raven, Nevermore” (Poe 48). This refrain represents the downfall of the speaker; at this point, he descends from being a grieving man into a very unwell, nervous man. When the raven speaks the line originally, the speaker takes it as babble, but once it has been repeated a number of times, be begins to interpret is as a terrible foretelling. The final image of the raven comes in line 105, when it is portrayed as a resting devil with fiery eyes. The bird’s shadow spreads over the speaker’s room, and is symbolic of satanic evil. While it is a fact that some birds can repeat speech, it is nonetheless still eerie when the raven starts to speak. After a few lines, the talking raven seems somewhat normal, but it is notable that it is in fact a little scary, and it is arguable that most people would find it unnerving if a raven flew into their house in the middle of the night and started saying, “Quoth the Raven, Nevermore.” While it could be circumstantial, for example a person has trained the raven to say this phrase and then sent it to their enemy, it seems more likely that there is the raven has supernatural features.
Interestingly, while the theme of the poem is a man losing grip on reality and entering chaos, the structure of the poem is the opposite of chaotic. Poe has organized “The Raven” very carefully. He uses internal rhymes and traditional rhymes, and close scrutiny reveals that there is a complex pattern throughout the poem, and the rhyming scheme is ABCBBB. Regarding meter, Poe has chosen to use trochaic octameter. Again, this is an interesting choice for a poem that represents mental illness. However, further analysis reveals that Poe did this deliberately in order to draw the reader as far into the poem as possible. The author’s use of literary techniques such as form and meter, alliteration, personification, and others, serves to make “The Raven” as harmonious and spellbinding as possible. As the speaker is so absorbed in his grief and then his delusions, the style of this poem echoes this, tempting the reader to become equally absorbed.
The “Night’s Plutonian Shore” is a further symbol of the speaker’s descent into depression. The night is the first symbol of this phrase. Night and darkness generally are key symbols of “The Raven,” both standing for the mystifying, perhaps hazardous and frightening power of the natural world. Also, such scary darkness adds to the atmosphere and the tone of the poem. Plutonian refers to the god of the underworld (Tribunes and Triumphs). In this way, it conjures up connotations of darkness and death. The image of the shore appears to be a metaphor to, once again, invoke the feeling of a scary and powerful natural world, over which humans have no control. The speaker seems to think of the night as a vast sea, isolating him in his room and cutting him off from the rest of the world. The metaphor extends further as the shore could also represent the speaker’s isolation from his mental health and from normal civilization. The phrase is used first in line 47, when the raven is linked with the night, presumably both because of its dark color but also because of the speaker’s fear and paranoia surrounding it. Furthermore, the speaker requests the raven’s “lordly name,” implying that it is some sort of regal symbol for the darkness of the night. As with other phrases, Poe repeats this phrase, using it again in line 98. Here it comes across as much more threatening this time around, as the speaker is much more distressed. The references to nature serve to raise the horror of the poem’s tone, for example: “Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing” (Poe 25). The speaker is in a comfortable, familiar room, but outside are the frightening elements which are far from his control. This line features words such as “deep” and “peering” to conjure up an image of mysterious, infinite darkness. In fact, when he looks outside, the protagonist spends a moment just staring into the darkness, as if captivated.
Through “The Raven,” Poe demonstrates how the experience of losing a loved one can send a person into depression. The poet uses many literary techniques to show this theme, including symbolism, metaphor, rhyme and meter, among others. Mostly, however the theme is displayed via an unreliable narrator. The eccentric speaker of the poem takes the reader on a journey through his mind as he tries but fails to come to terms with the loss of his beloved Lenore.
Works Cited
Halper, Ira. “Depression and the Soul.” Journal of Religion and Health. Springer. 1996. Web. 10 Jan. 2017.
Jones, Howard Mumford. “Poe, The Raven, and the Anonymous Young man.” Proquest. 1955. Web. 10 Jan. 2016.
Jones, Joseph. ““The Raven and “The Raven:” Another Source of Poe’s Poem.” American Literature. Duke University Press. 1958. Web. 10 Jan. 2017.
Morelli, Alfredo. “Sighs of Lost Love.” Classical Philology. University of Chicago Press. 2009. Web. 10 Jan. 2017.
Poe, Edgar Allen. “The Raven.” Penguin Books. 1945. Print.
Rehm, Lynn. “Cognitive Clinical Theory and Depression.” Psychology Enquiry. Taylor and Francis Ltd. 1992. Web. 10 Jan. 2017.
Tribunes and Triumphs. “Pluto.” 2016. Web. 10 Jan. 2017.
