Monday, August 1, 2011

What happens when the speaker asks the raven to leave?What is the speaker's condition at the end of "The Raven"?

The first answer is more of a literal reading of the poem.  Many critics do not consider the raven to be a literal bird, but rather a symbol of death, grief, loss of love, etc.


It is true that the Raven does not leave at the end of the poem.  Is this likely then, to be an actual bird?  I think what is really going on, is the speaker cannot get over his lost love, Lenoire.  At the end of the poem, he has conjured up the courage (and anger) to scream and cast the Raven (his memory of Lenoire) out of his mind.  But alas, it will not leave.  He is left with more than depression.  This is his final admittance of hopelessness and despair.

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