Elisabeth Rybecky
Mrs. Buatti
Section 57
May 20, 2010
The Raven
Pearl S. Buck once said, "The person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being. His heart withers if it does not answer another heart. His mind shrinks away if he hears only the echoes of his own thoughts and finds no other inspiration." Loneliness is a feeling in which people experience a strong sense of emptiness and solitude, resulting in depression and the cutting out of the surrounding world. This quotation applies to the main character, a man who has recently lost his love Lenore, in the poem "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe. The author uses literary elements such as imagery, mood, and poetic devices to express the theme that guilt and loneliness results in depression.
Mood is used in Poe's poem to support the quote. The opening line sets a mood of sadness and depression; it seems gloomy, dark, and hopeless as the speaker is filled with despair.
Edgar Allan Poe Museum (Richmond, Virginia)
Edgar Allan Poe
Illustration by Édouard Manet for a French transl...While pondering in his chamber, the narrator attempts to gain "From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore." (Poe Line 10) A sense of sadness is felt at this point. The word chamber implies a cold, rigid feel, like the narrator has shut himself away from everything in order to be alone to brood and torture himself. "The setting is contained and claustrophobic-a single room. The narrator himself mirrors the time and locale. "Weak and weary," he seems trapped in his richly furnished prison." (Gioia 213) The narrator is trapped mentally in his chamber where he sits and thinks about his lost Lenore, a sense of loneliness and depression is evident. "And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor." (Poe Line 8) The words ghost...