Literary Analysis of The Raven The life of Edgar Allan Poe was as morbid and melancholy as his works. After the abandonment by his father and the disturbing death of his mother, both prominent traveling actors, Edgar was reluctantly forced into orphanage. He was later taken into the home of John Allan, a wealthy tobacco merchant. Their relationship was shaky, at best, and the contention between the two would last until Allan’s death, where his will left nothing for Poe. Amidst these calamities, came only more distress. The death John Allan’s wife, the woman who cared for Poe after his mother died, and a large amount of debts acquired from gambling that forced him into early resignation from the University of Virginia, only sent Edgar into a deeper state of despair. But the most devastating blow came when his beloved wife, Virginnia Clemm, died from the same disease his mother perished from--consumption. The tragedies in Poe’s life are reflected in his poem, “The Raven,” and can be predominately seen through the comparison between the loss of his wife, and the narrators loss of Lenore.The apparent tone in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” seemingly represents a very painful condition of mind, an intellect sensitive to madness and the abyss of melancholy brought upon by the death of a beloved lady. The parallelism of Poe’s own personal problems with those of the narrator in “The Raven,” and the repetitive verse by the raven, makes the reader aware of Poe’s prominent tone of melancholy. A strong device for the melancholic tone is Poe’s life experiences. The narrator’s sorrow for the lost Lenore is paralleled with Poe’s own grief regarding the death of his wife. Confined in the chamber are memories of her who had frequented it. These ghostly recollections bring out a state of eager anticipation in the reader to know and be relieved of the bew...
