Essay Example about Romantic and Gothic Elements in Edgar Allan Poe's Poem

Edgar Allan Poe wrote a book called "The Raven" which is a classic case of the creepy genre. The Gothic style or literature is viewed or instead defined as an emphasis on elements like grotesqueness, desolation and mysteriousness, and mostly, it appears a marriage between two scenes of Romance and Horror genres. The gothic style depicts a dark and mad outlook of the universe through various elements like The Supernatural that includes ghosts and spirits. Then madness that comprises loneliness and isolation death that encompasses secrets like mysteries and underground paths then monsters which provides for vampires such as the Frankenstein's monster and lastly, the biblical evil usually in devil form. The typical Romanticism features comprise an emphasis on the fantastic, imaginative, spiritual and emotional in the human experience with highlighting on the self. The artwork rejects some logical, factual and rational existence aspects. In the influences of Poe, it typically comprised Gothic, supernatural symbolic and nostalgic elements (Unrue, 1995). This paper talks about how the narrator of "The Raven" is open to passionate introspection as he ponders over antique books alone in his book-filled study.

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Remarkably, the poem opens on a "midnight stroke" that crafts an actual enigmatic and a desolate attitude; it appears from the initial and that anomalous and difficult thing are about to materialise. According to Poe (2009), the narrator is jam-packed with some "fantastic trepidations," with his heart beating hastily in apprehension and anxiety. From the texts, we see that he had lost a woman he had fallen in love with and a sudden knock at his door and on opening, he finds no one, and this confirms his suspicion of a probable ghost of the "lost Lenore." Again, apparition "thwacking" at the entrance making a funny and scary sound that he could not account in any of the natural means is undoubtedly gothic. At that moment again, tapping on the window and on opening it, a weird black raven enters in and acts like a lord who voices the term "'Nevermore.'" Here, just corresponding midnight, most gobbles are allied to mystery and demise. This raven's peculiar behavior is similarly shadowy.

While the narrator makes attempts to persuade himself about the raven's major nightmare, it still taught him the gothic word. He as well experiences some sound of a bird which appears to have some supernatural powers that looked factual to him. The speaker begins contemplating the fact that the respective bird was a "prophet," directs him to

know about his futile reunion with his lover; Lenore even after her demise. Nevertheless, the bird evenhandedly lies and on no occasion that it stirs but only kept repeating the term "'Nevermore.'" The advent of weird bird that foreshadows demise, the austerity of a single name it voices out, an impression that could be the ghostly message all look like paranormal conceptions, with some certain mysteriousness, facilitating to term this poetic work as a Gothic emphasis rather than a romantic one (Unrue, 1995).

Symbolism of "The Raven"

Poe employs a lot of Gothic ambience in the poem to explore grief, depression and negativity themes. A lot of symbolism is used in most of the poetry to encourage the audience to see get his perspectives about life, affection, death and religion. The author expresses a great deal of his personal experience in his work. Most of his views are based on his characters and by employing symbolism, it allows the reader to view his opinions in a broader spectrum and interpretation. One of the author's most eminent symbolism in his short story is the name, Prince Prospero. According to Poe (2009), this symbolic name automatically denotes an individual of high prestige and great wealth. By employing this name in his poetic work, the symbolism depicted in this particular name is trivial but significant. Prospero characterises some noble life, unscathed by any predicaments or discomfort. Markedly, there are several instances where the aspect of symbolism is depicted on a significant role, especially in the plot and creates a solid base in the establishment of a real and meaningful scheme behind the narrative.

The other symbol is the masquerade. According to Lloyd-Smith (2004), the farce is usually held and partaken by those who desire to hide their real identities. Nonetheless, in this instance, the playwrights were not hiding from one other but were walloping from death. Poe attempts to depict an image of a set of people who tend to be relaxed and ecstatic externally, but awful and wary on the inside and successfully. Conversely, there appears to be a bigger and significant meaning behind the ordinary. Poe establishes the central theme of this storyline. That an individual cannot escape the trap death despite any control or escape method, this masquerade symbolism implies the fear of death and masquerading behind masks as a disguise as most in the poetic work think they can cheat death.

The other symbol is the ebony clock. In every hour, the ebony clock makes its presence recognisable, triggering people to grow silent with tranquillity. After the clock finishes make one complete tickling for an hour, the revellers continue to party. This story symbolises several aspects. One of the death presences is that it is always near and never drifting too distant. This presence could as well be viewed as a jerk back into actuality, forcing people to recollect that none of them is in a dreamland and death escape is just self-imposed illusion.

Last but not least, there is the advent of the masked graved. At midnight stroke, he strides through a gathering triggering a stillness across the entire seven rooms. Then there is a corpse mask and the sprinkled blood of a Red Death visage (Lloyd-Smith, 2004). The whole symbols connect to generate the genre finale. The entry of the mysterious symbolic signifies the end of the celebrations besides the end of life. Prospero's entry the last room and the black room, he tries to defeat death and mislays. After this, Prospero actions led to agony and excruciating death. This particular event represents that despite what one does to evade death, it will still hit you when you least expect and cannot be averted.

In due course, depression was as well a vital issue in the poem. As the man sinks further into sadness and cynicism, he winds up suffocating is a handicapping ocean of discouragement. The winged creature's mouth in his heart, its eyes devilishly shining at him, and its shadow encompassing him are representative of the downturn that immobilises him and causes him to accept that he will feel that way eternally. Along these lines, the poet recommends that sorrow and cynicism can create long haul gloom in an individual who has lost a friend or family member and is encountering extraordinary depression.

By and large, the significance of these respective symbols is what makes the theme and aura of the story and miserable innuendoes. This theme causes the audience to pause and review certain certainty aspects. Also, it causes the reader to comprehend the point that human beings are not immortal and cannot live forever. Poe employs symbolism that makes his writings impressive and as well offers the readers a glimpse of the whole scenario of his creativity and artwork. Without the aspect of symbolism, the poetic tale would not have made meaning or passed the right message, and no logical stimulation would have been instantiated from the entire reading.

Themes of "The Raven"

Love

A mutual theme within the Poe's work is based on love from a woman who died at her young days and very beautiful, leaving a trodden heart behind to grieve. In most of the cases as seen in the texts, parallels are drawn between the young female in discussion and Poe's deceased spouse called Virginia Clemm. Here, Poe depicts the feminine gender as very naive and child-like details that recollect Virginia's tender age at the marriage time. For Poe, the most grounded and most enduring adoration, by and large, had a place with the youthful and honest champions of "Tamerlane" and "Annabel Lee," a mentality by that of numerous other contemporary journalists of the Sentimental period, who viewed adolescence as the perfect condition of man. "To Helen" additionally accentuates the supporting job of a cherishing lady (Poe, 2009).

After the demise of the lady, in any case, the response of a considerable lot of Poe's heroes is to remain sincerely subordinate upon the dead ladies to the point of fixation. For instance, the storyteller of "Ulalume" meanders absentmindedly through the forested areas however is attracted overwhelmingly to her tomb, and the storyteller of "Annabel Lee" rests each night beside her grave by the ocean, loaning grim hints to what shows up from the start to be dependable love (Lloyd-Smith, 2004). The particular highlights of romanticism incorporate an accentuation on the innovative, fabulous, enthusiastic, and otherworldly in human involvement with an accentuation on oneself. It rejects the balanced, intelligent, and real parts of presence. In the hands of Poe, it typically included Gothic, nostalgic, representative, and robust components.

Impermanence and Uncertainty

Correspondingly, there is fantasy inside a fantasy which bargains most explicitly with the upsetting thought that the truth is transient and merely a dream as the initial storyteller segments from his love and afterwards battles with his failure to get a handle on the idea of a temporary truth. Nonetheless, many lyrics address the certainty of the end, as in "The Winner Worm," one of Poe's least idealistic sonnets, which declares that undetectable powers impact all men until their inevitable and shockingly grisly passing. Much of the time, the heroes of Poe's works stress since they see the temporariness of their condition of being, however, can't make expectations about the obscure. Specifically, "The Raven" underscores the bind of the mysterious by comparing the scrutinising storyteller and the all-knowing yet, also, non-conscious raven's disavowal of a conceivable future.

Works Cited

Lloyd-Smith, A. (2004). American gothic fiction: An introduction. Bloomsbury Publishing, USA.

Poe, E. A. (2009). Great Short Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Springer Science & Business Media.

Unrue, D. H. (1995). Edgar Allan Poe: The Romantic as Classicist. International Journal of the Classical Tradition, 1(4), 112-119.