According to Catherine Belsey, love is ‘a condition of happiness that cannot be bought, the one remaining object of a desire that cannot be sure of purchasing fulfilment.’ Her criticism implies that love is an indirect experience, something that occurs when one is happy but not something that is intended. Belsey describes desire as ‘what is not said, what cannot be said’ suggesting that desire stems from a need to verbally express. Gothic literature depicts love as unattainable despite the strong desire within its characters. Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven depicts a speaker who describes feeling ‘weak and weary,’ an alliterative statement which depicts tiredness and a lack in strength, after ‘many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,’ implying he has been reading heavily in an attempt to distract himself from his ‘lost Lenore,’ the apparent love of his life. In Poe’s poem, the speaker seeks and fails to receive affection despite Belsey outlining it as an indirect experience.
In Edgar Allan Poe: A Phenomenological View, David Halliburton regards Poe as ‘obscure’ and ‘obsessive’ implying that his works tend to be unclear and all-consuming. He goes on to regard works such as The Raven as ‘little windowless cells,’ despite the ‘passion in them,’ clarifying that whilst his works are vague, the love and desire Belsey describes can still be inferred. The Raven, which is a narrative poem, takes place on a ‘bleak December’ night. The obsessiveness Halliburton alludes to can be clarified with Poe’s repetition of ‘Lenore,’ a name he quotes twice within the second stanza, emphasising his sorrow at his loss and displaying an articulation of unobtainable love and desire. Poe writes of the speaker standing ‘deep into that darkness,’ whilst ‘doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before,’ the repeated alliteration within the quotations as well as the emotive language, and use of the noun ‘mortal,’ in which Poe reminds the reader that the speaker is subject to death, emphasises the loneliness of the character. The sibilant pathos-evoking ‘silence,’ and ‘stillness,’ that follows emphasises the speaker’s loss of Lenore, supporting the notion that in spite of great desire, love is unattainable in Gothic literature.
Jerome McGann, in The Poet Edgar Allan Poe, describes the speaker of The Raven as a ‘writer tormented by a loss he does not want to remember,’ implying that the speaker was so afflicted by his loss he dares not think about it. The enlightening shift in tone at the arrival of the raven, despite the negative symbolism connoted by the bird (the Old Testament states that the disobedient will be ‘pecked out by the ravens of the valley’) supports McGann, for the speaker seeks distraction. The raven’s arrival takes place ‘with many a flirt and flutter,’ Poe’s alliteration and consonance as well as the verb ‘flirt’ emphasise and imply the bird’s playful behaviour, juxtaposing the speaker’s own actions as the poet writes that he ‘flung,’ open his shutter, Poe’s verb depicting a less joyous character. Poe repeatedly states that the raven ‘perched,’ as though he is eager to listen to and understand the speaker, a companionship not common in Gothic literature, however, it becomes clear that the bird’s verbal ability is limited, for it answers all the speaker’s questions with ‘Nevermore.’ Whilst the lack of coherent exchange between the raven and the speaker emphasises the unattainability of love, the speaker of The Raven asserts that whilst the raven’s responses have ‘little meaning,’ and ‘little relevancy,’ he ‘marvels’ them anyway, supporting McGann’s criticism that he attempts to find distractions from his loss and to divert his desire.
The speaker of The Raven’s strong desire for companionship is evident in that he orally confesses to having ‘other friends,’ who have ‘flown before,’ Poe’s use of anthropomorphism emphasising the loneliness of the speaker as well as the longevity of his depression. He claims his ‘Hopes have flown before,’ also, Poe’s capitalisation of the noun emphasising his loss in aspiration and its toll. The consistency in length of the stanzas within the poem is likely a reflection of the speaker’s consistent love and undying desire for Lenore, supporting Halliburton’s earlier regard of Poe as excessive, more so with his repeated use of internal rhyming throughout the poem. In the fourteenth stanza, Poe writes of the speaker feeling the strong presence of angels, ‘God hath lent thee – by these angels he hath sent thee,’ Poe’s internal rhyming emphasises the intensity of the supposed encounter. The experience leads him to remember ‘memories of Lenore,’ and he exclaims, ‘lost Lenore!’; there is resignation as a result of unattainable intimacy.
Poe’s The Raven as McGann points out is a narrative poem about a man mourning the loss of his love, his desire for her depicted in his repetition of her name and the structure of the poem yet his love unobtainable due to her passing. The consistent absence of successful intimacy is reflected throughout the lamenting tone of the poem as well as his lonesome imagery.
I hope you've had an amazing week and that you have an even better one ahead of you. Let me know your Halloween plans! Thank you so much for reading, all the love in the world, Karisma xxx