Characters
He is the lonely, grieving protagonist who narrates the poem and gradually loses his mind to a talking bird.
Who is the speaker?
The poem opens with the narrator reading old books at this specific hour of the night.
What is midnight?
The conflict begins when the narrator first opens his window and this bird steps in, completely ignoring his presence.
What is a Raven?
Poe uses the visual imagery of a fire's "dying embers" casting ghosts on the floor to mirror this major plot theme.
What is death?
The poem’s opening stanza immediately sets this tone.
What is dark, dreary?
Though she never speaks or appears in the poem, this deceased woman is the central figure the narrator is mourning.
Who is Lenore?
The narrator is filled with sorrow while trying to remember this "rare and radiant maiden."
Who is Lenore?
Initially, the conflict is lighthearted; the narrator smiles because the bird's stern demeanor makes him look like this 6-letter word for a coward.
What is a craven?
The eerie auditory imagery of the purple curtains making this specific, whispery sound builds a tense, suspenseful atmosphere before the door even opens.
What is rustling?
A major theme of the poem is that this emotional process can lead to madness if a person is completely consumed by it.
What is grief?
The narrator perches the bird on a bust of Pallas, who is this?
Who is the Greek goddess of wisdom?
The chilling, gloomy events of the poem take place during this specific winter month.
What is December?
The tension shifts to frustration when the narrator asks the bird for its actual name, and it responds with this single, infamous word.
What is "Nevermore"?
The vivid contrast between the stark white "bust of Pallas" and the pitch-black bird visually represents the clash between these two mental states.
What are sanity and madness?
When the narrator shifts from being amused by the bird to screaming at it in anger, the poem's tone changes from curious to...
What is angry/insane?
In stanza 14, the narrator imagines the room filling with incense swung by these holy, winged heavenly beings.
What is the Seraphim?
When the narrator first opens his chamber door to investigate the tapping, this is the only thing he sees.
What is darkness?
The ultimate conflict of the poem is a mental one, as the narrator slowly loses this—his ability to think rationally—to the bird's endless, mocking reminder.
What is his sanity? (Accept: his mind or reason)
Poe uses kinetic (movement) and olfactory (smell) imagery, describing the air growing thick with burning incense, to show that the narrator is beginning to experience these psychological tricks.
What are hallucinations?
The central theme regarding death in "The Raven" is that the loss of a loved one is entirely this, meaning it can never be undone or reversed.
What is permanent?
The narrator demands to know if the bird was sent by this biblical figure, another name for the Devil who tests humanity.
Who is the Tempter?
In the very final stanza, the narrator reveals that the Raven is still sitting on this object above his door.
What is the bust of Pallas?
At his breaking point, the narrator screams at the bird to leave his home and take its beak out of this specific body part.
What is his heart?
The haunting visual of the bird's eyes looking like a sleeping demon's creates a terrifying image that shows the narrator now views the bird as this type of entity.
What is evil?
The final stanza cements a theme of permanent psychological loneliness, shifting the tone to total despair as the narrator realizes his soul will never be lifted out of this physical object on the floor.
What is the Raven's shadow?