Edgar Allan Poe: "The Raven" - Discuss

Question 1

discussion

Answer 1

• element 3: a ghostly legend, an unexplained occurrence, or a story about a horrible death or murder
• element 4: omens, foreshadowing, and dreams play a role in the mysterious air of the story
• element 7: damsels in distress are frequent
• element 8: words designed to evoke images of gloom and doom
• element 9: the death of a man or woman in the throes of some great passion, the obsessive nature of a man or woman in love, or excessive grief one feels upon the loss of a loved one

Question 2

what element of gothic literature is evident in the following lines from “The Raven?”
lines 13-14: and the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Thrilled me-filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;

Answer 2

element 5 – Highly charged emotional states like: terror, the brink of insanity

Question 3

what element of gothic literature is evident in the following lines from “The Raven?”
lines 97-101: ‘Be that word our sign of parting, bird of fiend!’ I shrieked upstarting - ‘Get thee back into the tempest and the Night’s Plutonian shore! Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken! Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my door! Take they beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!’

Answer 3

element 5 – Highly charged emotional states like: terror, the brink of insanity

Question 4

what element of gothic literature is evident in the following lines from “The Raven?”
lines 46: Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore

Answer 4

element 8 – words designed to evoke images of gloom and doom

Question 5

what element of gothic literature is evident in the following lines from “The Raven?”
lines 49-54: Much I marveled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly… For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door - … With such name as ‘Nevermore’

Answer 5

element 6 – supernatural events: ghosts, unexplained sounds, etc.

Question 6

what element of gothic literature is evident in the following lines from “The Raven?”
lines 7-8: Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December, And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor

Answer 6

element 8 – words designed to evoke images of gloom and doom