Questioning Sanity

Author’s note: The Raven is one of the most discussed poems in American literature, and today, I have come to discuss our narrators sanity. Which side will you be on? This is my point of view piece on, the Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe.

The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe, is one of the most known pieces in classic American Literature. It’s words have been known to shake people to the very core, and in some cases, scaring people into not reading it ever again. In the Raven, we focus on a young man grieving over the loss of Lenore, his lover. The point of view makes the man gives the reader the impression that he’s the victim. But, can we trust our narrator in the first place?

A Raven, a young man, and a dead woman are the main characters in the Raven, and our narrator is the young man. The poem is focused on this man’s feelings as the raven that enters his home make his life turn upside down, but is he really as innocent as his words claim him to be? Is he really a madman in an insane asylum? Maybe the raven is really his doctor, and the doctor is coming into his room to sedate him into sleep. Perhaps, there’s more to everything than meets the eye. But, the point of view of the piece is centered around the man, so we’ll never know just who he really is.

As far as we all know, our main character is a man grieving over the loss of his wife, Lenore. Are we really sure that it’s his wife? Could it be his little sister? Granted, he says, “a rare, and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore”, and a person could argue he most definitely is complementing his deceased wife. Maybe  his little sister died when she was five or six, and he always called her his beautiful maiden, and cherished her as if she was his wife.  How can we really depend on the narrator though, because, as we read the poem, it seems like he’s going mad? Whose side should we truly be on?

Our narrator, who is grieving the loss of a woman  close to him, could possibly be very very unreliable. How can we take any of his claims seriously, when it seems he is on the threshold of madness throughout the entire poem? We start to realize he’s mad towards the end of the poem, when he yells at the raven, “Is there - is there balm in Gilead? - tell me - tell me, I implore!”. We know he’s completely lost it here, even though there are hints of madness throughout the entire poem. But, he is truly trying to keep his sanity, like when he says, “Doubtless, what it utters is its only stock and store”, it’s as if he’s trying to convince himself that it isn’t real. Because the narrator is ranting to the Raven, he makes us all feel his emotions, his grief, his anger... All of that. So, when he’s going mad, we tend to want to be on his side, but, as I’ve said, should we really be on his side?

Although I’ve brought up all these points as to if we can trust the narrator or not, there is no possible way to tell for sure if he’s trustworthy or not trustworthy. Even if we had the best literary analyzers look at the Raven, all the opinions from them would be diverse. Why? Because it is the readers choice as to if we can trust the narrator or not. It is the readers choice if we should be on his side, or our own. None of us can prove if he is sane or not. Only Edgar Allan Poe would be able to, but it’s too late to ask. The poem is vague in telling the complete story, and leaves the reader guessing, in a pleasantly mysterious way. Edgar Allan Poe’s works have the ability to toy with our minds, and the Raven is most definitely one of his more mysterious poems.

Being a Lion

Author's note: This personal metaphor describes how I think my personality is, and I hope that my message is clear!

I am a lion

My words loud and fierce

My actions wild and free

I protect the ones I love

And hurt the people who hurt me or my family.

My courage is un matched

My palate quite large

But underneath the strong façade

I’m just a cuddle bug.