Gothic Elements in The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

Running head: GOTHIC ELEMENTS IN THE RAVEN BY EDGAR ALLAN POE
Gothic Elements in The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1GOTHIC ELEMENTS IN THE RAVEN BY EDGAR ALLAN POE
The use of Gothic Elements in The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
“The Raven” is a narrative poem that was written by American author and short story
writer Edgar Allan Poe. The poem tells the story of a lover who is longing to meet his
beloved after her death. He gets a visit from a raven. When the lover questions the raven on
whether he will get to meet his beloved or not, the raven further adds to his distrust by
uttering just one word, “Nevermore”. The poem remains as one of the most popular writings
of author Edgar Allan Poe. Although the poem has been criticized by the critics, there cannot
be any doubt that the poem is indeed one of the very best by author and poet Edgar Allan
Poe.
To understand the gothic elements that has been used by the author and poet in the
poem The Raven, it is important for the readers to know about the story of the poem a bit.
The plot of the poem revolves around the narrator who was sitting and reading about an old
forgotten tale on a dark night and suddenly gets visited by a raven. At first the narrator is
amused at the raven suddenly appearing and settling on the bust of Pallas in the narrator’s
room in a very serious manner. When the narrator questions the raven about its name, he only
gets the answer “Nevermore”. This makes the narrator wonder whether this raven will also
leave him just like all his other friends have left him as well. The narrator, who was thinking
of his dead beloved called Lenore asks the raven whether he will get to meet her again, only
to be disappointed by the raven’s answer of “Nevermore”. The narrator becomes angry and
accuses the bird of being evil and to return from where it had come to meet him. However,
the raven does not move and continues to sit on the bust of Pallas. The narrator finally
accepts his fate that his soul has been trapped by the shadow of the raven and there is no way
out of it. He can never come out of it again.
As stated by Waltzlawik (20), from the summary of the poem provided above, it is
clear that the author and poet Edgar Allan Poe has indeed written a poem that is strong in

2GOTHIC ELEMENTS IN THE RAVEN BY EDGAR ALLAN POE
gothic elements throughout the poem. The goth element of the poem can be seen at the
beginning of the poem itself when the narrator of the poem describers about the dark and the
dreary night in the month of December when he was sitting and reading an old lore by his
fireplace. This is an apt evidence of the gothic element in the poem. December nights are
pretty cold due to the winter season and so it will be natural that the night will be quiet as
there will not be too many people on the streets. Hence the example of dark and dreary night
has been used by the poet and author Edgar Allan Poe in the poem itself. Moreover, the time
of the night is midnight which adds all the more reason for it to be dark and dreary in the
poem. The theme of a dark and quiet midnight indeed helps to build up the gothic theme of
the poem by introducing a haunted and scary yet at the same time, beautiful atmosphere in
the poem itself.
Other themes have also been used by the author to explain the theme of gothic
elements in the poem The Raven. This includes the location of the narrator’s house. This fact
is evidenced in the poem by the narrator himself when he says that he found nothing other
than darkness when he opened the door. Moreover this also tells the readers that the
narrator’s home is located in a remote location which helps to build up the haunting
atmosphere of the poem. If there were other people who were living near the narrator’s home,
then he would not have seen only darkness out sider his house. Thus, the theme of darkness
plus the remoteness of the location of the narrator’s home adds to the sense of the mystery
and thus successfully helps in building the gothic elements of the poem itself. The author has
successfully created an atmosphere which shows the readers a mad view of the in the form of
supernatural creatures as well as various human emotions like madness, desolation and death.
Gothic element has also been created by Poe in the poem by talking about the death of
his beloved Lenore that also helps to build the horror elements to the poem itself. In the poem
itself, this is evidenced by the fact that the narrator of the poem laments about the death of his