Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe
William henry Leonard Poe
Frances valentine allan
What is the theme of this poem? Is it Poe's favorite theme?
Poe’s life
except for Poe’s imagination, his life experience is the main factor that contributed to his black soul and made a difference in his work. The First shock to Poe was the death of his young beautiful mother, Elizabeth Hopkins Poe. Luckily, Poe was adopted by John Allan and Ellis Allan and sadly Mrs Allen died in 18xx after divorcing with John Allen. Jane was Poe’s first love happened when he was fourteen years old and she died of brain tumor. His brother William died at the age of 25 and his sister Rosalie became later insane. Then He fell in love and married his 13-year old …show more content…
In this poem, Poe uses raven as a metaphor of death and a long deep passing of grief. --> death motif
Greek mythology, ravens are associated with Apollo, the god of prophecy. They are said to be a symbol of good luck, and were the god's messengers in the mortal world.
In the Talmud, the raven is described as having been only one of three beings on Noah's Ark that copulated during the flood and so was punished.
To the Germanic peoples, Odin was often associated with ravens. In later Norse mythology, Odin is depicted as having two ravens Huginn and Muninn serving as his eyes and ears – Huginn being referred to as thought and Muninn as memory.
Genral Motif analyse
The death of beautiful woman and the power of love, and beauty to survive beyond the …show more content…
Her painful death haunted Poe for the rest of his life. And the image about the death of a beautiful woman began spreading over Poe’s mind. In Theory of Composition, he wrote, “The death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world. ” Later he wrote, “And equally is it beyond doubt that the lips best suited for such a topic are those of a bereaved lover.” In Poe’s heart, as a mother, Elizabeth was more like an angel who lives in a fairytale surrounded by a kind of unspoken mystery. Her early death also constructed Poe’s Oedipus complex.
JANE
Jane was the mother of Poe’s classmate. Poe always went to her when he faced problems in school and in home. In many ways, “Helen became Poe’s mother who had departed so many years ago. Jane’s death had shocked him again and left him in the cold doleful darkness. Dying a painful death at a young age, Helen became Poe’s ideal woman: unattainable, gorgeous, and doomed.
he is the only one who has the courage to use the image of death to prove his unyielding personality and his obsession of his dream. He uses death to prevail death. The more gruesome his death description, the more powerful he felt about