''The Raven'' has many gothic elements and symbolisms in it.

Firstly, the symbolism in the poem and the deep

inner meanings in the poem is the direct aspect of the genre. As most of the Poe's work poem starts with the

grief of a beautiful dead women in midnight. Midnight is the symbol for the confrontation and loneliness. At

midnight usually there is no noise and crowd, only ourselves and our ideas like the narrator weakly hearing the

voice of tapping on his chamber door in a midnight dreary, and he remembers his love and lost in the memories

of her :

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;

And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.

Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow

From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore—

For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore—

Nameless here for evermore. 1

The word December is a symbol for the death of Lenore in here. As the December is in winter, and

winter symbolizes cold and darkness like the death itself. Therefore the choice of December as the month he

remember is directly connected with the death. Moreover, the character starts to think that he is going to

madness or the ghost of his lover haunts him as he says ''its ghost upon the floor''. In the following stanza

however, the situation gets more interesting as the narrator connects dreaming with an empty hallway, hoping

Lenore is there.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,

Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;

But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,

And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, “Lenore?”

This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, “Lenore!”—

Merely this and nothing more.2

The word dream is symbolizes the ideas which would not accepted by the society , possibilities that are

supernatural. For me, the narrator talks about possible alternatives to either bring back Lenore from death or the

cases she may not be dead. Moreover, in this moment maybe the only bird that can perfectly symbolize the

death, a raven enters the room. It shows dominance over the narrator an unwanted intruder , and a constant

1
Edgar Allan Poe, "The Raven," The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Lit2Go Edition, (1903), accessed December
12, 2016, http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/147/the-works-of-edgar-allan-poe/5352/the-raven/
2
Edgar Allan Poe, "The Raven," The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Lit2Go Edition, (1903), accessed December
12, 2016, http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/147/the-works-of-edgar-allan-poe/5352/the-raven/
reminder of death. The conversation between the narrator, and the raven is much more than a bird, and a man

talking. It is the very example of a man who suffered a lot , and afraid of death speaking himself, and seeking

for answers, and redemption as the raven only speaks one word which is Nevermore. Also the raven first flies

into the room he perches "upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door" 3. The raven brings the narrator

wisdom over the war that is going on inside of the narrator's head. He is fighting to forget Lenore, but the raven

allows him to realize that he cannot forget her, he just has to go on despite his mourning. Poe himself explains

the gothic symbolism of raven as :

From this epoch the lover no longer jests- no longer sees anything even of the fantastic in the
Raven's demeanour. He speaks of him as a "grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird
of yore," and feels the "fiery eyes" burning into his "bosom's core." This revolution of
thought, or fancy, on the lover's part, is intended to induce a similar one on the part of the
reader- to bring the mind into a proper frame for the denouement- which is now brought about
as rapidly and as directly as possible.

With the denouement proper- with the Raven's reply, "Nevermore," to the lover's final demand
if he shall meet his mistress in another world- the poem, in its obvious phase, that of a simple
narrative, may be said to have its completion. So far, everything is within the limits of the
accountable- of the real. A raven, having learned by rote the single word "Nevermore," and
having escaped from the custody of its owner, is driven at midnight, through the violence of a
storm, to seek admission at a window from which a light still gleams- the chamber-window of
a student, occupied half in poring over a volume, half in dreaming of a beloved mistress
deceased. The casement being thrown open at the fluttering of the bird's wings, the bird itself
perches on the most convenient seat out of the immediate reach of the student, who amused by
the incident and the oddity of the visitor's demeanour, demands of it, in jest and without
looking for a reply, its name. The raven addressed, answers with its customary word,
"Nevermore"- a word which finds immediate echo in the melancholy heart of the student,
who, giving utterance aloud to certain thoughts suggested by the occasion, is again startled by
the fowl's repetition of "Nevermore."

As Poe explained, the bird itself is a sign of gothic culture. A black bird, who represents death and

sadness, ''fiery eyes'' as Poe describes.Furthermore, the gothic elements of the poem starts with the grief. A man

who lost his dear Lenore, remembering , missing his love. What could be more gothic then the death of a lover.

Things gets more interesting , after this point a mysterious character ''...gently rapping, rapping at my chamber

door. “’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—'' as the narrator walks and open the door

, there is nothing but emptiness. Now there is a mystery in the poem. Is it a ghost? a ghost of dear Lenore

perhaps, Who is that tapping the chamber door?. Mystery goes on , the narrator wondering , frightening by this

mystery. Mystery over Mystery, as the the raven enters the scene frightens the narrator. Who is this bird and

what is it doing here? Like his own grief and sadness was not enough now, there is a mysterious raven in his

chamber. The narrator asks ''...Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore Tell me what

thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore! Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.” '' More mystery rather than

3
Poe,(The Raven) ,line 42
answers what we get from the raven.'' Night’s Plutonian shore'' is the place symbolizes the underworld, afterlife

as we use today. The narrator suspect that the raven might be some kind of messenger, who might give a

message from Lenore. Nevermore is the word alone shows that the essence of the Gothicism in this poem. One

word to keep the reader waiting , keep the reader reading for an answer, for a reason to understand to

rationalize the situation. However, this is the very aspect of Gothic and Dark Romanticism genre . Not

everything should be real or believable. Sometimes there are mysteries and supernatural things that nor we

cannot explain neither we need to do it. Of course the poem is also unique in that matter. At the end there is

another mystery to solve for reader. After a point, it seems like the narrator talks to himself beginning to go mad

, seeing things, hearing voices. Is it all a paranoia that drives a lover to go madness for his loss or is it a

supernatural event which lead a raven to speak only one word , one word which keep the narrator guessing and

questioning things, one word which has no meaning for the reader but has several for the narrator.

The poem itself can be analyzed and read from different perspectives. For different topics or readers it

can unveil different meanings. However, all of them proves that symbolism and Gothic elements in ''The

Raven'' , shows that the poem is one of the finest examples of Gothic Genre, and is the one poem that is the

wonderful response to Transcendentalism, and Transcendentalists as it shows that a dark, melancholic poem

which challenges the reader about madness, and about supernatural aspects can also be the reflection of our

lives, and literature does not need to be about goodness in human, and nature.