The Raven

The Emotion of the Speaker in The Raven
      Devastating events in someone’s life could deeply affect their mental state. The raven in the poem, whether imaginary or real, has been gradually driving the speaker insane. The loss of his wife is difficult for the speaker, as it would be for anyone, but he goes to extremes to find a way to hear from his wife Lenore again. From the time that the raven enters the home of the speaker’s emotions changed vastly throughout the poem.
The speaker was dumbfounded when he heard a tap on the door. He was a lonely man so why would anyone want to come see him. So when the raven first enters the speaker’s home, the speaker is very excited and intrigued. The narrator had been sad and lonely without his wife so when he gets a visit from the raven he gets a sweet escape from his loneliness for some time. Giving the speaker a break from only thinking about the loss of his wife Lenore was making the speaker elated. The speaker says the raven, “beguil[ed] my sad fancy into smiling” (Poe 43). The speaker, even though he was unlucky when he lost his wife, felt blessed that the raven came in but then started to doubt because he knew that people would come into his life and leave until the raven said to counteract his doubt with “Nevermore” (Poe 60).
      Within the speaker’s happiness he also got very curious about the raven. Even though it was a bird he was so excited for company that he asked the bird for its name. The raven responded with "nevermore" (Poe 60). Even though the speaker thought that name was queer he still wanted to know more. He asked the raven why he came with the excitement that maybe the raven was sent by angels to tell him some things about his wife. The memory of his wife quickly came in and made the speaker get rather serious. He just wanted the sorrow and pain that he kept with him to go away so he wanted to know if the raven could be linked at all with his wife. The raven on the other hand was not so talkative...