Edgar Allan Poe`s Conception of Death

In this chapter, the detailed analysis would focus on the aspect on different attitudes adopted by Edgar Allan Poe to portray his conception of death in selected poems. Poe himself sees death in various experiences and his transformation of death from one poem to another is noteworthy. The bedrock of analysis would be The Raven, Annabel Lee, Lenore, The City in the Sea, Eldorado, and The Conqueror Worm. Although the theme in these poems is the same, the attitudes and the nature of description is entirely different in all of them. the chapter is allocated to three subtitles, man's attitude towards death of the beloved, man's description of death and the third corresponds to the reasons behind these attitudes adopted based on Poe's biography 3.1 Man's attitude towards the death of the beloved:3.1.1 The RavenThe poem follows an unnamed narrator who is also a lamenting lover of his dead beloved Lenore. Lenore is thought to be the deceased wife of Poe and holds the central element in this poem. The narrative poem begins on a dreary night of December, where the lover is seen as tired and weak. Remembering his dead beloved he experiences ennui and tries to overcome this by diverting his attention to an old book. As the narrator is seen feeling at unease and weak, he hears a tapping on his chamber door. He consoles himself that a visitor may have tapped the door to seek asylum and nothing else. Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,— While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. â€Å"‘T is some visitor,† I muttered, â€Å"tapping at my chamber door;Only this and nothing more. † (The Raven 112)Since the beginning of the poem, the reader can feel the ambience of death surrounding the narrator. The use of â€Å"I† is the poem indicates the unnamed narrator being fearful and irritated as he describes the sound in rather negative term â€Å"rapping†. According to TheFreeDictionary, the word corresponds to a series of rapid audible blows in order to attract attention. This rapping sound generated as the narrator describes makes the narrator aware of his surroundings more and begins to fear for himself. Narrator also uses â€Å"gentle† which portrays yet another descriptive aspect, the gentle tap made the narrator aware of his situation and so enough was able to respond to it. The narrator also shows his irritated nature: â€Å"T is some visitor,† I muttered, â€Å"tapping at my chamber door / Only this and nothing more.† Narrator now moves on to remembering his lost beloved Lenore. Narrator can be evidently seen to showcase his unconscious, as he portrays a moment of flashback, a specific time that he is reliving again in that chamber. The use of words â€Å"dying embers† showcases a trigger generated in the narrator about his lost Lenore. It is said that â€Å"we unconsciously tend to run away from our distressing thoughts and painful experiences by believing and convincing ourselves to forget them.† These repressed thoughts and experiences remain in our unconscious in a dormant phase, and as soon as similar situation occurs, these recurring experiences surfaces. The past has surfaced again when the narrator moves into flashback, feeling sorrow for having lost his beloved forever:Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak DecemberAnd 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. (The Raven 112-113) Here, narrator uses â€Å"bleak December† to signify cold, and consequently death. The very first line creates a conception of death as cold and unwavering in the reader's eyes. Nothing lives in the winter, for those who live goes into hibernation till the winter surpasses. December is the month of winter. This symbolizes death as cold, unforgiving and larger in magnitude. The cold of winter wipes out the warmth effortlessly as the narrator explains it as â€Å"dying ember†. This dying ember generated the flashback of his beloved and this in turn instils the narrator to think about his beloved's death. He calls her the â€Å"fair maiden† whom the angels took away, leaving narrator sorrowful and mournful in attribute. To surpass his sorrow, he sought refuge in books: â€Å"Eagerly I wished the morrow; —-vainly I had sought to borrow / From my books surcease of sorrow—-sorrow for the lost Lenore. Now narrator moves to open the door, fearing, grieving, and contemplating that it might be Lenore that seeks entrance in his chamber. The depiction of this fear is uncanny, the narrator shows his inner fear which enthralls in him terrible yet fantastic horrors that he has never felt before. This uncanny attitude towards death is evident of the nature of Poe. Poe regards death as an inevitable concept in this narrative poem. The horrors that the narrator faces are portrayed through the musical effect of silken purple curtain, sad, uncertain rustling of purple curtain, narrator is now terrified of this sound and reassures himself that it might be some visitor who seeks entrance at his chamber door. From the initial concept of death as an inevitable phenomena, the transformation has made death generating fear inside narrator. The narrator is now fearful of the ambience around him as it generates the