Speaker and characters

The main characters in “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe are the unnamed speaker and the raven.

The speaker

The speaker is also the central character of the poem as he take spart in it himself. From the very beginning, it is clear that the man is suffering, as he is “weak and weary” (l. 1). He is depicted reading and “nearly napping” (l. 3), trying to forget his “lost Lenore” (l. 11). The identity of Lenore is never stated, but it can probably be assumed that she is the speaker’s former lover. The only thing that we know about her is that she is dead, as she is “lost” and only the angels know her name.

The speaker is very impressionable because even the rustling of the curtains fills him “with fantastic terrors” (l. 16). His already-feeble state of mind worsens when he opens the door and is only greeted by darkness:

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before; (ll. 29-31)

His heart is not still (l. 41) because of the intensity of his feelings. Once the raven flies from the window to his chamber, the speaker becomes even more fascinated by what the night has to offer. He begins to question the raven, which is a sign that he is slowly but surely descending into madness; at first, he is amazed by the bird’s royal and intimidating aspect, but he soon tries to find out more about it. When the bird answers him back, the speaker is taken aback:

Much I marvelled this ungainl...