Sunday 14 March 2010

What are the setting and conflict in "The Raven"?

The physical setting of
this poem is the narrator's den.  He describes this room only as a "chamber," but
because it houses books and a bust of Athena, it seems to be a study of some kind (line 16).  In
terms of time, the setting is late December, a "bleak" month that is often symbolic of
the end of life because it is, literally, the end of the year (7).  Further, it is midnight, and
a "dreary" one -- it is probably cold and windy and kind of creepy and bare outside
(1).  Midnight is also often used as a symbol of death because it is the end, or death, of
day.

The poem's conflict seems to be one of the character vs. Nature
variety. ...

No comments:

Post a Comment

To what degree were the U.S., Great Britain, Germany, the USSR, and Japan successful in regards to their efforts in economic mobilization during the...

This is an enormous question that can't really be answered fully in this small space. But a few generalizations can be made. Bo...