The Raven Cover Image

Analysis Pages

Innuendo in The Raven

"The Raven" features numerous allusions to the Bible, equally well as Greek culture and mythology in lodge to suggest to readers how to translate fantastical events and to show the narrator'south level of education.

Dark'south Plutonian Shore: Poe makes several mention of the "Plutonian Shore," a reference to the Greek underworld, where dead souls such as Lenore reside. Pluto is the god of the underworld. The shore is that of the River Styx, which souls must cross to achieve the underworld.

Gilead: Gilead is a region in Hashemite kingdom of jordan, famed in the Bible for producing botanical medicines. The "balm in Gilead" has become a common metaphor for a universal cure.

Nepenthe: Nepenthe is a narcotic, used past the ancient Greeks and made reference to in The Odyssey, known to chase away sorrow and erase memory.

Aidenn: "Aidenn" is a poetic spelling of Eden, which in the context of "The Raven" represents the narrator's desire to render to a state of innocence.

Allusion Examples in The Raven:

The Raven

🔒 2

"Perched upon a bust of Pallas..." See in text(The Raven)

Pallas may likewise refer to the girl of the bounding main-god Triton, who raised Athena alongside his own children. According to some stories, Athena killed the young maiden Pallas. In her sorrow, Athena took Pallas's name out of remembrance, referring to herself thenceforth as "Pallas Athena." This myth is helpful in our understanding of "The Raven" in that Pallas represents a parallel of Lenore. Both Pallas and Lenore are tragically killed maidens who live on merely in name.

Subscribe to unlock »

"Nightly shore—..." See in text(The Raven)

The narrator perceives the Raven as a wandering aboriginal creature. In Genesis 8:7, Noah sends a dove and a raven in opposite directions to examination if the water had receded enough for his family and the animals to leave the ark. The dove remains famous for returning and signaling the cease of the overflowing. The raven never returns to the ark, and is lost to the dark. Referencing the grim associations given to the bird since Greek mythology draws on a long standing history that relates this bird to wandering, absence, and omens.

Subscribe to unlock »

Analysis Pages