What is the theme of The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe?

Answer 1

The theme of "The Raven" is simply that people are masochistic. You have a guy who has just lost his loved one "Lenore", and he is wallowing in his sorrow. Enter the raven. He asks the raven what its name is and it sates "nevermore" He then starts talking to himself, and when he is finished the bird again says "nevermore". He then realizes that this is the only word the bird probably knows; taught to him by some unhappy master who used to own him. So he knows the only word the bird will ever say is "nevermore". Yet he still asks questions that could cause him pain, such as when he asked the bird if there was a maiden in heaven with the name Lenore. He knew that the raven would only say nevermore. But he asked anyway.

So the theme of this dark and depressing poem, is that people, maybe especially when they have just suffered from a horrible loss, are masochistic, and want to cause themselves pain. He probably doesn't mean everyone is masochistic to the same extent, but that there's a little bit of it in each of us.

Answer 2

The theme of "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe revolves around the feeling of loss and mourning, as well as the idea of never-ending sorrow and the inevitability of death. It explores the narrator's descent into madness as he grapples with the absence of his beloved Lenore.

Answer 3

Well, if you mean the poem that Edgar Allan Poe wrote, the theme was definitely Horror. Edgar was just like that. It's rather strange, isn't it?

Answer 4

The theme of the raven is that the narrators deepening insanity can be seen through his interactions with the self composed raven.