"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,"" (Poe 1). So begins Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven- a poem that exposes the despair of one man over losing his lover and the self-inflicted pain he brings on himself with the help of a bird. "The Raven- has two characters the narrator and of course the raven himself. The narrator has recently had his lover die and is grieving at home alone. His beloved Lenore haunts his every moment, he even believes that it could possible be her at the door the first time he answers it. The raven, finally gaining entrance through the narrator's chamber window lands on a bust of Athena that hangs above the chamber door and watches the narrator. When the narrator asks the raven his name half heartedly the raven replies "Nevermore- (Poe 48). This of course shocks the narrator because everyone knows birds can't speak, or can they? The narrator decides to discount the raven's ability to speak as mimicry of a former owner of the bird. .
Due to the pain and depression the narrator is suffering from the loss of his beloved Lenore he begins to ask the raven questions. With the predictable response of "nevermore- one must wonder why the narrator asks the questions that he does. The only possible explanation is that he had a masochistic desire to cause even more pain and suffering for himself. By asking if he will ever be reunited with his lost love the narrator only gets angrier at the raven for its response of "nevermore-. .
Clifford Edwards, in an essay review originally published in Masterplots II: Poetry, explains that probably the most unique thing about Poe's "The Raven- is how the narrator asks his questions in a way that he will obviously know what the raven is going to say but he asks the question of the raven anyway as if the raven is an all-knowing mystic (Edwards). Edwards also explains the narrator's descent into madness thusly:.