Question

What symbols beyond the raven did you notice in the poem? What is the significance of those symbols in "The Raven"? Provide textual evidence to support your answer.

Answer 1

The chamber signifies the narrator’s loneliness and the sorrow he feels from the loss of Lenore. The room is richly furnished and reminds him of his lost love, however in contrast to the calmness in the chamber, the tempest outside is used to emphasise the mans isolation.

Step-by-step explanation:

Answer 2

The speaker refers to the “Night’s Plutonian shore,” which is a reference to the Roman god of the underworld, Pluto, a symbol of death and the afterlife. This symbol intensifies the depressing, dark mood of the poem.

The speaker’s lost love, Lenore, represents love, purity, beauty, and truth, and she adds a glimmer of light and hope to the dark poem. She symbolizes the happiness that’s now gone from the speaker’s life:

It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore—

Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.

Also, the speaker's desire to drink nepenthe symbolizes his yearning to forget his pain over Lenore and move on with his life:

Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!