The Raven and Ligeia a comparison Essay examples -- English Literature

The farrow and Ligeia a comparisonAlthough the two tales atomic number 18 presented in antithetical literary forms thetales themselves deal with remarkably similar arena matter. So muchso that it is possible to compare the style of all(prenominal) with but a littlereference to the general themes of the two works.The Raven and Ligeia are both about loss. The narrators of both tales live with lost the warmth life thing to them, a woman of incomparable talentsand beauty. That the loss of this woman has happened for differentreasons does not matter for it is how this loss manifests itself inthe lives of the narrators that provide the drama and the poignance ofthe stories. In each we discover the narrator is dwelling upon thatwoman that he adored and in each we find the peculiar way in whichthey deal with this.In the Raven a man sits alone in his chamber reading ancient tomestrying desperately to keep his fountainhead from thoughts of his lost Lenore.But he hears the sounds from w ithout the chamber that could be mayhapthe jot of his beloved. It is this irrational hope and fear that thebounds of death can in some way be transcended and that he might once morespeak with his love that begins to lead to his irrational behaviour.When the titular Raven makes its appearance the narrator is workedinto much(prenominal) a fever of imagination guilt and fear that he perceives the tinkers damn as some emissary from beyond. So it is that its constantrepetition of never again are taken as both confirmation that thespirit of Lenore lives on and denial of him to ever speak to heragain. The narrator leaves us still locked with the madam projectingupon it his own feelings of self-loathing and hate.Ligeia on the other hand is a statelier version of the narrat... ...e thing he identifies with inhis current situation. When after the raven appears to have refutedhis fantasy of Lenore he finds that he hates the raven as an extensionof himself and perhaps the raven is nothing more than the narratorsmetaphor for himself or at to the lowest degree some darker aspect of his mind.The main difference between the two tales is that eon Ligeia iscouched in very descriptive prose the Raven makes much more mapping ofmetaphor. That said the style of the poem is very much that of a rhymed tale and as such is also similar to the prose structure of the con story. In conclusion it should be noted that both are exquisiteattempts to tackle a difficult and provocative subject and they managethis in two similar but unique ways. It is the similarity, which lendsthem both power and the rhetorical differences that mark them as beingexceptional.