Characters Edgar Allen Poe Reveals in His Literary Work

The poem, The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe reveals the character of a man (narrator) who seems to be worried and devastatingly sad because he has lost 'his love', Lenore. The ravens' visit appears to intensify the narrator's feelings. He is trying to wipe out the thoughts but Lenore is all about he can think. When the raven appears, the narrators question it but it answers 'Nevermore'. The narrator remains with the thought that he will never see his love, and they will only be re-united in heaven.

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Poe also unveils the personality of a woman named Lenore, who, the narrator fell in love with but has departed. At the beginning of the poem, the man is mourning for losing her loved one and finds it difficult to forget about her. The man keeps on thinking about her and assumes that they will be re-united in heaven one day. Through the narrator's description of Lenore, the audience can learn her personality. She is described as 'radiant' and 'sainted'.

By reading the poem, the audience can assume that the narrator is describing a woman with unique attributes. She is described as a radiant person. Perhaps, she had a joyful personality that made people happy. Calling her 'sainted' would give the audience an impression that the woman was religious. The other character is the raven that appears to have qualities that resemble those of a human being. For instance, it goes straight and sits at one point without moving to another position. Therefore, it seems to have a fixed mind. When the man starts to shout furiously at the raven, it does not move, thus, exhibiting a stubborn character.

In the Tell-Tale Heart, two characters appear to be involved: - an old man and the narrator who live together. The narrator holds that he loves the old man, has no personal hatred towards the man, is not interested with the man's money, and he his wish is to murder the old man due to his eye that resembles that of a vulture. Clearly, the narrator has descended into madness. Regarding the literal personality, the narrator fails to describe his looks as he tells the story in the first person. However, through his voice, he appears to have fear. As the madness of the narrator increases, his urge to get rid of the old man also increases. The narrator; therefore, develops hatred towards the old man. He is convinced that the eye of the old man is evil and he intends to harm the narrator.

The other character, the old man can be described from a physical point of view. As the narrator describes, he has blue eyes and the odd appearance of the old man's eye increases the belief of the narrator about the evil intentions of the man. Besides, the old man seems to be rich bases on the narrators' illustrations of treasures' and 'gold'. However, the old man fails to notice the narrator's hatred towards him.

It is worth noting that characters are significant elements in a story because they drive the narration. The characters symbolize certain qualities like love, hatred, malice, respect, courage and other attributes. In this story, the use of character helped the audience to identify the aspect of hatred. The narrator has the urge of killing the old man because he feels that the old man has a bad intension on him. The other importance of the characters in the story is that they have helped in developing the plot. For instance, in The Tell-Tale Heart, the use of the two characters has shown the chronological order of events that the narrator took to kill the old man. The other importance of the charters is that they develop the theme of the story. Identifying the character trait of the person in the story helps in determining the theme. For instance, in this story, the theme of hatred clearly comes out as the narrator is determined to kill the old man.

I think that Edgar Allan Poe portrayed he characters this way because he wanted to make the story lively by removing it from the world of fantasy to that of reality. By doing so, it gives the audience an imagination that the events can occur in the real world.