What is the conflict in "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe?

The main conflict in "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe is internal.  The conflict exists in the mind of the speaker as he faces the Raven and is driven by his grief to hear it speak his worst and most dreaded fears that he will "Nevermore" see his beloved Lenore.  Therefore, I believe it is pretty safe to say that the main conflict in the poem is internal.

What is the conflict in "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe?

The major conflict is within the narrator's mind.  He is so distraught by the loss of his love that it leads him to the brink of insanity.  He appears throughout the poem to be fighting with the raven, but in actuality, he is struggling within himself.  The raven's coincidental response just pushes him over the edge.

What is the conflict in "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe?

Key to understanding this famous poem is establishing that it is the speaker of the poem that is creating the problems he is suffering for himself. Poe himself wrote that he was exploring through this poem one aspect of the dark side of human nature - "that species of despair which delights in self-torture." In other words, the narrator projects or puts onto the bird whatever his own wild imagination dredges up.

In terms of the conflict then, the conflict in this poem is decidedly an internal one, as we are presented with a frail and exhausted student working late at night mourning the loss of his love, Lenore. It is clear from the description in the first stanza that he is not in his right state of mind: he describes himself as "weak and weary" and tells us that he has dived into study and books to try and "borrow/From my books surcease of sorrow" for the "lost Lenore". He is basically trying to desperately forget his love for her and get over his grief. Thus, when the Raven appears, the narrator believes that this is some kind of external conflict between himself and the Raven who the narrator views as a messenger from hell or a demon who has come to taunt him with the impossibility of ever getting over his grief. However, what the narrator does not realise is that it is he that is driving this conflict - he is the one who is making the suggestions about the Raven. The Raven only gives one word in response, which the narrator interprets from his own perspective. For example, consider this stanza:

"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil! -

By that Heaven that bends above us - by that God we both adore -

Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,

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

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

Quoth the Raven "Nevermore."

The narrator, knowing that the Raven has only spoken one word, asks it a question phrased in such a way that the inevitable response will plunge him ever further into his self-made abyss of despair and grief. It is this that reflects the true conflict in the poem which is only resolved by the plunge of the narrator into his despair from which he feels he can never escape.

What is the conflict in "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe?

The physical setting of this poem is the narrator's den.  He describes this room only as a "chamber," but because it houses books and a bust of Athena, it seems to be a study of some kind (line 16).  In terms of time, the setting is late December, a "bleak" month that is often symbolic of the end of life because it is, literally, the end of the year (7).  Further, it is midnight, and a "dreary" one -- it is probably cold and windy and kind of creepy and bare outside (1).  Midnight is also often used as a symbol of death because it is the end, or death, of day.

The poem's conflict seems to be one of the character vs. Nature variety.  Although the raven could be viewed as an antagonist, I would argue that the raven doesn't really oppose the narrator in any way; he simply provides a catalyst for the narrator to begin to explore his feelings regarding death and what happens after it; this makes death the antagonist, and the raven is only a symbol of death.  The narrator immediately identifies the bird with death, saying that the raven has come from the "'Night's Plutonian shore,'" and he hopes that the bird was a gift from the angels to distract him and help him forget his "memories of Lenore" (47, 82).  Then, however, he fears that the bird is a "'thing of evil'" (85), and he wishes to know if there is some cure for his pain, for death.  Next, he asks the raven if, "'within the distant Aidenn,'" his soul will ever meet with Lenore again in heaven (93).  And though he believes that the bird will leave him as others "'have flown before,'" he eventually realizes that the bird is "never flitting" and will never leave (58, 103).  He can never forget that death is coming for him now that he has had such a brush with mortality, when his lover died, and so the bird that represents death will never leave him.  Thus, it is the narrator's own fears of death, his own as well as the permanence of his beloved's, that he must grapple with. 

What are three conflicts of man v. man, man v. nature, and man v. self in Poe's "The Raven"?

Three man v. self examples:

1. In the second stanza, the narrator admits that he had to turn to his books to try to combat his overwhelming sorrow for Lenore.  In Lines 9-10, he confesses,

"Vainly I had sought to borrow/ From my books surcease of sorrow . . . for the lost Lenore."

He recognizes that he cannot continue to battle himself over the grief and seeks a benign way (at this point) to end the conflict.

2. The narrator also fights against his own fear.  As he sits in his dark chamber and hears the rapping on his door, he is filled with "fantastic terrors never felt before" (line 14).  Most likely his fear is the result of his loneliness, for there is no one else there to comfort him.

3. At the end of the poem, the narrator's battle for his own sanity represents an effective use of man v. self conflict.  The raven causes the grieving speaker to battle with his own logic, until finally the narrator gives up and says,

"And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor/ Shall be lifted--nevermore!" (lines 107-108).

Three man v. nature examples:

1. The narrator v. the raven is the most obvious example of this conflict in the poem. At first the narrator is intrigued by the appearance of the raven, but as the poem progresses, he resorts to throwing a cushion at the bird, cursing it, and finally giving in to it by allowing it to stay and torment him "forevermore."

2. The setting of the poem is another good example of man v. nature.  Poe, in typical Gothic form, chooses the middle of the night in "bleak December" for the setting.  The time of the year causes the speaker to dwell on days that should be joyful but are not because of Lenore's absence.

3. Finally, one could argue that death itself is a part of man v. nature in this poem.  If life's cycle had not ended for the fair maiden, then the narrator most likely would not have been sitting alone in terror in his chamber.

Three man v. man examples:

1. The narrator v. Lenore--while the reader does not know for certain that Lenore died, she is, nonetheless, no longer a part of the speaker's life.  He calls her "lost," (line 10) and asks if she is in "distant Adienn" (line 93). While the narrator obviously loved Lenore very much, her memory is what caused his depression in the first place.  Because of her, he has shut himself up in his apartment and is afraid to answer the door.

2. The narrator v. unknown visitors--when the narrator first hears the knocking at his door, it is clear that he sees other humans who might interrupt his private grieving over Lenore as threatening and unwelcome.  In Lines 20-21, he thinks,

" 'Sir . . . or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;/ But the fact is I was napping."

He immediately formulates an excuse for not answering the door because he does not know how to act normally around other humans. Just the thought of the uncomfortable encounter causes him anxiety.

3. Finally, the only other somewhat plausible example of man v. man is the narrator's conflict with "angels."  However, this is stretching it. The narrator mentions several times that the angels named Lenore, but near the poem's end, he begins to think of the angels as the senders of the raven to torment him (Line 81).  Again, this is not a very effective example, but since Poe's poem focuses mainly on the psychological darkness that humans often face, man v. man conflict does not play a major role.

What is the speaker's internal conflict in "The Raven"?

The speaker in "The Raven" is agonizing over the death of a beloved maiden named Lenore. He finds it so painful to remember her that he is struggling not to think about her. But he keeps remembering her throughout the poem, and the raven who intrudes into his home and takes up permanent residence only keeps reminding him of his great loss. He transfer his internal struggles to a dialogue with the black bird. But the raven only makes the speaker's suffering worse by giving him nothing but what appear to be nihilistic answers.

In the opening stanza the speaker is trying to forget Lenore by immersing himself in books.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. “
“'Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this, and nothing more.”

At one point in the poem the speaker asks the bird if there is balm in Gilead. This is the same as asking if there is any hope to be found in traditional religion as promised in various places in the Bible. The speaker is still thinking about the lost Lenore. What troubles him the most about losing her is the thought that she is gone forever--who knows where? This is the thing that troubles most people who have lost a loved one. When King Lear's beloved daughter Cordelia dies, the old man speaks an unusual line which expresses that obvious but somehow unbelievable truth:

Thou'lt come no more,
Never, never, never, never, never.     (5.3)

The raven knows only one word. But that one word seems all too appropriate to the speaker's thoughts and feelings. Therefore the bird itself comes to symbolize the speaker's sense of hopelessness. The bird refuses to leave. By perching on the bust of the goddess of wisdom, Pallas Athene, the bird further represents the cold, hard truth that Lenore is dead and it is useless to imagine any way in which the speaker could ever be reunited with her. In the end the speaker is totally defeated in his internal struggle to "find surcease of sorrow, sorrow for the lost Lenore." He gives in to eternal grief. Nothing can relieve his anguish but his own death.

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamplight o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted—nevermore!

Edgar Allan Poe's wife Virginia, whom he married when she was only thirteen, was still alive in 1845 when he published "The Raven," but she was in poor health and died of tuberculosis in January of 1847. It seems likely that he was expressing his feelings about his pending loss of Virginia in "The Raven."

Is the conflict in "The Raven" internal?

I agree with #2 on this one - it is clear that the poem features a narrator who is projecting his own inner turmoil and fears onto the raven and therefore, in a sense, is torturing himself with his endless and evermore frenzied questioning of the raven. We are presented with a student who is desperately trying to come to terms with the death of his lost love, Lenore, but clearly he is plagued by her death and unable to move on. This is his central internal conflict that results in the poem.

Is the conflict in "The Raven" internal?

Internal Conflicts in "The Raven"

A student recently posed this question to me, and I thought it would be useful to move it to the DBs.  His question is: 

I think that the conflict in "The Raven" is internal, but I don't know.   What do you think?  

I've always considered the narrator's conflict to be internal. To me, the whole dialogue with the raven is in the narrator's mind. I'd be very interested to know what external conflicts the narrator might have in the poem.

What is the conflict in "The Raven"?

The most common definition of “conflict” in literature is that of a “struggle” between the protagonist and the antagonist of the literary work.

Your question is asking to explain what it means when someone says “explain the conflict” of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem The Raven.  The answer is that you are being asked to identify what the struggle is that is taking place in the poem, who is struggling, and the circumstances that surround the struggle.

Kinds of Struggle in The Raven

To answer this particular question, it is important to understand that there are two kinds of struggle: external and internal. Internal struggles are psychological.  Thoughts, ideas, emotions, desires, virtue and vice are often involved as the source of the main character’s woes. As such, these issues happen from within, that is, they do not come from the environment.

External conflicts do come from “outside,” and from the environment. They comprise the sum of all circumstances that surround the main character and affect him, or her, negatively.  The tactics of the antagonist, social struggle, and environmental blocking become obstacles to the main character, or protagonist, and this is where the conflict ensues.

In the poem The Raven the primary conflict is internal. The main character is in deep mourning, depressed, and unable to move on psychologically from the passing of the woman that he loves, Lenore.

While it is arguable that an external conflict could be identified as the unwelcome entrance of the raven into the main character’s house, the reality is that the act of a bird nesting near, or even flying into a warm, well-lit home in the dead of winter, is more of a natural reaction than an act of Providence. 

Yet, since the main character sees the visit of the raven as an act of Providence, and as a foreboding of bad and sad things to come, the internal conflict intensifies as a result of the external input serving as further evidence, to the main character, that his irrational thoughts are actually correct.

Therefore, the conflict, or struggle, in The Raven is the main character against his own thoughts and emotions, as he does very little to move away from his sad point of depression and isolation, and makes his own woes all the more tragic and deep.