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In Poe's "The Raven," is the raven symbolic of wisdom?

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In a literary work, symbolism is open to interpretation. One item may seem obviously symbolic to one reader while the next reader sees it as a simple object. Similarly, the same object might represent one concept to one reader and a different concept to another reader, or a single object may have several symbolic meanings. The raven in Edgar Allan Poe's eponymous poem could possibly have multiple interpretations as a symbol. However, any symbolic interpretation of the raven must be supported by evidence from the poem.

The most obvious meaning of the unusual speaking bird is that it represents depression, pessimism, or grief. The bird is black, a depressing hue and speaks a single pessimistic word, "Nevermore." The persona of the poem calls it a "prophet," a "devil," and a "thing of evil." These appellations are consistent with it representing something negative, dark, or harmful. The speaker assumes it comes from "the Night’s Plutonian shore"—that is, the underworld or the abode of the dead. This adds credence to the idea that it represents the man's grief over his lost loved one, Lenore. At the end of the poem, the raven's "eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming." This is a malevolent image, suggestive of despair, depression, or even mental illness.

So far, there seems to be no evidence that the raven could symbolize wisdom. The one detail that could associate the bird with wisdom is the fact that when it flies into the man's home, it immediately comes to rest "upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door." Pallas is an epithet given to the Greek goddess Athena, the goddess of wisdom, warfare, and handicraft. At the end of the poem, the bird is still perched on the bust and will be there, as the speaker thinks, forevermore. Although the bird's resting place might serve to give its word more credibility with the agitated man as he converses with it—making the man think it is wise—a careful reading of the poem does not support the idea that the raven is wise. Instead, readers come away with the conviction that the bird is witless and the man is emotional and unreasonable. He is unwise to take the word of an unthinking creature as truth.

Therefore, the bird does not symbolize wisdom but rather the character's lack of wisdom or sanity in attributing supernatural knowledge to the random word of a random bird.

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Because the raven is a carrion bird, like the vulture, it is usually associated with death. Depending on cultural beliefs, it can also be a symbol of trickery or even the bringer of light into the world. But some cultures considered the raven to be a bearer of wisdom. The Norse god Odin had two ravens who told him everything that was going on in the world; they were messengers of the gods.

In Poe's poem, the raven seems to be more a harbinger of death and darkness than a bringer of wisdom.

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