The narrator is alone at midnight on a bleak December night, and he has been reading quaint and curious forgotten lore. When he suddenly hears a tapping, it naturally frightens him. He is also somewhat unnerved by the rustling of his purple curtains. There is very little light inside his room. Most of it is coming from the dying embers of his fireplace and from "lamp-light" by which he has presumably been reading. What really frightens him is his own imagination. He imagines that it might be a ghost outside, the ghost of his deceased loved one Lenore. When he stands peering into the outer darkness without finding any human being there, he frightens himself still further by "dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before." These dreams, or fantasies, have to do with the possibility that Lenore, though dead, has come back to visit him in answer to his prayers. He whispers the question, "Lenore?" He must be feeling more and more certain that he is being visited by a supernatural spirit. He is eventually relieved to discover that the tapping was only made by a bird which apparently was a tame pet that had somehow gotten free and was seekiing shelter in another human habitation.

It is a cold December evening, and the narrator has been reading, until upon the midnight hour he hears a tapping at his door. The book he has been reading was a reason for his needing to forget about the sorrow that he has been unable to ignore. Because it is the midnight hour, he felt the sudden need to cower when he heard the noises coming from outside his chamber door. It was uncertainty and the fear about who could possibly be so near at such a late night hour that caused him to refrain from looking out the door. Though it caused him inner terror, he soon saw it was but an error and gaining confidence, he soon would realize it must be a visitor.

Why does the speaker in "The Raven" hesitate to open the door?

The narrator of the poem is full of sorrow, as he is mourning his "lost Lenore" and attempting to distract himself from these feelings by reading an old "volume of forgotten lore." When he first hears the tapping at his door, he tells himself, half asleep ("nearly napping"), that it is only "'some visitor'" and "'nothing more.'" He mentions, next, that this was in "the bleak December." Midnight, in December especially, is quite dark. December has some of the longest and darkest nights of the year. In general, it is odd to receive a visitor knocking at one's door at midnight. Midnight is hardly a congenial hour to go calling on someone, so it does not strike me as strange that the narrator would be surprised and, perhaps, alarmed by someone at his door at this time of night.

Further, the narrator clearly has a good imagination, as we can see when he says that "each separate dying ember [of the fire] wrought its ghost upon the floor." It's interesting that he chooses the word "ghost" here, especially just before he tells us of his dead lover, Lenore. It seems like he's sort of freaking himself out a bit. At this point, he's woken up a bit more, and he notices the curtains rustling in such a way that, he says, they "Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before." His heart is beating fast, and he reassures himself, again, that it is only "'some visitor'" and "'nothing more.''

At first, then, the narrator doesn't jump up to get the door because he's dozing off, and it's the middle of the night. Then, however, his imagination takes over, and he becomes fearful of who or what might be there. Finally, his "soul grew stronger," and he leaped up to answer the door, but no one was there.

Why does the speaker in "The Raven" hesitate to open the door?

In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven," a man is sitting alone reading when he hears a tapping at his door. He considers that it must be a visitor. However, he doesn't immediately open the door. When regarding why he pauses before opening the door, consider the first line of the poem. The words "midnight dreary" are mentioned, and the man describes himself as "weak and weary." This gives some indication that both the night and the man are dark and melancholy. By noting a "bleak December" and comparing a dying ember of a fire to a ghost, Poe is effectively attaining a mood of darkness and nervous anticipation.

After describing the "sad, uncertain rustling" of curtains, the man admits to being scared. He then mentions twice that it is just a visitor at the door as if he has to talk himself into believing that it is "nothing more." Finally, after delaying because he is scared, the man opens the door to find no one is there.