Question

What is the speaker doing in The Raven? What did he hear?

Answer 1

The speaker in the raven:The narrator of "The Raven" undergoes a range of emotions during his telling of the story. He begins the story in a sad mood because of the death of his love, Lenore; and in a heightened emotional state because of the gloomy literature he has been reading. He is somewhat frightened before realizing the true source of the tapping. At first he is curious to see that the noise he hears comes from a bird, and he seems happy to have some unexpected company in the middle of the night. When it rests upon the bust of the wise Pallas, the narrator considers that the bird, too, is "stately." To his amazement, he realizes that the bird's answer ("Nevermore") to his question makes sense. He becomes more startled at the bird's repeated answer; though it is always the same, the response seems to be a logical one. The narrator eventually becomes rattled; he "shrieked" at his guest. In the end, his view that the bird is infinitely wise causes him to believe tha its answers are in fact truth: That he can never recover from the grief he suffers for the lost Lenore