Im writing a paper on the comparison and contrast of The Raven and Ligeia. I need it fast. Thanks to anyone that can help.

-- Anonymous, March 05, 2003

Answers

In the poem and tale both narrators are men attached to the memory and existence of their dead loves. The their ways depart. The narrator in the poem wants a compartmentalized consolation now and reunion later, avoiding the fact of the present. In the tale the author is always under the spell of Ligeia's will to live and return, though he does not accept her death either he intends to mimetically, magically do something about by sacrificing another wife in a reverse imtiation turned macabre and ritualistic as it is cruel and unfeeling. Love becomes a burden of despair in the poem after the author works himself into a schizophrenic debate where only the crushing reality of existential loss remains. In the tale she returns horrifically through death and this is shall we say equally if not more unsatisfying? Dead is dead but the burden will not go away ever. Are both narrators self-deceived, one in his defeat and the other in his victory? Is lenore/Ligeia really a love anymore?

-- Anonymous, March 05, 2003