In his poem the Raven, Poe introduces the raven and Lenore. Is the death of Lenore sexist? Why or why not?

-- Anonymous, March 03, 2005

Answers

No you ho

-- Anonymous, March 04, 2005

I think in the literary scene- where Poe's values are most sincerely concentrated he treated women writers fairly and on an equal basis if they merited it and he dished out extraordinarily harsh critiques on the same basis. In his personal life he idolized or made many friends with women. he praised a book on manners for young ladies. But sexist? Less a case could be made for that than for Poe being an anti-Semite based on on joking comment or pro-slavery.

In art we see Poe in his own world separate from the customs of the everyday culture. First, the Beatrice theme, the ideal figured as a woman who dies or is gone. Then the egalitarian literary relationships with women who at that time comprised a greater and more serious part of the new American scene than perhaps they do even now(of course the sad state of men's literary accomplishments in our period make this a little difficult to see).

Now the poem(s) about those dear angelic, dead women. Despite Poe openly pining and glorifying the sentiment of these inspirational meories, he does not, cannot control them. The ideal flips to a cold haunting, a doubt and darkness, a shattering of pleasant delusions and sentiment. Unlike other Romantic poets, despite celebrating his own artistry around the ideal figure, Poe does not have a perfect shrine of his own making. Instead the very real force of the separated but ever present memory is kept away from the poet's will and happiness by a very reral death. The consolations of art, philosophy and religion and even unfettered cries of the heart are struck dumb. This is much more of course than merely being anti-sexist. His poem "Paean"(Lenore) which celebrates the death of a young woman as something more than the traditonal and false mourning that develops into the Ligeia character's superior self-will and the endless revolt/despair of the mourner in "Annabel Lee". The poet decries the conventional view of women as limited in society and compartmentalized in sop in death. Nothing ironically makes this more real than his own weakness and defeat in this new relationship. If the works are all about the writer/narrator they certainly do not encompass or come to terms with the lost love. An incomplete and open wound, a horror and happiness lost. Study "Ulalume" and the other works mentioned, preferably chronologically as Poe's losses darken his youthful themes.

-- Anonymous, March 04, 2005

Was Poe a sexist? That is thy question. I think he was a sexist, for having sex would make you a sexist

-- Anonymous, March 08, 2005

I don't think he was because he was a straight man who liked to wright about women. That is perfectly normal.

-- Anonymous, March 09, 2005

why would mentioning a woman make anyone sexist? that doesnt make sense. what, are woman so sacred now that you can't even mention their presence?

-- Anonymous, March 10, 2005