Deep Into That Darkness Peering

An Essay on Gothic Nature

Bibliographic Data

ID8097524
AuthorsTom J Hillard (0009-0000-3530-3843, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume16
Issue4
Pages685-695
Publication date2009-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueISLE Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1076-0962 • E-ISSN: 1759-1090
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/isle/isp090
OpenAlexW2052312379
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited2

When the anxious narrator of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" first hears the gentle "rapping at my chamber door" that disturbs his reading of "many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore," he imagines its source to be some human "visitor" that has come knocking (58). Cast into a state of apprehension by thoughts of his recently deceased beloved Lenore, he "open[s] wide the door" to find only "Darkness there, and nothing more" (Poe 58). In a powerful moment pregnant with anticipation and dread, he stands there, "Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, / Doubting," all the while staring into the blackness of the open doorway. Suddenly uncertain of what lurks within that darkness, Poe's narrator admits that he is "dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before" (58). We never quite learn what these dreams are, but his phrasing suggests that what he wonders about, what he fears, what he doubts is as much a product of his own imagination as it is anything that might actually exist outside his chamber. Of course, while this narrator's mind runs loose conjuring up shadowy and fantastical fears, the real object of his concern turns out to be merely a bird, a "stately raven of the saintly days of yore" (59

Art · Dream · Literature · Nothing · Peering · Ecocriticism and Environmental Literature · Literature, Magical Realism, García Márquez · Modern American Literature Studies · Psychology · Philosophy

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