The Simpsons Current Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven,” and Academics Now Use It to Educate Youngsters the Joys of Literature

The Simp­sons has mocked or ref­er­enced lit­er­a­ture over its many sea­sons, usu­al­ly by a guide Lisa was learn­ing, or with visitor seem­ances (e.g., Michael Chabon & Jonathan Franzen, Maya Angelou and Amy Tan). And it has ref­er­enced Edgar Allan Poe in each title (“The Tell-Tale Head” from the primary sea­son) and in move­ing (in “Lisa’s Rival” from 1994, the title char­ac­ter builds a dio­ra­ma based mostly on the identical Poe story.)

However on the primary ever “Tree­home of Hor­ror” from 1990—the Simp­sons’ recur­ring Hal­loween episode—they adapt­ed Poe’s “The Raven” extra religion­ful­ly than any little bit of lit present in any oth­er episode. The poem, learn by James Earl Jones, stays intact, kind of, however with Dan Castellaneta’s Homer Simp­son professional­vid­ing the unnamed narrator’s voice. Marge makes an seem­ance because the lengthy depart­ed Lenore, with hair so tall it wants an additional can­vas to con­tain it in por­trait. Magazine­gie and Lisa are the censer-swing­ing seraphim, and Bart is the annoy­ing raven that dri­ves Homer insane.

Castel­lan­e­ta does an incredible job deliv­er­ing Poe’s verse with con­vic­tion and humor, whereas maintain­ing the char­ac­ter true to each Homer and Poe. It’s a bal­anc­ing act onerous­er than it sounds.

Suf­fice it to say that this for­ay into Poe was ok for sev­er­al train­ers’ guides (includ­ing this one from The New York Times) to sug­gest utilizing the video in school. (We’d love to listen to about this in the event you have been a trainer or stu­dent who expe­ri­enced this.) And it’s the primary and solely time that Poe acquired co-writ­ing cred­it on a Simp­sons episode.

Notice: An ear­li­er ver­sion of this put up appeared on our web site in 2016.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

The Simp­sons Pay Won­der­ful Trib­ute to the Ani­me of Hayao Miyaza­ki

Watch The Simp­sons’ Hal­loween Par­o­dy of Kubrick’s A Clock­work Orange and The Shin­ing

Thomas Pyn­chon Edits His Lines on The Simp­sons: “Homer is my role mod­el and I can’t speak ill of him.”

Ted Mills is a free­lance author on the humanities.