The opening scene of “The Fall of the House of Usher” immediately welcomes us to a mysterious environment and a false sense of reality. The story seeming dream-like moves to the narrator approaching the feared house and a family member ushers him inside swiftly. While there an unnamed narrator experiences many supernatural activities and sees a constant connection between the house and its owners. He finds himself questioning his senses and psychological state when he concludes that an impossible event has occurred right before his eyes. In an article it is simplified to, “The ability of the human mind ever to know anything with certainty; whether about the external reality of the world or about the internal reality of the mind” (McArthur,
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In the beginning of “The Fall of the House of Usher”, the narrator establishes a childhood connection with the Ushers showing the reader he is a long time- no see friend. The narrator includes, “Although as boys, we had been even intimate associates, yet I really knew little of my friend. His reserve had been always excessive and habitual” (Poe, 4). The narrator only mentions his subtle connection to the boy and does not describe himself even back familiar with him. Although he expresses to be a close and only friend of the living Usher family he still remains anonymous while verbalizing his concerns to the audience. “He does equivocate quite often, using phrases such as, “It may have been” or “I thought I heard” (Amper, 85). The narrator has no credibility to experiencing true or accurate phenomenon. He, himself, might be experiencing hallucinations and physiological problems as well triggering the delusive fantasy. The mystery of how Madeline escapes her tomb is a great example of his deteriorating mind. He considers the heavy coffin and her being so weak from malnutrition how she made it to the top of the stairs before she finally collapses. Poe uses the narrator for accentuating another unknown within the
In the beginning of “The Fall of the House of Usher”, the narrator establishes a childhood connection with the Ushers showing the reader he is a long time- no see friend. The narrator includes, “Although as boys, we had been even intimate associates, yet I really knew little of my friend. His reserve had been always excessive and habitual” (Poe, 4). The narrator only mentions his subtle connection to the boy and does not describe himself even back familiar with him. Although he expresses to be a close and only friend of the living Usher family he still remains anonymous while verbalizing his concerns to the audience. “He does equivocate quite often, using phrases such as, “It may have been” or “I thought I heard” (Amper, 85). The narrator has no credibility to experiencing true or accurate phenomenon. He, himself, might be experiencing hallucinations and physiological problems as well triggering the delusive fantasy. The mystery of how Madeline escapes her tomb is a great example of his deteriorating mind. He considers the heavy coffin and her being so weak from malnutrition how she made it to the top of the stairs before she finally collapses. Poe uses the narrator for accentuating another unknown within the