Who Is The Narrator In The Fall Of The House Of Usher

In the story, “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe, an unnamed narrator arrives at the House of Usher, a very creepy mansion owned by his old friend Roderick Usher. Roderick has been sick lately and wrote to his friend, the narrator, asking for help. The narrator explains that Roderick and his sister are the last of the Usher bloodline then heads inside to see his friend. Roderick is suffering from an "acuteness of the senses," he feels that he will die of the fear he feels. He attributes part of his illness to the fact that his sister, Madeline, suffers from catalepsy and ends up dead. At least that’s what we think. Of course, because of her catalepsy, she might just look like she’s dead. The narrator helps Rodrick entomb her

The narrator remains nameless throughout the story conveying his principal job which is to narrate. Being told in the first person affects the story immensely because of the powerful psychological interest of the narrative perspective, “What was it--I paused to think--what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher?”(Poe 18). The crazy thoughts of the Ushers is inaccessible to the narrator. The narrator is a rationalist as opposed to the irrational bents in the Ushers. He doubts it all, especially the possible supernatural occurrences. Overall, the narrator's role in the story is to make the story of the Ushers survive and be told. Since he was the only survivor, he has to live on for the strange story to be told. An alternative point of view which would help strengthen the story is being told in third person. For instance, if it was told from Roderick’s point of view then we would have a better understanding of how insane the Usher’s truly are. But an advantage always comes with a disadvantage. The disadvantage would be that the suspense would be taken away because we would know all of his crazy thoughts and the mystery element about the Ushers would be taken away. Poe using the first person helps him arrive at his central idea because it showed the importance of Roderick’s fear, which in this case, was his fear of

Poe uses a round character with a dynamic personality, an internal and external conflict, first person point of view, and a dark, mysterious setting to create an outstanding story capturing each juicy moment, creating an overall effect of terror tieing into the central idea which fear itself is worse than what you actually