In Edgar Allan Poe’s story, the question of what is “real” is an important consideration for every aspect. The author uses a first-person narrator and, according to him, not only are both the other characters dead but their house has been destroyed. No other characters corroborate the narrator’s tale. The author’s skill is shown in the extent to which he engages the reader in the story so that we are willing to accept a tale that is improbable if not outright impossible. In turn, the narrator accepts and acts upon many of Roderick’s statements. The question of Madeline’s reality connects with the credibility of the narrator and his willingness to believe Roderick.

It seems likely that, if any of the events actually transpired, Roderick has succeeded in convincing the narrator that much of his story is true. The narrator explains much of Roderick’s anxiety and depression as deep concern over his sister’s health as well as the way the “family evil” has affected the brother. At this point, the narrator has never seen Madeline, who lingers in her own room while the two young men sit downstairs.

The first time the narrator sees her is after she has died, according to Roderick, who has placed her in the tomb. On first seeing her, the narrator instantly notices the similarities between the siblings, and Roderick tells him for the first time that they were twins, which created between them “sympathies of a scarcely intelligible nature….” The information that the narrator does see her before she returns (either breaks out of her prison or comes back as a bloodied ghost) lends credence to the idea that she is real.