Student Question
What are examples of unreliable narration in "The Fall of the House of Usher"?
Quick answer:
Unreliable narration in "The Fall of the House of Usher" includes the narrator's opium-like feelings, suggesting potential hallucinations. His anonymity and vague relationship with Usher add to the unreliability. He provides little detail about their activities, and his surprising ignorance of Madeline Usher's existence, passive acceptance of her entombment, and ignoring signs of life cast doubt on his judgment. These aspects make readers question his mental state and perception.
There are various examples of unreliable narration in Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Fall of the House of Usher." These include the following.
In the first paragraph of the story, the narrator compares his feelings with those of an opium addict when the effects of the drug begin to wear off.
I looked upon the scene before me—upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain—upon the bleak walls—upon the vacant eye-like windows—upon a few rank sedges—and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees—with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium—the bitter lapse into every-day life—the hideous dropping off of the veil.
The narrator's familiarity with the effects of opium predispose the reader to imagine that the story he is about to relate may be...
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no more than a fantastic vision and that he might be under the influence of drugs as he tells it.
The narrator never reveals his name or any other personal details about himself (indeed, it is merely conjecture that he is a man at all). He is equally cagey about his relationship with Usher and even how they pass their days together during his stay.
I shall ever bear about me a memory of the many solemn hours I thus spent alone with the master of the House of Usher. Yet I should fail in any attempt to convey an idea of the exact character of the studies, or of the occupations, in which he involved me, or led me the way.
The narrator's function is to narrate, yet here he refuses to tell the reader how he spent his time with Roderick Usher, throwing a sinister veil of mystery over their activities.
Almost everything about the narrator's attitude toward Madeline Usher is strange. It is surprising that he did not know that such a close friend had a twin sister in the first place. It is odd that he does not visit Madeline during her illness. It is curious that he acquiesces so readily in Roderick's plan to keep her in a coffin for two weeks without burying her. Finally, it is very strange indeed that he helps to screw down the lid of her coffin when he has discerned what appear to be traces of life in her:
The disease which had thus entombed the lady in the maturity of youth, had left, as usual in all maladies of a strictly cataleptical character, the mockery of a faint blush upon the bosom and the face, and that suspiciously lingering smile upon the lip which is so terrible in death. We replaced and screwed down the lid, and, having secured the door of iron, made our way, with toil, into the scarcely less gloomy apartments of the upper portion of the house.
All these details lead the reader to wonder about the narrator's sanity and sobriety, and to imagine that he is, at the very least, not thinking or seeing clearly.