Thursday, July 23, 2009
House of Usher
An unknown narrator is used in "The Fall of The House of Usher. I feel he is reliable because he is telling us the story as he goes through it as opposed to him reflecting on the story, he is taking us alongside him as he visits the house. The narrator does not seem to have any biases or mental problems which is related to that of an unreliable narrator. I think Poe chose to use this type of narrator in order to allow the reader to take the information the narrator presents and analyse it for themselves, instead of letting the narrator explain things. Poe does this so the reader can look for clues on their own, and to keep the reader curious and wanting to figure out more.
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I definitely agree with what you have said. I also feel as if Poe left the narrator open to allow the reader to become part of the story. One may be able to feel as if they are the old childhood friend or wonder how it must be to see someone you knew in the sort of situation. I believe that he is a reliable narrator because he was at one point part of Roderick's life and Roderick must have felt highly for the narrator if he sent for him to come visit during this horrible time. I believe that there is much more meaning that hinds within the words of this story and it is left there for the reader to become courious and debate on their own.
ReplyDeleteI too agree, the narrator in "the fall of the house of Usher" is suspose to be the reader to bring us in on the story as if the reader is the actualy witness of the account of what happened at the house of usher and it's demise. the reader becoming the narrator is useful not only to tie the reader directly to the story but for each reader as a part of the story to take away from the house of usher some for of enlightenment or understanding about thyself.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the narrator helped the reader feel like they too were apart of the house. In the beginning of the story, I think the narrator was reliable, but as the story goes on, we see that the decay of the house is starting to effect the mental state of the narrator. He even comments a couple times about how he feels himself going a little crazy. Another curious thing is that the narrator made a few references to opium use...I wasn't quite sure what to make of this.
ReplyDeleteInteresting way of looking at the story. i agree Poe wanted you to take the imagery into your own imagination and try to figure it out for yourself.
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