Edgar Allan Poe Point Of View Essay

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What is point of view? Point of view is “the speaker, voice, narrator, or persona of a work; the position from details are perceived and related; a centralizing mind or intelligence; not to be confused with opinion or belief “(Roberts, 119). Edgar Allen Poe’s writings use point of view to change the reader’s viewpoint of the reading. “An objective narrator is telling a terrible story objectively might be frightening, but even more frightening is a man telling without emotion the story of his own terrible crime”(Gargano, 52). In Edgar Allen Poe’s collections: The Cask of Amontillado, Black Cat, The Fall of the House of Usher, and The Tell Tale heart he uses the point of view to influence the readers understanding of the selections. In …show more content…

The narrator of the story plays an integral part in the reader’s level of understanding. The main character shows his madness, as well as the unfolding of the plot of the story. Poe’s use of the first person to help connect the reader to the narrator of the story. Edgar Allen Poe’s tone of the story is delusional and uneasy. The tone is of an insane mind. The story has mystery, death and the possibility of the supernatural, this short story is a work of Gothic writing. The setting is dark and shadowy which leads the reader to connect with the narrator. In the beginning of the story the narrator says, “From my infancy I was noted for the docility and humanity of my disposition"(Modern Library, 223). This account is ironic, the narrator is anything but docile and human he is quite the opposite. He is a narrator that is passionate to cause a haunting villain in the story. The narrator drinks a lot and which cause his view point to become demented. “I quivered not a muscle. My heart beat calmly as one who Filipkowski …show more content…

This detail of the story assures the reader that the narrator is not in touch with reality. “The Fall of the House of Usher” is a story does not use the typical, first person point of view where the protagonist tells a personal account of a crime that he or she has committed. Instead, the narrator is a character of whom we know very little, who acts like an observer. The friend of Roderick invites the reader into the madness of the mind of fantasy and reality. In this description Poe is setting a tone where you start to see that Roderick Usher is going crazy. Roderick sees and hears that are not there. Tone created is grim and creepy mood. The cray tone and creepy mood together helps to show the reader about the sanity of the people and how the house is falling apart. As the main character Roderick begins to go crazy and slowly making the narrator feel as though he is feeling and seeing imaginary things. The narrator of the story is nameless throughout the story of friend of Roderick Usher. Roderick calls the narrator a madman. "Rationally Usher 's condition terrified, it infected me... I felt creeping upon me, by slow yet uncertain degrees, the wild influence of his own fantastic yet impressive superstitions"(Modern Library,

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