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The Narrator offers an interesting lens through which to view the story because he is a determined skeptic. From the minute he approaches the house, he notices that the atmosphere surrounding it is singularly frightening, but he dismisses all hints of the supernatural as fanciful or a dream. He later explains to Roderick that the strange glow around the house can be explained scientifically through electrical phenomena. It may be that he feels retrospective embarrassment that the house made him superstitious, as he is quick to call his initial dark feelings “childish.” However, it is also possible to read the vehemence of his skepticism as him denying the clear evidence of the supernatural in order to protect his sanity in ways Roderick can’t. Throughout the story, the narrator describes Roderick’s gloom and melancholy, which Roderick blames in part on the house, as being powerful and self-propagating. The narrator, in contrast, has a powerful skepticism that won’t let his mind wander for too long in terror. In a sense, the house cannot make him sick because he does not allow his mind to take the frightening possibilities seriously.
Having the tale narrated by such a skeptic makes the events of the story more ambiguous because it is difficult to locate an objective viewpoint. The narrator appears fairly certain up to the end that nothing supernatural has occurred, only wavering to suggest he can’t account for the dread he feels at seeing Madeline. However, given the gloomy and frightening house, its strange occupants, and our awareness that we are reading a work of fiction, we as readers may be less certain, and more inclined to search for vampires or other demons in the text, as literary scholars throughout history have. How much we trust the narrator’s judgment, therefore, can completely change our interpretation of the story.
