62). The windows appear to be “vacant,” and “eye-like” and the narrator goes on to observe the “rank sedges,” and the “black and lurid tarn,” in which he sees the reflection of the house. Although the narrator tries to view everything in a rational manner, upon seeing the house and its surroundings, he has a heightened sense of superstition. He says that, “about the whole mansion and domain there hung an atmosphere peculiar to themselves and their immediate vicinity” (463). This statement indicates that perhaps the house does indeed have supernatural characteristics. The narrator observes the details of the house and finds that the house has fungi growing all over it and the masonry of the building is decaying. He says, “ there appeared to be a wild inconsistency between its still perfect adaptation of parts, and the utterly porous, and evidently decayed condition of the individual stones”(463). This observation suggests that perhaps something supernatural is holding the house intact, otherwise it would have fallen to the ground long ago. Upon entering the house, the narrator sees the inside of the house as well as the odd behavior and personality of its inhabitants and is increasingly convinced that the house has some supernatural effect on those who live there. For example, while walking through the passages he is confused as to why familiar objects such as the tapestries on the wall or the trophies fill him with a feeling of increased superstition and he even describes the armorial trophies as “phantasmagoric” (463). The narrator is remarking on Usher’s strange behavior in the house. He later describes his own superstition late one night before going to bed, “I endeavored to believe that mush, if not all of what I felt, was due to the bewildering influence of the gloomy furniture of the room…”(470). He also describes feeling...
