A Bit on Poe's Characterization

We talked about a lot of different aspects of Poe's characterization in class, but here are a few of the highlights that have stuck in my mind since Tuesday:

In both Usher and Oblong, the narrators act as witnesses to events that quite literally have nothing to do with them, yet they are thrust into a central part of the story. In Usher, I believe the story would be pretty much the same even if it was a different narrator... for example, if it wasn't an old school friend but a random passerby. I originally thought the same for Oblong, as well, but it was brought up in class that the narrator's personality made the story. It was also the narrator's actions (the obsessive curiousity about the box) that moved the story along. I now think that the narrator's personality made the story, rather than the narrator simply being a witness to it.

What we talked about in class, mainly, was the self-centeredness of the narrator in Oblong, as well as his self-believed superiority to everyone else around him. We talked about how this painted a picture of him as someone wealthy and with enough social status to get away with it, but I think he's not as wealthy and socially high up as he wants himself to be--hence his need to put down everyone around him.

The narrator in this story is dynamic and round, whereas all the other characters are static and flat. This really shows that Oblong is about the narrator, and that the title is somewhat deceiving. It's a story about his obsession with something not concerning him, and his need to make it concern him. The oblong box just happens to be the object of his obsession.

We didn't discuss Usher as extensively, probably because the plotline bored us to tears. The narrator seemed content with meandering along, and it was a difficult story to read. For me, at least.

Any other thoughts?