Edgar Allan Poe Vampire Characteristics

Roderick is shown to have similar traits to a vampire. He is described as having a "cadaverousness of complexion," "ghastly pallor of the skin," and eyes possessing a "miraculous lustre" (Poe 720). A stereotypical vampire is also described the same way, extremely pale skin and also being more ghost-like, than a human. His eyes are said to be "tortured by even a faint light."(Poe) This is similar to an average vampire trait, extreme sensitivity to light. Additionally, Poe states that he has not left the house in a long time, this could be explained with two ideas. The first one is that because vampires cannot handle the power of light, he cannot leave the house and go into the sunlight. The second idea is that vampires are scared of water. The
Jonathan A. Cook states, “we find the narrator continuing in his attempt to derive more pleasure than pain from the scene of the house before him, for he speculates that "a mere different arrangement of the particulars of the scene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps to annihilate its capacity for sorrowful impression" (Poe). In other words, the narrator is now seemingly attempting to transform the view of the House of Usher into a...picturesque [scene]” (Cook). Right from the beginning, when he had only had a glance at the house, the narrator felt himself compelled to the “dark side” that Roderick seems to be a part of. He went from seeing the house as dreary and gloomy to seeing it as extravagant and compelling. Roderick has contacted the narrator who was his childhood friend to comfort him because his sisters health is deteriorating. However, this may not be Roderick’s true reason for calling upon the narrator. There can be a possible darker background on why Roderick is so set on having him come to the house which can be his mission to bury his sister alive with the help of the