The Outsider
By H.P. Lovecraft
The Summary
The story begins with the narrator describing how the setting and that he had never seen light. He also states that he someone must have taken care of him, but he only remembers himself. The narrator goes back to explaining the condition of the castle. He also states he read of human speech, but has never heard it or decided to speak aloud. The narrator then states that he has never thought of his own appearance, because there were no mirrors in the castle. This detail will be important to the story later on. Then, the narrator climbs an extremely high tower, eventually coming to a pitch black room with a stone slab in it. The narrator then lifts the slab and finds himself in a dark room, where he finds an iron door, opening it up and staggering into the moonlight. The narrator then spots a ivied castle. Then the narrator approaches the building and see’s oddly dressed people, and hears human speech. Then the narrator enters the building. When he enters, all the inhabitants of the castle look at him in horror, and they all scream. The narrator then sees the something in the mirror. The thing the narrator sees in the mirror he describes as grotesque and putrid. The narrator is then terrified by what he sees in the mirror. The narrator then comes to the shocking realization, that the horrible thing in the mirror was actually him, and that he will always be an outsider.
Point Of View
The point of view of this story is first person, I know this because the narrator uses words like "Me" and "I". I feel this story uses point of view very well and point of view goes very well with the story. I feel this way because of how the way it uses point of view to describe the surroundings and help better emphasize the description of what the narrator is seeing. An example of this would be the narrator describing the horrible castle, using such words as "Grotesque" and "Putrid". Another example would be where he see's the people in the castle and describes how they look, and when he comes in, how all the people run away in horror, its only from his perspective so you only know as much as he does, so he is thinking that there is some terrible creature in the castle with him. If it was not done in first person, it would not be the same story at all.
Suspenese
I feel this story has a good use of suspense because it starts out with the narrator talking describing the this horrible castle and talking about how he does not know who took care of him, how long he has been there or how he got there. This makes you want to read the story to understand what is going on. Another example is when he is in the castle and everyone runs away, and he see's a glimpse of something in the mirror. This is suspenseful, because you don't know anymore than the narrator does. It leaves you sitting there thinking "Is he gonna die? Whats happening?" until the reveal is that it was him the whole time.