Point of View

This is another first-person narrative. He starts off by writing that: "I have often been reproached with the aridity of my genius; a deficiency of imagination has been imputed to me as a crime." (pg. 78) He goes to great lengths to describe the realistic nature of his character as a way of gaining credibility for his unbelievable tale. Poe's narrator looks deeper into his own self throughout the narrative and grows ashamed of his former self: "When I look around me I feel ashamed of my former apprehensions." (pg, 92)

Setting

This story takes place on two different ships; the first is a ship on its way to the Archipelago Islands, and the second, an ancient ship named "Discovery." It is on the first ship that the narrator faces the first days of terror, finally sailing through an unending night. When he is thrown onto the deck...