A dream like tale of Poe's. There is no way to know how many characters are within this story. There are three people talked about in the story but whether they are an illusion of not is up to the individual reader. Unlike most of Poe's tale this is not a very visual tale. The visuals described are up the reader to figure out if real or fantasy. The narrator a man who seems very out of places, recieves a letter from a man he is not even friends with. The tale then leads up to the outside of this man's house. The house is revealed to be oddly shaped and first spotted in the reflecton of the pond outside. The man he visits name is Usher and he claims to have many phobias and problems with his health. His sister may or may not appear in this story, as a vision or as a real character. But if seen as a real character then it is described to the reader that she later dies. The House mysteriously falls apart and the narrator some how escapes watching it sink into the pond. It almost falls into itself. The narrator later is confused by the whole situation unsure if it was real or not.