The narrator is a man whose background remains a mystery for the reader: Poe reveals nothing about him other than the fact that he’s seriously injured and takes refuge in a chateau in the company of his servant, Pedro. In this chateau, the narrator is enchanted by a portrait of a beautiful young woman, whom he learns from a guide book was the wife of the painting’s artist. It’s can be inferred that the narrator is an educated individual who, like Poe himself, seems well-versed in the visual arts: he remarks, for example, that the oval portrait has been executed in a style similar to that of Thomas Sully, an American portrait painter, and has a knowledge of art terms such as “Moresque” and “vignette.” The fact that the narrator is suffering from “incipient delirium,” though, may lead some readers to question the reliability of his narration. The narrator ends up ironically falling into the same preoccupation with the woman’s portrait that the painter himself did. The story’s abrupt ending implies that he may have died in the midst of this, just as the painter’s wife died while he was lost in his obsession with capturing her beauty.
Answer: Being an official means that you have to be fair to both sides. The challenges I encountered as the official are when a player purposely hits another player, the correct signs I must use on the game are also challenging.
