 “The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether” by Edgar Allan Poe is a very interesting story. At the beginning of the readings, we see an example of gothic description with the threatening “lunatic asylum”. The quote that represents this gothic description is, “Through this dank and gloomy wood we rode… when the Maison de SantĂ© came in view. It was a fantastic château, much dilapidated, and indeed scarcely tenantable through age and neglect. Its aspect inspired me with absolute dread….”
I think that the most exciting moment in the story is the dinner. During this dinner is when things started to get weird. The narrator listened to the guests talking about past patients and other strange things. He then discovers that the director is crazy along with the patients. The narrator finds out that Mr. Maillard, the director, was one of the patients who took over the whole asylum and locked away the real doctors and keepers that worked in the asylum. One lesson we can consider is this story is that we shouldn’t trust everyone we meet right away; instead, we get to know the person and then trust them according to their actions.
During the dinner, things do get weird but it is in an interesting way. The whole dinner had you thinking one way but once you reached the end you thought about it again. I didn’t realize the lesson even though it seemed obvious and it was a good example on why you shouldn’t trust anyone you first meet.