Befitting its status as a classic example of Gothic literature, the style of “The Oval Portrait” is mysterious and suspenseful. Poe includes various details that suggest that there is more than meets the eye in his description of the eerie chateau. The narrator’s description of a strange painting he finds in the chateau exemplifies this pervasive sense of mystery:
I thus saw in vivid light a picture all unnoticed before. It was the portrait of a young girl just ripening into womanhood. I glanced at the painting hurriedly, and then closed my eyes. Why I did this was not at first apparent even to my own perception. But while my lids remained thus shut, I ran over in my mind my reason for so shutting them. It was an impulsive movement to gain time for thought—to make sure that my vision had not deceived me—to calm and subdue my fancy for a more sober and more certain gaze.
The painting, which had previously gone unnoticed, appears to him all of a sudden in a flash of “vivid light.” The narrator’s first instinct is to close his eyes, as if the sight of the painting poses a threat to him. He wonders about the source of his own anxiety, which is unclear at this point in the story. This palpable sense that something is wrong reflects the mysterious and suspenseful style that Poe adopts for the story.
