Characterization of the narrator

Outer characterization

The narrator is the main character of the short story “The Outsider” by H.P. Lovecraft. His outer characterization shows that he is an undead creature, with “eaten-away and bone-revealing outlines” of what was once a human. Unaware that he describes his own reflection, the narrator talks about him having a “ghoulish shade of decay, antiquity, and desolation” and a “mouldy, disintegrating apparel”. The narrator is unaware that the “foetid apparition” that is actually himself, and believes that he is looking at a “monster”. The narrator is an “unmentionable monstrosity” that is “no longer of this world”. 

The narrator lives in an “infinitely old and infinitely horrible” castle and has no memory of the past. Towards the end of the story, the narrator is unable to return to his underground castle and roams together with other night creatures.

Inner characterization

The narrator ...