Read the excerpt from “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe. Shaking off from my spirit what must have been a dream, I scanned more narrowly the real aspect of the building. How does this statement mirror what happens in the rest of the story? The narrator constantly struggles between a dreamlike state and reality. Poe emphasizes the role of dreams through the character of Madeline. The ending of the story reveals much of the action to have been a dream. Poe enjoys creating characters who spend a great deal of time dreaming.