The narrator of Poe's gothic tale is brought injured to a chateau. As he lies in bed, his gaze is captured by the portrait of a woman who had died as she sat as subject for the artist. Mollinger's thesis is that narrator, artist, woman, and author are all of a piece. The life and being of each is alleged to be very much codetermined by and commingled with that of all the others; it is suggested that the artistic structure derives from Poe's own experience of losing his mother in early childhood. The analysis is convincing and well done.