# An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street explained — Short Fiction

> Chapter companion for Short Fiction by J. Sheridan Le Fanu.

## What happens

The narrator describes his and his friend Tom Ludlow's terrifying experiences in a haunted house on Aungier Street, Dublin. The narrator is plagued by a recurring nightmare of a sinister portrait of an old man in a crimson dressing-gown that appears at his window. Tom initially scoffs at his friend's fears but later suffers his own terrifying encounter, leading to a shared panic. The chapter concludes with the house's eventual destruction by fire and the narrator's reflection on the supernatural events.

## Themes in this chapter

### Supernatural and the Uncanny

The chapter is centered on supernatural disturbances, including a recurring nightmare of a malevolent portrait and unexplained phenomena in the haunted house.

### Guilt and Retribution

The haunting may be tied to past sins or crimes, as suggested by the house's history and the sinister figure in the portrait.

## Character check-ins

### Tom Ludlow

The narrator's friend and housemate, initially skeptical of the supernatural but later terrified by his own haunting experience.

### Captain Barton

The narrator of the story, who suffers from recurring nightmares of a sinister portrait.

## Key lines

> I saw, or thought I saw, with the most abominable distinctness, although at the time in profound darkness, every article of furniture and accidental arrangement of the chamber in which I lay.

The narrator experiences a vivid nightmare where he perceives his room's details with unnatural clarity despite the darkness.

_Highlights the clairvoyant quality of the nightmare, blending reality and illusion._

> The picture thus mysteriously glued to the windowpanes, was the portrait of an old man, in a crimson flowered silk dressing-gown... with a countenance embodying a strange mixture of intellect, sensuality, and power, but withal sinister and full of malignant omen.

A terrifying portrait of an old man in a red silk robe appears at the window, his face showing intelligence, sensuality, and a menacing evil.

_Describes the central supernatural image that haunts the narrator._

> I found afterwards that my would-be sceptical companion had his troubles too. But of these I knew nothing yet.

The narrator later discovers that his skeptical friend Tom also experienced supernatural disturbances, though he had not revealed them earlier.

_Foreshadows Tom's own haunting and the shared nature of the horror._

## Links

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