Poe uses The Oval Portrait to make a comment on life, particularly on things that he may have missed out on, for one reason or another. In particular, love, beauty, and seeing the truth about life. The narrator is the vehicle he uses for his contemplation, although there are other characters that embody his emotions.
The narrator, who is obviously badly wounded, even perhaps dying, has come to a chateau, where he has a chance to reflect on things while he is recuperating. The two characters at the beginning of the story, Mrs Radcliffe, and a valet named Pedro, are a mother and father type caring figure respectively. Poe himself never really had parents, and so this is his way of living out his dreams.
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