The Mark on the Wall

The narrator muses that it must have been January of the present year when she first detected a small, round, dark mark on the wall. This mark will serve as the impetus for the entire story. She then states that “in order to fix a date”, it “is necessary to remember what one saw” (1). Next, she recalls the fire, a ray of light on her book, and three chrysanthemums in a vase, in order to doubly verify her recollection that it was winter when she first saw the mark. She also recalls that she was smoking a cigarette when she looked up and saw the mark for the very first time. She remarks that the mark was small and round, black upon the white wall, and about six or seven inches above the mantelpiece.

She muses that the mark cannot have been made by a nail used to secure a picture, and instead concludes that it must have been made to mount a miniature of “a lady with white powdered curls, powder-dusted cheeks, and lips like red carnations” (1). She states that this miniature must have been a fraud, because the people who lived in the house before her would have chosen an old picture for an old room.