Insane people often cannot be trusted for a multitude of reasons. In the stories, “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe, both narrators are out to kill, but for different reasons. One of them wants to kill over an eye, and the other over insults he has received. However, compared to Montresor, the narrator of “The Cask of Amontillado,” the narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart” is significantly less trustworthy because of his extremely irrational and insane motive for killing as well as the fact that he sees and hears things others cannot. The narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" is more unreliable because he has an extremely unreasonable motive for killing the old man: not liking how his eye looked. The text states, "Object there is none."
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This describes how the narrator is hearing a sound that started somewhat quiet but is increasingly getting louder. Meanwhile, he is also getting extremely distressed over the noise. Afterwards, the text then states, "I foamed—I raved—I swore! I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting, and grated it upon the boards, but the noise arose over all and continually increased. It grew louder—louder—louder! And still the men chatted, and smiled. Was it possible they didn't hear? Almighty God!—no, no, no! They heard!—they suspected!—they knew!—they were making a mockery of my horror!—this I thought, and this I think" (Poe, 17). This piece of text portrays that the officers very clearly could not hear the pulsing sound that the narrator heard. Even though they clearly couldn't hear the sound, the narrator began imagining that they had heard it and wanted to mock him. However, this is completely unreasonable, as the narrator himself had said early on that he had given the officers no reason to be suspicious of him. The fact that the narrator is imagining and hearing things undeniably proves that his ability to perceive reality is not very clear, therefore, he is not
This describes how the narrator is hearing a sound that started somewhat quiet but is increasingly getting louder. Meanwhile, he is also getting extremely distressed over the noise. Afterwards, the text then states, "I foamed—I raved—I swore! I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting, and grated it upon the boards, but the noise arose over all and continually increased. It grew louder—louder—louder! And still the men chatted, and smiled. Was it possible they didn't hear? Almighty God!—no, no, no! They heard!—they suspected!—they knew!—they were making a mockery of my horror!—this I thought, and this I think" (Poe, 17). This piece of text portrays that the officers very clearly could not hear the pulsing sound that the narrator heard. Even though they clearly couldn't hear the sound, the narrator began imagining that they had heard it and wanted to mock him. However, this is completely unreasonable, as the narrator himself had said early on that he had given the officers no reason to be suspicious of him. The fact that the narrator is imagining and hearing things undeniably proves that his ability to perceive reality is not very clear, therefore, he is not