Two of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories, The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado, are told through first-person perspective. Some critics dislike first person point-of-view because it only shows the story through one perspective. The reader is confined in the narrator’s mind, unclear if what other characters think about. Also the story can change depending on what the narrator shows. If the narrator’s mind is altered, then the story is too. Both of the narrators in The Tell-Heart and The Cask of Amontillado are murderers, therefore the untrustworthiness. Poe uses unreliable narration in his stories to influence the reader by first drawing them into the story, making them doubt the narrator’s words and analyzing the story more so.
Poe draws …show more content…
Readers use clues that they deem trustworthy to have a better understanding of the story through the narrator’s twisted lens. In The Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator starts visiting the old man’s chamber at night times, “And every night about midnight I turned the latch of his door and opened it,,,when my head was well in the room I undid the lantern cautiously… a single ray fell upon the vulture eye...always closed” (1-2). Every time the narrator goes in the room, he focuses the light on the old man’s vulture eye. The narrator could have easily killed the old man. He didn’t because the vulture eye was always close. A reader might question the motive behind the narrator’s action. In The Cask of Amontillado, Montresor tells Fortunato about the newly acquired Amontillado and how he expresses concern over the authenticity, “‘I was silly enough to pay the full Amontillado price without consulting you”’ (117). He also tells the friend how that “‘I am on my way to Luchresi. If anyone has a critical turn, it is he ’” (117). Montresor mentions how he would have sought advice from Fortunato, but now that he sees his friend, he is heading to Luchresi. The reader can assume there is a hidden purpose in the conversation Montresor struck up since it was unnecessary to mention Luchresi. The reader;s involvement is greater when presented with misleading information for they can decide for themselves whether to trust the narrator’s words or
Poe draws …show more content…
Readers use clues that they deem trustworthy to have a better understanding of the story through the narrator’s twisted lens. In The Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator starts visiting the old man’s chamber at night times, “And every night about midnight I turned the latch of his door and opened it,,,when my head was well in the room I undid the lantern cautiously… a single ray fell upon the vulture eye...always closed” (1-2). Every time the narrator goes in the room, he focuses the light on the old man’s vulture eye. The narrator could have easily killed the old man. He didn’t because the vulture eye was always close. A reader might question the motive behind the narrator’s action. In The Cask of Amontillado, Montresor tells Fortunato about the newly acquired Amontillado and how he expresses concern over the authenticity, “‘I was silly enough to pay the full Amontillado price without consulting you”’ (117). He also tells the friend how that “‘I am on my way to Luchresi. If anyone has a critical turn, it is he ’” (117). Montresor mentions how he would have sought advice from Fortunato, but now that he sees his friend, he is heading to Luchresi. The reader can assume there is a hidden purpose in the conversation Montresor struck up since it was unnecessary to mention Luchresi. The reader;s involvement is greater when presented with misleading information for they can decide for themselves whether to trust the narrator’s words or