Unreliable narrator

The Tell-Tale Heart Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a short story of an unnamed narrator that claims he is nervous but not mad, and takes calmness for sanity. The narrator tells about a certain old man, that he loves, who has never hurt him, but he could not stand the sight of his filmy, blue, vulture eye. The narrator is so afraid of the eye he decides to kill the man so he would no longer have to see it. Poe reaches the greater theme in “The Tell-Tale Heart” by using three literary…

is not a reliable narrator because he is emotionally unstable. Poe heightens the tension and fear running through the mind of the narrator. There is a clear connection between the language used by the narrator and his psychological state. The narrator switches between calm, logical statements and quick, irrational outbursts. Poe effectively conveys panic in the narrator’s voice, and the reader senses uneasiness and growing tension in the story. 4. He is unreliable a narrator because he…

The narrator describes winter in the following quote, “…this phase of crystal clearness followed by long stretches of sunless cold; when the storms of February had pitched their white tents about the devoted village and the wild cavalry of March winds had charged down to their support; I began to understand why Starkfield emerged from its six months’ siege like a starved garrison capitulating without quarter.” The preceding quote clearly shows the effect that winter has on the the…

story “The Cask of Amontillado” In Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” the narrator, Montresor, illustrates how he led Fortunato, the victim, to an ill-fated passing. The author chose to utilize first-person narration by describing only Montresor’s thoughts and not Fortunato’s. As the reader has only one point of view, they should be very cautious to what extent to trust Montresor and whether to trust him at all. The unreliable character of Montresor undermines credibility of the narration, and,…

Of Zeno It’s almost magic how Zeno draws the reader in by completely his irrational circumvent. The reader wishes to find out the fate of this lustful man. Zeno’s unreliable point of view contributes to have a positive effect on the dynamic of the book. To begin, his unreliable narration and situational irony develops an unreliable point of view. For example, Zeno claims he has a solid marriage by saying, “these years have had a great effect on my marriage” (Svevo, 138). This being said, he…

Many of his stories contain a first-person narrator, but in his story Hop-Frog, the narrator seems to be different from all the rest. It is not said who the narrator is, but we can assume that it is Hop-Frog himself. Hop-Frog is the narrator of the story because of his knowledge of events leading up to the king’s death, his opinion of Hop-Frog and Trippetta, and all of the information he knows about Hop-Frog’s background, knowing the identity of the narrator is important because it lets the…

Edgar Allan Poe often demonstrates a type of madness in his short stories. Many times it comes from the first-person narrator. While the narrators are similar in the fact that they are both insane, they also have a lot of differences in the way that they are insane. A great way to compare the way the insanity differs in the narrators, is to compare two of Poe’s stories. Stories such as “The Black Cat” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” do a good job showing the similarities and differences between the…

“I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life” (pg. 16) The quote just stated obviously isn’t the truth. It makes whoever said it come off as an unreliable narrator. This quote and many others hint that some of the things the main character, Holden Caulfield, in The Catcher in the Rye says may not be true. It doesn’t specifically say whether or not Holden is lying in the book, but some things are suggested at. “That sort of scared me a little bit. "Well, I know it's quite late," I said,…

The Tell-Tale Heart Research In 1843, Edgar Allan Poe’s 2,200- word first person unreliable narrative short story “The Tell-Tale Heart,” was published. Edgar Allan Poe was a successful editor, literacy critic and American writer who wrote short stories and poetry. The Tell-Tale Heart is known for its unnamed narrator’s insanity and classifies Poe’s writing as a gothic fictional story. The narrator explains in the opening of the story that he killed the old man, but it was not for passion nor…

villainous narrator who is seeking vengeance upon Fortunado by betraying him and leaving him to die. Poe uses Montresor in “The Cask of Amontillado” as the dark antagonist that he incorporates in many of his literary works. Montresor is portrayed as a static character and unreliable narrator in this short story. As he tells Fortunado “‘Come’, I said with decision, ‘We will go back your health is too precious’ “(35), his deranged mindset starts to come into play. Again and again, the narrator…