Tell Tale Heart Unreliable Narrator Essay

A unreliable narrator defined is one who tells lies, conceals information, or misjudges statements are untrue not by the standards of the real world or of the authorial audience but by the standards of his own narrative audience. (Wikipedia). In the story “Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe, the unreliable narrator describes his story about an old man that he stalks. He talks about his “healthy” obsession of at every day of the week going to the old man's house at twelve am and stalking him. The unreliable narrator definitely is the most important part of Poe's writing. This is because of how the whole story could not be formed well without it, There would be no humor of how mad the character is. There would be no suspense of how horrifying
Mostly the old man's eye and how it was a vulture's pale blue eye. He talks about how he made the decision to slay the old man and get rid of the eye. “Mad men know nothing” pg 303. This is a representation of an unreliable narrator. Mad men know everything, They pay so much attention to their surroundings and “notice even the single chirp of a cricket.” Page 304. It is very misleading. A logical person doesn't say “I don't like the way he is looking at me let me just kill him.” Someone would mostly likely not care and so this is why this is not a very reliable
It took him an incredible one hour just to get through the door then he thumb slipped from holding the lantern for so long and it shined into the man's face and he wakes up with terror.“A watch’s minute hand moves more quickly than did mine. Never before that night had I felt the extent of my own powers.” pg 304. This is again a very good representation of an unreliable narrator. He doesn’t have powers he is just mad and every second for him and turns into minutes then hours. Mad men have no sense of