English 10 / Unit 2: Narrative Structure and Point of View
2.3 Unreliable Narrators
Notes
An unreliable narrator is one whose account cannot be fully trusted, because of bias, limited understanding, madness or lies.
- Clues: the narrator contradicts himself, other characters react strangely, or the narrator protests too much.
- A naive narrator (often a child) misunderstands events the reader can see clearly.
- Example: Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" (1843) begins, "TRUE!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?" The narrator insists on his sanity while describing a murder, which shows he is unreliable.
- Readers must read "around" the narrator to find what really happened.
Practice
In "The Tell-Tale Heart," why does the narrator's insistence that he is not mad make him seem unreliable?
The gap between his claims and his actions shows he cannot be trusted.
A six-year-old narrator says, "Mom and Dad are just playing a loud game every night, and Dad sleeps on the couch to win." This narrator is best described as:
The child misreads what the reader recognizes as parents fighting.
Which detail most strongly suggests a narrator is unreliable?
Other characters' reactions contradict her account.
Ready for more? Take the Unit 2 test.