Comparing Poe's The Cask Of Amontillado, And The Raven

Addison Raby
Thursday, February 23, 2023
4th period
Poe Essay
Title
Edgar Allan Poe creates unreliable narrators in his short stories and poems, such as “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Cask of Amontillado”, and “The Raven”. Many confirmations for this claim can be found in one of Poe’s stories, “The Tell-Tale Heart”. In this story, a young individual murders an old man at night and tries to conceal it from the police. The narrator of this story is unreliable because he cannot explain why he committed the murder. He says, “There was no reason for what I did.” (page 1, paragraph 3) This shows the narrator’s impulsive behavior. People who display impulsive behavior can sometimes be unreliable. Another reason can be found in the very first paragraph

This tale involves the narrator burying a friend alive, although the only reason that Montresor, the narrator, reveals is that his friend Fortunato insulted his family. He writes, “When he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge.” (page 4, paragraph 87) Earlier in the story, Montresor explains that Fortunato had insulted him many times, and he can stand this, yet when Fortunato insults his family, Montresor suddenly snaps. All at once, he feels that he cannot handle this disrespect any longer, and promises to get revenge with murder. Another piece of the story that makes the narrator unreliable is located on page 4, in paragraph 87. The text says, “For the half of a century no mortal has disturbed them.” An explanation of this is that 50 years have passed since the story has taken place, implying that Montresor may have forgotten some details or parts of the tale have been altered in his memory. Montresor is also unreliable because he lies to Fortunato. The dialogue reads, “ ‘I drink’, he said, ‘to the buried that repose around us.’ ‘And I to your long life.’ ” (page 3, paragraphs 40-41) In this excerpt, Montresor and Fortunato are sharing one of their many drinks of wine in the catacombs that Montresor has planned in order to intoxicate Fortunato. Fortunato dedicates his drink to the dead members of Montresor’s family buried in the catacombs. Meanwhile, Montresor is saying that he wishes that Fortunato would have

One reason for this is that he is desperate for relief and may be irrational; hence stanza 17, line 97 which describes the unnamed narrator as saying, “ ‘Be that word our sign of parting…’ I shrieked.” At this point in the poem, the narrator has been grieving for his lost loved one-Lenore-and a raven has flown through his window and is perched on a statue in his study. The narrator is pleading with the bird to fly away because he partially believes that the bird is mocking him in his sorrow. His outburst of his despondency shows that he might be irrational due to his extreme mourning. This means that he could have been slightly irrational during other times in the story, making him unreliable. The narrator could also be unreliable because he is inebriated. The poem says, “ ‘oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!’ ” (stanza 14, line 83) Since he is asking for more substances, he may possibly be addicted to them and wishes for more. This could make him unstable and cause his words to be inaccurate if he is drunk or not in a right state due to drug abuse or overuse. To add on to this, the story begins with saying, “while I nodded nearly napping”. (stanza 1, line 3) This implies that he could be sleeping during the whole time that he is narrating, making the whole plot a dream and and the entire story fictional. Yet, he is confident that his reminiscence is accurate. This shows that he also