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Villano 1 Kayla Villano Professor Diana Buono ENG-102 5 March 2020 Argumentative Essay What does someone need to do in order to be reliable to you? The reason for this is to find out ways in which narrators are either reliable, or unreliable. The author Edgar Allen Poe writes gothic stories which include deranged narrators that readers can see as believable or just simply crazy. His two stories, “Cask of Amontillado”, and “The Black Cat”, persist of uncanny plots with unknown narrators telling the story, which leaves it up to the readers to determine if the narrator is unreliable, or reliable. Throughout this essay, ways to catch an unreliable narrator will be touched upon, as well as knowing if you’re narrator is reliable. Edgar Allen Poe is known for his eerie stories and his questionable narrators, which leaves it a mystery for his readers to figure out what they should believe or not. “Cask of Amontillado” brings the viewers on Montresor’s (the narrator) expedition to get his revenge on Fortunato, because Fortunato insulted Montresor, and he did not take it easily. Montresor has a plan for his revenge at the start of the story, and he explains it all as we go through the story, which is what makes him such a reliable narrator. On the other hand, “The Black Cat”’s narrator is a normal middle aged man who is married and has a huge love for animals, until one day he loses himself due to a drinking addiction which leads things to go downhill from there. This story is told in the narrator’s perspective as well, but the difference is that he is not reliable because of his drinking problem, anger problems, and his violence. Montressor is reliable because of his determination, truthfulness, and being consistent; while “The Black Cat”’s narrator is questionable, sneaky, and

Villano 2 uncertain. It is clear that Montresor is reliable, and the man is unreliable, because of their actions and the way they’ve explained their stories to their audiences, which will be explained further. To begin, in the “Cask of Amontillado”, Montresor, the narrator, is clearly reliable. Montresor distinctly explains his plan of action to the audience, allowing it to be clear that his enemy, Fortunato, has done him wrong by insulting him, and will receive the revenge he deserves. To prove this idea, at the beginning of the story, Montresor utters, “THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge” (Poe). Montresor makes it obvious what his goal will be by the end of the story, and he continues to repeat it, to remind his audience that he is being truthful. Even though murdering someone because of an insult is insane, Montresor had waited 50 years to do it, and lived each day feeling as if Fortunato had beaten him. Montresor is a reliable narrator here because he begins his story explaining his past, his goal, and the reason behind it, making it clear to his audience. The next reason that Montresor is a reliable narrator is because he followed through with his word, being consistent, as he ended up giving Fortunato the revenge he dreamed of by the end of the story. Montresor takes his audience with him through every step of his plan, keeping them updated with each event that goes on, so he does not seem questionable. At the end of the story, right after Montresor gets the deed done, he announces, “It was now midnight, and my task was drawing to a close” (Poe). Here he makes it clear for his audience to put together that he has finished his long-awaited revenge plan. Someone who enjoys getting revenge this much might sound unreliable, but Montresor has settled for the past 50 years and has to make Fortunato know he was wrong for what he did to Montresor. As a narrator, Montresor is entirely honest and consistent, since he never changes his word and always makes the path clear for his audience to

Villano 3 follow-up on. Thirdly, the last reason that Montresor is a reliable narrator in the “Cask of Amontillado” is because there is no way he could be lying about his murderous plan. He takes his readers through what he plans to do to Fortunato, step by step, having no doubts about it. Montresor knew that the Amontillado would reel Fortunato in so quickly, and he would be clueless to what was really going to happen to him. While Montresor describes the murder in action he is very specific. Here he explains, “A moment more and I had fettered him to the granite. In its surface were two iron staples, distant from each other about two feet, horizontally. From one of these depended a short chain, from the other a padlock” (Poe). As the story goes on from there, Montresor continues to explain to his readers every detail of what happened that night, and how he fulfilled getting his long awaited revenge. Some could think that Montresor is mentally unstable and actually insane, but who would go into this much detail to lie? Montresor’s honesty and huge amount of detail makes him reliable because it allows his readers to picture themselves in his situation, and allows them to see it clearly. Now to switch perspectives, the narrator from “The Black Cat” is very unreliable due to his drastic change in character. He begins the story telling his audience things like, “My tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make me the jest of my companions. I was especially fond of animals, and was indulged by my parents with a great variety of pets” (Poe). That description sounds reliable in anyone’s eyes who doesn’t truly know the narrator, but it gets shut down once drinking is introduced. Once he started to drink, he became angry, violent, and frightening, especially to his wife, and his first cat Pluto. From then on, the mood of the story was changed, and so was the personality of the narrator. As the narrator’s alcoholism proceeds to get worse, he barely even knows himself

Villano 4 anymore, making him look and sound extremely unreliable. The one night when the narrator comes home drunk and angry to his cat Pluto, he becomes extremely violent and says, “The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer” (Poe). After he has his violent interaction with Pluto, the narrator is not to be trusted, and things continue to fall out of place for him. It might seem like the narrator could be having one little mistake just like anyone could have, but from there he hides Pluto in his wall, as well as his wife who he murders next. The narrator’s alcohol addiction helps his cause of being unreliable, because he only goes downhill as the story progresses, and never turns back for help. The third and last reason that the narrator from Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Black Cat” is unreliable is because it is clear that he is insane. To back this up, the first line of his story is, “For the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief” (Poe). The narrator is literally telling his audience not to believe a word he is about to say, which is confusing and questioning itself. The narrator could be just telling a joke, maybe to reel his audience in, but it seems suspicious from the start, and as the story goes on, it makes sense as to why the narrator wouldn’t want the readers to believe him. He is absolutely insane, after he kills his cat, and his wife, and then hides behind a wall inside of his house, and talks about him killing them as if it was something normal. This man is clearly not sane, and the story that he tells explains it easily, and makes it very clear that he is most definitely an unreliable narrator. In closing, the two narrators for Edgar Allen Poe’s “Cask of Amontillado” and “The Black Cat” are both different, Montresor being reliable, and the man being unreliable. Montresor is clear, straightforward, consistent, and so specific, so there is no way he could be telling his audience a lie that is so full of detail. The man from “The Black Cat” fools his audience by beginning to seem like a normal guy, until he begins to lose himself from a drinking addiction,

Villano 5 which turns him into a psychopath that kills and has no reaction towards it after. It is obvious to put together which narrator is either unreliable or reliable, based on the way they tell their story to their audience. Edgar Allen Poe’s gothic storytelling also plays a part in his narrators being unusual, and making it difficult for his audience to decide if they really do trust the narrator or not. Within every story that contains a narrator, the audience needs to take a step back and determine whether he or she is trustworthy, or not, so that they can know if the story being told to them actually happened, or if it’s just a bunch of lies. Montresor makes everything clear to his readers, which is why he is reliable, but the man is inconsistent and his words do not match up with his actions, making him unreliable. In conclusion, Edgar Allen Poe plays tricks on his readers by making his narrators sneaky so that it is a task for them to find out if they are telling the truth or just completely lying.

Villano 6 Works Cited Giordano, Robert. “The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe.” PoeStories.com, 2005, poestories.com/read/blackcat. Giordano, Robert. “The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe.” PoeStories.com, 2005, poestories.com/read/amontillado....