“The Cask of Amontillado” - “The Tell-Tale Heart” 

In Edgar Allan poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the narrators of the two stories are also the main characters of the stories, which forms the unreliable narrators. “The Tell-Tale Heart” talked about a story that an extremely sensitive person tried to kill an old man just because the old man’s eyes made him uncomfortable. But since then, the heartbeat of the victim has been screaming in the minds of the murderers, which has led to his mental breakdown and confessed his crimes. And “The Cask of Amontillado” told a story that the narrator, because of Fortunato’s insult, deceived him into his cellar on the grounds of identifying Amontillado, and eventually killed him. There are some roles of the unreliable narrators: first, it can shape the character and image of the narrator well; secondly, it can evoke readers’ interest in reading, allowing readers to reflect on the whole story and gain a deeper understanding of the story; thirdly, it makes the surface real and the actual reality in contrast, to show the ridiculous and irrational of the former, to achieve the irony effect; Finally, it can express the problem of the narrator’s psychological stability.

First, Allan Poe’s use of unreliable narrators plays an important role in shaping the character and image of the narrator. The use of unreliable narrators can reflect the narrator’s thinking characteristics and therefore play an important role in revealing the narrator’s character and shaping the narrator’s image. In “The Cask of Amontillado”,

Secondly, the use of unreliable narrators can evoke readers’ interest in reading, allowing readers to reflect on the whole story and gain a deeper understanding of the story. Because the narrator’s unreliability will not be found immediately, the narrator may show some clues in the middle of the story or the ending, indicating that the story’s narrator is unreliable and prompts the reader to rethink whether the previously received content about the story is true and reliable. Through reflection, the readers will discover the defects in the narrator’s discourse, and the reader’s discovery will bring the pleasure of reading.

Thirdly, the use of unreliable narrators makes the surface real and the actual reality in contrast, to show the ridiculous and irrational of the former, to achieve the irony effect.

Finally, the use of unreliable narrators can express the problem of the narrator’s psychological stability.

In Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the unreliable narrators play the important roles. First of all, it can well shape the character and image of the narrator. Also, it can arouse readers’ interest in reading and make them reflect on the whole story, so that they can have a deeper understanding of the story. Besides, it makes the surface reality and the reality opposite, showing the former’s absurdity and unreasonableness, achieves the ironic effect. Finally, it can express the problems of psychological stability of the narrator.

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