Unreliable narrators

Definition:• An unreliable narrator is a narrator,

whether in literature, film, or theatre, who is not trustworthy. His story cannot be taken at face value by the reader! He can’t be trusted.

• Unreliable narrators are almost by definition first-person narrators.

• The unreliability may be obvious to the reader throughout the novel, may be revealed gradually or may come as a single revelation that results in a major plot twist. (final twist)

Different types of unreliable narrators:

• Sometimes the narrator is unreliable by the very nature of who that character is. In other words, some stories are related by narrators by who are such terrible people that they cannot tell their stories objectively. And as they do not go around thinking of themselves as monsters, they justify their actions to themselves. 

= THE MADMAN (The character experiencing mental illness)

Ex: The Tell-tale Heart (E.A Poe) Lolita ( V. Nabokov)

• The unreliable narrator is not always deliberately deceptive. Sometimes, a narrator is unreliable due to youth or naïveté. He is simply reporting the world as he understands it and so, is not always accurately interpreting what is happening around him. His perception is immature or limited.

= THE NAÏFEx: Forrest Gump The curious incident of the dog in the night

time (Mark Haddon)

• Sometimes the narrator is unreliable as he does not take the narration seriously and consciously plays with conventions, truth and the reader's expectations. He aims to deceive the reader to the very end of the story when he finally reveals his true identity in a final twist /a twist ending.

= THE CLOWN / THE TRICKSTER

• An unreliable narrator can be a mature narrator who deliberately

misrepresents himself, sometimes to obscure his unseemly or discreditable past conduct.

= THE LIAR

• When the narrator is characterized by exaggeration and

bragging, he is often unreliable.

= THE PICARO