TRUE!-nervous-very, very dreadfully nervous I had
been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The
disease had sharpened my senses-not destroyed-not
dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I
heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard
many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and
observe how healthily-how calmly I can tell you the
whole story.
-"The Tell-Tale Heart,"
Edgar Allan Poe
How can a reader tell that the passage's narrator is
unreliable?
The narrator claims that he is very intelligent, but he
is clearly very young and naive.
The narrator insists that he can speak calmly, but
his manner of speaking suggests that he is not at
all calm.
The narrator says that he is a good listener, but he
refuses to listen to anyone else's version of the
story.