A Narratological Study Of The Unreliable Narrators In Allan Poe's Short Stories

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an important American poet, short story writer and critic in the 19th century. He suffered a lot of misfortunes all along his lifetime, and his literary style is unique and off the mainstream. During the 40 years of his lifetime, he composed many original works. He is an expert in characterization and very proficient in the description of psychological abnormality. His stories are usually connected with the supernatural events shrouded in a weird and bleak atmosphere. Further more, he is now recognized as the forerunner of the detective stories due to his way of ratiocination. And he has fully developed an original and self-sufficient aesthetic poetics which centers on his core"unity of effect"theory. He faithfully applied this aesthetic theory in his poems and short stories.Based on the two leading figures of modern Rhetorical Narratology—Wayne C. Booth's and James Phelan's theories about unreliable narrator, this thesis purports to argue that the application of unreliable narrators in Poe's short stories is the embodiment of Poe's"unity of effect"theory.This main body of this thesis is divided into three chapters in accordance with analysis of Poe's three masterpiece short stories. Chapter one will give a detailed examination of the unreliable narrator—a drug addict in"Ligeia"and its effect—terror; chapter two will elaborate on the unreliable narrator—an insane monomaniac in"The Tell-Tale Heart", and the effect of tension it achieves; chapter three illustrates the unreliable narrator—a malicious murderer in"The Cask of Amontillado"and the effect of humor. Then the thesis comes to its conclusion that Poe's application of various kinds of unreliable narrators is consistent with his predominant purpose to induce the"preconceived effect".