Unreliable Narrator

“ I neither expect nor solicit belief” the opening statement of an “Unreliable Narrator” a term, used to describe a narrator whose recollection of a tale is suspect – whether through willful deceit, immature naivete, or mental instability. The Unreliable Narrator forces the reader to question the validity, rather than the who, or what. In the short story “The Black Cat” the Narrator is what many would consider him a alcoholic sociopath. The Narrator exhibits personality traits such as; rage and abuse, lack of remorse, shame guilt, does not perceive that anything is wrong with them; authoritarian, secretive, paranoid, grandiose sense of self

The Narrator speaks of how he is abusive to his wife on occasions, “I suffered myself to use intemperate language to my wife. At length, I even offered her personal violence.” The beloved pets are not spared the abuse either. “My pets of course were made to feel the change in my disposition. I …show more content…
Somehow returned and made him self at home, in there new home. “The clearest transmutation is in physical behavior. Whereas before the fire, it was the cat that fled from its master, after the fire, it is the master who flees from the cat” (Merzel 69.1). He fully believes the cat is out for revenge.Clear signs of an alcoholic sociopath. So of course his only option is to kill the second cat, to rid himself of this horrible creature who is out to get him! In the Narrator attempt to kill the cat with an axe he ends up striking his wife with the axe in her head, and killing her. However in the mind of the Narrator its no big deal, its actually the cats fault, because that's who he was after not the wife. He shows absolutely no remorse at all for the brutal murder of his wife. “Interestingly, he is almost completely impersonal about his wife, referring to her as the "body," the "corpse," or "it"” (Piacentino