Telling Lies, Hiding Truths ~ (Unreliable) Narrators Series #2
In the vast landscapes of fantasy, unreliable narrators aren't just a stylistic flourish—they are a window into the fractured human psyche. This article explores why narrators bend the truth.
Stories are told, and when they begin we trust in the narrator. We have to believe them, because such is the conduit for the story.
Yet sometimes we find clues hinting that they may not be entirely trustworthy.
It may be subtle; like a descriptor contradicting what we perceive, a piece of knowledge withheld, an action that doesn’t align with the narrator’s thoughts. Or it may be over: like an explicit lie told to another character, a distortion, something that is nothing but a red flag chanting we shouldn’t take the narrators reliability for granted.
The moment we realise that is when doubt cascades over everything we have read so far, adding—perhaps—new layers of meaning to scenes we once thought in a different, maybe even simplistic way. It is then when we finally conclude the voice narrating the story may be unrealiable.
What are unreliable narrators?
In terms of definitions, a narrator is unreliable if they cannot be trusted because their credibility is compromised1. The term was originally coined in 1961, first appearing in the book The Rhetoric of Fiction by Wayne C. Booth. However, it seems this style actually became popular in Western literature during the Modernist period from the end of the 19th (1890’s) through the 20th century.
It is most commonly associated with a first-person narrative, but it can also be used extensively in third-person limited, and deep third-person. These two cases (namely, third-person limited or deep) are:
constrained to one character’s inner world,
do not drift into full omniscience (namely, will never describe what another character feels or perceives), and
are fully immersed in the character's subjective experience while still using third-person pronouns (i.e., he, she, they).
Yet regardless of which person or verbal tense is used, all unreliable narrators have something in common: they distort the truth of the story… but they do so with a reason that should—ideally—be intrinsically related to the character’s story.
But why are they unreliable?
You see? There are multiple ways in which a character can be unreliable, and so are multiple reasons as to why. These two elements, if correctly used, are tools in a writer’s pocket.
Let’s review some of these more closely. I will recommend books to read for each of the cases we mention.
