Please enable JavaScript.

Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.

English 45C - Coggle Diagram

- - - - The Turn of the Screw: This novel by Henry James is narrated primarily through the perspective of the governess. The governess consistently claims she sees the ghosts of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel, but no one else can see the ghosts. Mrs. Grose trusts the governesss's claims despite never seeing the ghosts herself. In chapter 6, on page 37 it says, "[Mrs. Grose] herself had seen nothing, not the shadow of a shadow, and nobody in the house but the governess was in the governess's plight;" The fact that the governess is the only one seeing the ghosts makes the ghosts' existence ambiguous and the governess's reliability questionable. The governess's ambiguous reliability makes the perceived danger to the children and Miles's death more puzzling and disarming. By having the reader question the governess's reliability, they must also question the reliability of the situation she describes.
    - - Waiting for Godot: Vladimir and Estragon are unreliable narrators because they themselves do not appear to have all the information needed for each scene to make sense. All they know is that they are waiting for Godot, but they don't appear to know why or who Godot is. In Act 1, Estragon asks Vladimir if Pozzo is Godot, and Vladimir hesitates until Pozzo introduces himself. This shows that neither of the men know who they are even waiting for, just that they are waiting. Estragon and Vladimir are confused narrators, making the authenticity and reliability of their reality questionable.
      - Bartleby, The Scrivener: This short story is narrated solely from the perspective of the Lawyer. As readers, the only information we are told is what he knows and chooses to present. The story ends with us never knowing where he came from and why he "prefers not to" do anything. There is no resolution for the readers because there is no resolution for the narrator. By using a narrator who lacks information regarding what's really happening with Bartleby, the story becomes more mysterious and ambiguous.
      - The Man of the Crowd: In this short story, our unnamed narrator begins by observing the mass of people in the city from his window. The story is exclusively from his perspective as an observer. His observations of the different types of people in the city are relatively generalized, until he notices a man who catches his eye. The old man's mysterious aura leads the narrator to join the crowd as an attempt to follow him. Our narrator never learns anything of the old man, ending his journey by saying, "It will be in vain to follow, for I shall learn no more of him, nor of his deeds." Our narrator lacks information about the old man and his situation, making his narration unreliable and not fully credible, since the readers aren't given all the facts of the story. By narrating the story with a perspective that lacks information, the characters and story inherently become more mysterious.