There Is Only One True Unreliable Narrator...

The unreliable narrator: A new trend in the literary fiction world, usually also falling under the category of unlikeable narrator and plotless fiction. I think, in many ways, the tiktok-afication of this term has pulled it away from what it actually means and is often used as a synonym for an unlikeable narrator.

I was having a discussion with my friend about the unreliable narrator and she laid out my feelings of why the term feels misused so often: to be a true unreliable narrator we - the readers, the audience - need to be able to know, concretely, the truth of the story. I don't just mean that we think there's something fishy happening, but like it is fact within the story that the narrator is wrong.

In this discussion, I was thinking back on all of the books I've read and there was really only one that I would say had an unreliable narrator... Pride & Prejudice.

The True Unreliable Narrator: Elizabeth Bennet

Now, you may be thinking: "how is this possible, P&P doesn't even have a first person narration, how can you obfuscate, or lie to the audience?." It is true, P&P is told in third person, a kind of omniscient third person, and therefore we do get to know how many different characters are feeling, etc.. However, as the protagonist, we do fall into Elizabeth's point of view, her thoughts, feelings, and reasonings the most.

In The Annotated Pride & Prejudice, David M. Shapard writes in a note on page 707: "the second half of the novel has concentrated on Elizabeth’s perspective…. as Jane Austen always does to a certain degree with her male protagonists — keeps the narrative more focused and increases suspense… and that many crucial plot developments can only be fully explained after the fact." And if you know the story you will know this is true. We are kept in Lizzie's mind because her judgments of Darcy are wrong, misguided and this makes the revelations about him/his character a more interesting story.

Almost from the moment that Elizabeth meets Darcy she forms the judgement on him that he is full, from head to toe, of pride and prejudice against people below him. This is continuously confirmed to her through his acting quiet, almost aloof, and of course by Mr Wickham's account of Darcy and his dealings. What Wickham tells Lizzie is a lie but one that she clings onto as proof of what she already wants to think of Darcy. Later in the story, when the truth of Wickham and Darcy's feud comes out we learn that what we were led to believe is wrong... what we were led to believe by Lizzie.

Being so intimate with Lizzie the readers are led to agree with what she thinks, that her thoughts and feelings are fact. That Darcy is a despicable man, that Wickham was so deeply wronged, etc. etc.. And this isn't just contained to Elizabeth's summations of Darcy and Wickham but of other characters in the story as well.

And it is not just the main romantic triangle that has this misleading done to and by Elizabeth. On page 261 of The Annotated Pride & Prejudice, Shapard writes: “...Elizabeth received clues regarding Charlotte (as she also did about Bingley) that she disregarded because they conflicted with what she wished to believe.... One theme of the novel is that even very intelligent people, like Elizabeth and Darcy, can err deeply in judgement when blinded by wishes or prejudices."

With prejudice being one of the titular themes, obviously Austen wanted to showcase that within her main character. Both Elizabeth and Darcy exhibit pride and prejudice (who could've guessed that), and they let those characteristics blind themselves from truths in their universe. And because Elizabeth is an almost pseudo-narrator, we as the audience have the facts of the story hidden from us. Thus making the narration - at least when we are following Elizabeth - unreliable.

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Following this thinking, there obviously are other books that kind of fall into similar narration/plot styles like Northanger Abbey and Jane Eyre (cause Jane Eyre is just a Northanger Abbey 2.0). Here though it is less the main character's confirmation bias that leads them to believe something outside of the truth of the situation, and more their naivety.