hi everyone in today's video we are going to be tackling the question of whether or not Marat is an unreliable narrator in Shirley Jackson's with' always lived in the castle now as always massive credit goes to Karen Lynch's notes I highly recommend you check it out if you're wanting to delve a little bit more deeply into this topic so today I'm going to start just by briefly recapping what an unreliable narrator is make a case for both yes and no and then reach my final Verdict by the end so if you need a little bit more of a recap I recommend you pause the video for master class's definition but essentially they are unreliable in that the reader or the viewer can't trust or rely on their version of events BBC mro also puts together a really handy list of characteristics here in that an unreliable narrator often exaggerates elements of themselves or the story or other characters and most notably here they do so in order to make themselves appear more likable or innocent um in in the viewer or reader's eyes they are often detached from reality naive and deceptive whether that's intentionally or otherwise some of my favorite examples of unreliable narrators are in Jillian Flynn's Gone Girl where halfway through the text we get this incredible twist that turns the whole story on its head polar Hawkins the girl on the train another fantastic text also uh a great film adaptation where the narrator is an alcoholic so it's very hard to trust and believe or rely on her version of events and finally a very classic example is pose The Telltale Heart our narrator is mad so when we hear that Beating Heart under the floorboards is it there is it not very hard to know so let's first make the case that marriat is undeniably unreliable it's important here when you are you know pondering this question that you keep in mind the decision to make Marat the narrator is a very purposeful One by Jackson it's a choice and you need to remember that this is a text that is a construction she is not a real person and it is this is not a real story so Marat as our narrator she acts and narrates a lot younger or seemingly a lot younger than her age she believes in sympathetic magic that is that she can you know influence the world around her through magic she has violent thoughts and spoiler alert she did murder her family she fantasizes about living on the moon so attempts to escape reality and as Lynch puts it here well she is mad bad and spoiled child who has murdered most of her family and obsessively covets the love of her surviving sister and she is definitely deranged and so for those reasons she could be interpreted as unreliable litcharts also puts it really well here when they say her narration is never reliable the fact that the murderer narrates the story means that the Nita can't take what she says at face value instead one must constantly work to infer what mirat is leaving out in order to figure out the true story now I don't necessarily agree here I think they're stating this as fact when it's very much an interpretation but I wanted to unpack this idea of taking what Marat says at face value two great examples in my mind first one would be when she is threatening Charles with mushrooms um she's threatening to poison him but she never outwardly says so she just starts listing off um the qualities of these poison mushrooms and also and I've included a little excerpt here from the text when she lights the fire that consumes the Blackwood house she never overtly narrates or says that she's lighting the fire but she brushes the pipe into the um the bin and then she says that her left eye sees gold and yellow and orange and we can infer from that that she's seeing Flames Wallace also puts the case forward that she's unreliable because she clearly has a pathology we don't know what but has a pathology is obsessed with her sister believes in Magic and insists as well that constant is very happy and I think you could make the case that she is not coar hero like litcharts also makes the case quite firmly that she's unreliable so if you're wanting to explore that a little more check out that Resource as well let's now unpack why we could also make the case that she is a reliable narrator what's important to consider here is that we as the reader largely accept her point of view as it's presented to us Lynch and Woodruff say that the narrative seemingly encourages us to yield to the magic of her narration accepting that at least in the essence of things her worldview is true and correct and that we actually become accustomed to her point of view and gradually find ourselves sharing her point of view as well now how does that actually happen I think one of the ways that we are primed to see the world from their cat's point of view and also accept her worldview is that we also prefer life in the castle or on the moon if we have a close look at chapters 1 and two in particular and the imagery that Jackson uses to describe life inside versus outside the house we feel almost as though Marat is being unfairly bullied by those around her you know she's just simply going into the village to try and get food she dreads it she must escape reality in order to even cope with going and that she gets attacked by these people even the fact that we start the novel there instead of the murders you know all of these elements are really drawing us into her point of view I also question yes Marat is re mad but does that necessarily make her unreliable and does she ever actually lie to us there's no gotcha moment where we think ah Marat told us the wrong information or we've been lied to here she never tries to make herself more likable in the reader's eyes and really from the very beginning she doesn't do a very good job of covering up the fact that she is the murderer and she's really I'd say unconcerned by it rather than trying to really deceive us into believing she's innocent and as Lynch puts it really well as always there is simply no story or plot nor Clues laid down by Jackson to authorize an interpretation that Marat is unreliable so what's my final verdict again the great thing about English is that you get to put forward your own interpretation this is mine I think what we need to really think about here is the key piece of information which is that this Nolla isn't about the murders it's about the life for the Sisters after the murders and for that reason I don't think Marat is unreliable I don't think she's trying to convince us that she is innocent and certainly she wants us to hate Charles but I also think um there's a lot about him to not like I don't think Mary cat exaggerates herself to make herself appear more likable she's certainly detached from reality but not to the extent that Uncle Julian is she is naive but not unintelligent and I think particularly from the opening paragraph we get the sense that she is perhaps childlike but also quite intelligent and I don't think she's trying to deceive us I think Lynch puts it really well here again as always when she says that Jackson has deliberately created a most definitely deranged yet ultimately sympathetic character who could be considered a reliable narrator albe it with some caveats and that's how I feel as well I think I think it's not a black and white yes or no I mostly stand on the side that I think she's reliable but also there are some unreliable elements but what really made me kind of land on no was thinking about well who else could have narrated this text and what what other options are there I thought if constant narrated this text it would have been certainly unreliable because she would have been trying to convince us that her sister was innocent if Uncle Julian narrated the text unreliable because he doesn't always get his facts right he's been poisoned and his mind hasn't been the same since Charles would certainly be unreliable because he has an ulterior motive he wants to be seen in a particular way he wants to maintain status and power and he wants to take over the family fortune and we know he's deceptive in that he goes after constant to achieve that I also think you could make a case that mirat could be unreliable if this was a Nolla about the murders perhaps she was on trial and facing life in prison or the death punishment or the death penalty for doing it I think if it meant her Freedom was on the line perhaps she could be more inclined to manipulate us if you are still a little bit stuck and you need a modern comparison I think this may help you I see a lot of parallels between Marat and the protagonist in Netflix's you in that we don't ever think that he's a great person but we do kind of weirdly ultimately side with him when we are watching the show um there obviously some differences but I think if that's kind of the context that need to have he's is reliable in that we know what happens is what happens but we don't necessarily like him I hope this was helpful please pop any questions that you might have in the comments Below have a good day bye