“True!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?” Which signal of unreliability appears first?

“I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell.” What makes this claim a warning about the narrator?

“I neither expect nor solicit belief.” Which feature most clearly makes the account suspect?

“There are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or ever will.” Which signal of unreliability is embedded in the sentence?

“Even had you skill / In speech—which I have not—to make your will / Quite clear...” What undercuts the speaker’s self-description?

“No pain felt she; / I am quite sure she felt no pain.” Which signal should make the reader distrust the speaker?

“John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.” What does the reader infer beyond the narrator’s acceptance?

“John is a physician... You see he does not believe I am sick!” What does the reader conclude that the narrator stops short of saying?

“I gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together.” What conclusion does the reader reach past the Duke’s euphemism?

“The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne... but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge.” What does the reader infer?

“I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult.” What conclusion does the reader reach?

“I get unreasonably angry with John sometimes. I’m sure I never used to be so sensitive.” What can the reader infer past her self-correction?

“And all night long we have not stirred, / And yet God has not said a word!” What conclusion does the reader reach past the speaker’s logic?

“A heart—how shall I say?—too soon made glad, / Too easily impressed.” What does the hesitation reveal?

“I must not only punish, but punish with impunity.” What interest shapes this account?

“My heart grew sick—on account of the dampness of the catacombs.” What motive shapes this correction?

“Yet, mad am I not—and very surely do I not dream.” What interest is shaping the narrator’s wording?

“You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me.” What does the narrator try to make his planning prove?

“It is so hard to talk with John about my case, because he is so wise, and because he loves me so.” What interest shapes the narrator’s account?

“And all her hair / In one long yellow string I wound / Three times her little throat around, / And strangled her.” What remains usable as evidence?

“I continued, as was my wont, to smile in his face, and he did not perceive...” What can the reader still take from this account?

“Then I peeled off all the paper I could reach standing on the floor.” What remains evidence even if her perceptions are unstable?

“One night, returning home, much intoxicated...” What can a reader accept from this self-damaging admission?

“It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him...” What remains usable despite the narrator’s madness?

“None puts by / The curtain I have drawn for you, but I.” What fact can the reader still infer from the Duke’s account?