Untrustworthy Narrators and The Rats in the Walls

One element that ties together the stories we have read is the presence of a potentially untrustworthy first person narrator. "The Rats in the Walls" had the most shocking reversal of narrator instability because of its unexpected shift from a seemingly normal man with a strange family past to a potential cannibal who is in an asylum. The final sentences of the story cast doubt on the rest of the narration because of the demonstrated mental instability. However, it is not easy to completely discard him as a mentally unstable narrator, as you can with the man in "The Tell-Tale Heart", because the way the rest of the story is composed seems straightforward and factual even though it is describing a disturbing and supernatural event.

I believe the most captivating question this story draws out in a reader's mind is whether or not it is scarier to believe in the supernatural or that humans are capable of these horrendous things. This could be perceived in multiple ways. If the space under the priory really did exist, the de la Poers could have been supernatural demons as the surrounding villagers expected or they could just be people who performed the disturbing deed of raising human-like beings for slaughter. On the other hand, if the the space didn't exist it is possible that there were still the supernatural presence of rats tormenting the narrator or he really did just go insane and eat Captain Norrys "in the blackness", which is not necessarily under the priory. It is even possible he made it all up after snapping from the death of his son and being sent to a mental institution. This story sticks in the mind of the reader because there is no correct answer or closure on what to believe.