The Unreliable Narrator in The Canadian Theatres

The Unreliable Narrator in The Canadian Theatres

Introduction

As for me and my house is an award-winning novel which is significant in the Canadian tradition. This novel is one of Sinclair Ross’s publications. The book explains spiritual, natural, and social factors that attempt to ruin marriages. The story rotates about the life of a minister’s wife, Mrs. Bently, who records the events of her daily life in diary entries. Mrs. Bentley is a barren woman who explains about the loneliness and mental agony she endures during her life. She genuinely shows the pain she feels for being unloved by her husband. Mrs. Bentley is heroin in Canadian history who tolerates an unfaithful husband and even blames herself for giving her husband an unhappy marriage.

Her husband, Phillip Bentley, starts an illicit affair with a church choir lady called Judy, who gets pregnant as a result of this illicit affair. After the birth of the child, Judy’s health condition deteriorates, and Mrs. Bently promises to raise the child as her own. Mr. Bentley also adopts a church kid called Steve, who gets so emotionally attached to Mrs. Bentley, and after a time, he returns the boy to his foster home. Mrs. Bentley becomes lonely as a result of this act. Mrs. Bentley loses her close friend, a male teacher, of whom her jealous husband loathes. She suffers as a victim of conflict.

John McLachlan Gray, with the support of Eric Peterson, published the novel, Billy Bishop goes to war. This novel is a musical drama that revolves around the life of Billy bishop, one of the Canadian heroes whose fame rose during the First World War. The book explains the loneliness, the pains and the agonies Billy bishop encountered in his life, and how he eventually overcame these pains and became a hero in his home country. At his young age, Billy bishop is a rebellious student at the Roya Military College of Canada. Despite being the worst cadet in the college, Billy becomes a reluctant soldier and eventually a hero in the First World War. The young Billy is a charming person who is allergic to rules and is his solo drinker. The older Billy mingles the joy, bitterness, and sorrows he has encountered in his life. In the theatre performance, the play showcases two people, the pianist and Eric Peterson, who role-playing as Billy bishop. Billy bishop’s role player imitates eighteen characters, both men and women, who Billy encountered in his life, and he acts, and his tone varies as the pianist plays the song.

Both Billy bishop and Mrs. Bentley suffer from mental instability, which hinders how they rely on the information. The mannerism in which the two relate and communicate with their audience depicts the mental breakdown affecting the two individuals. The actions of Billy of killing people for fun and bragging about it indicate mental instability. The guilt of preserving in an unhappy marriage and wrong judgment of people’s behavior shows that Mrs. Bentley has an interrupted subjective perception.

Reasons and Effects of Billy Bishop’s Mental Breakdown

After losing so many of his close friends to the Germans in the First World war, Billy bishops becomes no longer an introvert. His heart fills with bloodthirst lust, and he enjoys killing people. In his letter to his girlfriend Margaret, Billy explains to her about how hardened a killer he has become. He admits that he finds great pleasure in murdering the Huns (Caffrey 111). Billy has a sensation that he too has to die any time soon and so he feels he has nothing much to lose. During one event in the war, Billy and his two copilots find a dead Germans body. Billy suggests that they carry the body to prove to the mass that they were at the Front. Bialy navigates his course on the air and the ground (Caffery 112). He uses several tactics that keep him surviving during the wars. However, he kills people mercilessly and enjoys every bit of the torture he subjects to his victim. Billy kills German families, women and children included, just for fun.

How Billy Bishop is an unreliable narrator

First, Billy Bishop, in his old age, remembers his past days and admits about how he cheated in the college exams. This memory is an indication that he is not always genuine in his narrations. Billy bishop goes to most of his fights without any accomplice. He reports seventy-two victories over the Germans, but nobody can serve as an eye witness to all these victories (Brenoteon 89). He narrates and exaggerates his encounters, and even contradicts himself in the narrations. Billy explains that the commissions paid to Canadian armies are low and that the First World War has earned him several medals. However, according to the official report of Canada, the armies’ commissions are not lowered at all. The information relied upon Billy only lowers the standard of Canadian military quality.

Billy is the first person to receive the Victoria Cross medal, which is a highly ranked award for performing extemporary in war and emerging victorious. No witness, however, can attest to this victory, and his winning relies on his narration of the war encounters. He receives the award, but historians argue that he gets this medal because he has highly ranked senior officials in the United Kingdom who are his friends. Historians researching Billy’s life have some of his reports which do not add up to a meaningful description. Some conclude that these stories are fictitious. They leave the accounts up to the people to believe them or not.

Reasons and Effects of Mrs. Bentleys Mental Breakdown

Mrs. Bentley is a victim of unhappy marriages. Her husband is unfortunate since she cannot conceive. Mrs. Bentley feels that she is the reason for his sadness, and this guilt makes her have an inner conflict within herself. She yearns for affection from her husband and struggles to prove her love to him. However, Philip does not appreciate her efforts. He has an illicit affair with a choir girl, Judith. Mrs. Bentley is aware of this affair, but she does nothing to stop them. When Steve, their adopted son, is taken for outings by her husband, she is left lonely. She ails when the allegedly adopted son goes back to the roman catholic priest. She attaches to Steve as if he was her child. Mrs. Bentley feels that her life depends on her husband, making her appear like a fungus parasite, which demoralizes her pride. Mrs. Bentley loses touch with her friend, Paul Kirby, who is a primary school teacher and philologist. The loss of connection between the two leaves Mrs. Bentley sad and emotionally torn.

How Mrs. Bentley is an unreliable narrator

Although Mrs. Bentley has narrated her one-year experience as daily entries in a journal, she is an unreliable narrator. She recounts all the events that occur during that one year, but all the conclusions depend on her understanding and judgment. Since she is lonely and with no one to confide to, she writes all her thoughts, fears, and observations in her diary. Mrs. Bentley narrates that the town of Horizon, where she comes from, is lowly. She finds their way of doing things primitive and wishes to move to a better place. The little town does not satisfy her needs for getting comfort(Ross,4). also, Mrs. Bentley assumes that she can understand other people’s behavior. She believes and concludes about people’s behavior based on her illusion. For instance, she thinks that her husband, Phillip Bentley, does not like showing off his paintings to people. The fact, however, is that Phillip likes to show off his pictures and hear about people’s reactions towards them.

She selects on the occurrences to narrate and omit those that do not please her. She is sometimes inaccurate in her arguments and self-deceiving, even to the readers. She does not accept her mistakes but later admits that some of her judgments are wrong. Mrs. Bentley is dishonest and unfair to herself. She gets to the point that she starts admiring the life of Judith, her husband’s mistress (Ross, 16). Mrs. Bentley tries to hide her emotions towards her husband. She fears to expose her affection towards her husband (Ross,19). Mrs. Bentley lives life with aims to prove her observations.

Similarities in the context of storytelling

Both novels have similarities in the context of storytelling. First, both Mrs. Bentley and Billy bishop narrate their life experiences while only paying attention to the main contributions in their own lives. They both explain their personal experiences, providing a one-sided narration of all that happened. Billy bishop tells about his personal experience in the First World War and his victorious fetes. Mrs. Bentley explains about her sacrifice to ensure that her husband is happy. Both bring out the image that they were the victims of circumstance.

Second, both narrators experience conflict in various stages of life. Mrs. Bentley is at conflict with herself for depriving her husband of his happiness by being barren. She is also in conflict with her husband, who suspects that she is romantically involved with Phillip, a school teacher. Billy bishop on his hand is at conflict with himself as he is struggling to be labeled a Canadian hero in the ongoing World War. His life experiences are during a time of war conflict between Germany, France, and Europe.

Third, in the long run, both narrators portray a reconciliation in their conflicts. Billy bishop emerges as a top Canadian hero, with seventy-two reported cases of victory in war. He rises from an impoverished student to a well-known flying ace. When he retires from fighting, he becomes one of the topmost ranked army officials’ Bentley, on the other hand, finally has her desires fulfilled. At the start of the novel, she is portrayed as a sad, barren woman. She is guilty of causing unhappiness to her husband. She lives in the town of horizon which is primitive according to her judgement. At the end of the play, she and Phillip adopt Judith’s child. The couple also moves from horizon town too, and this is a win-win situation for both of them.

Moreso, both Billy and Mrs. Bentley show their similarity in character. They are both sad and bitter due to the circumstances facing them. Billy is unfortunate because he has lost most of his friends in the war. He is vengeful towards all germans. He is lonely because he is an introvert since childhood and also a poor student. Mrs. Bentley is lonely because she has no child or friend to confide to. When she and Phillip try to adopt Steve, she gets attached to him, but he returns to the Roman church. She is sad because she is barren and because she is not happy to be a minister’s wife. She learns about her husband’s promiscuity, but she can do nothing to prevent him.

Differences in the context of storytelling

The two novels, as for me and my house, and Billy goes to war, are unique to the Canadians. However, they have used a different approach to bringing out their context. The novel, Billy goes to war is a musical drama. It explains the whole life of Billy bishop in a song. The story has got a narrator and a character. The musician is the narrator, and the actor portrays the role of Billy. The pianist sings as the actor imitates the lifestyle of Billy. The novel, as for me and my house, is recorded using Mrs. Bentley’s diary. Here Mrs. Bentley is the narrator as well as the main character of the story.