In the majority of the short story, it appeared that the narrator was not very reliable. For example, in the very beginning the narrator told of his plot. His words "I must not punish but punish with impunity". This shows his intentions for revenge but also a high level of emotion in his act. Generally, with high levels of emotion and a sense of pride in one's actions, people tend to tell stories from a bias prospective.
Although, the actual event of the narrator murdering someone is a reliable. The story going into details of a sickly and drunk man being tortured and taken advantage of seems to be plausible and also similar to a woman being "date raped". It does not seem realistic that a murderer would spend time listening to the screams of a man. In the story the narrator says in a way that the screams done by his victim were "satisfactory" and lasted several minutes. In reality, this seems to be unreliable because others who would be able to come to his aid could have heard the screams. In addition, this seems to be an added detail to enhance the entertainment value of the tale because it is coming from the view of a man with a passion of blood.
Overall, the fact that the story is coming from a narrator who would be in this time period considered psychopathic leaves most of the details in the story to be suspicious. The extra details of torture and long intervals of enjoyment seem to be extras or perhaps even events that could have just appeared in the disturbed mind of the narrator.
