What literary device is used to create a sense of doubt about reality in Poe's works?

The use of unreliable narration in Edgar Allan Poe's works is a powerful literary device that creates a sense of doubt about reality. By employing narrators who may not fully understand their own situations or who may have distorted perceptions, Poe invites readers to question the authenticity of the narrative. This technique often reveals the complexities of the human mind and the subjective nature of truth, leading to an atmosphere thick with ambiguity and uncertainty.

In stories like "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Cask of Amontillado," the narrators attempt to persuade the reader of their sanity or moral superiority, but their accounts are marred by their own psychological instability. As a result, the reader is encouraged to scrutinize the events and motivations presented, fostering an unsettling doubt regarding what is real versus what is imagined. This sense of skepticism is central to the themes of madness and the duality of human nature that permeate much of Poe's body of work.

The other options, while they may contribute to the impact of the narrative, do not specifically aim to instill doubt about reality in the same way that unreliable narration does.