In Charles Brockden Brown's novel, Edgar Huntly, or Memoirs of a Sleepwalker (1799), many characters have difficulty interpreting their own ideas about reality and what is actually real in the context of the novel. Edgar Huntly's often inaccurate perception of reality drives many of the novel's key events. There are several examples of these errors throughout the novel, including the assumption that Clithero is Waldegrave's murderer, that Native Americans killed Huntly's uncle and sisters, and that Clithero is innocent of any malicious intent toward Sarsefield and his wife. Brown situates his protagonist and other characters within this confusing concept of reality in order to illustrate how humanity's perceptions of itself and each person's ideas of others are often subjective and imperfect, no case for universal truths. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Edgar's unreliability as a narrator is by no means accidental. Readers often begin a story with complete trust in the narrator until the narrator proves that trust is unwarranted. This is the case with Edgar: even if he does not seem to have malicious intentions, he often perceives things as true that are not true. As the reader gains insight into his mind and thought process, it is easy to determine that Edgar's decisions are made solely based on what he believes to be true, and not for his own malicious reasons. However, what he considers to be the truth is often his own hasty conclusions, which inspire him to certain actions, which usually lead to terrible consequences for himself and others. When Edgar finds his gun among the Native Americans, he assumes that his entire family must be dead, and that the Indians stole the gun from his mansion before destroying it. He notes: “I needed no more incontestable proof of my calamity than this. My uncle and my sisters had been murdered; the house had been pillaged, and that was part of the pillage” (178). However, in reality, only Edgar's uncle perished; the land, the house and the sisters had not been damaged. Edgar assumes the worst, however, and this helps him justify his actions in killing every Native American he encounters. However, once he learns the truth, he does not give much thought to the fact that his assumptions got him wrong in this matter, nor does he wonder about other instances where he might have assumed something that went wrong. proven false. Not only does Edgar have wrong ideas. about reality when considering others, but he also often does not seem to know the truth about himself, both physically and mentally. There are several examples of this tendency throughout the novel. For example, when Edgar cannot find the letters he kept from Waldegrave, instead of realizing that he is the only one who has access to where these letters are kept and that he must therefore be the cause of their disappearance, he convinces himself that someone else has stolen these papers which are so dear to his heart (128). Again, the reader is privy to Edgar's misperceptions of himself when he wakes up in the cave: he has no idea who brought him here, leaving his body bruised and sore, and left him to starve (154). In reality, Edgar arrived at this place through his own bout of sleepwalking, although he does not realize it is an illness he suffers from until Sarsefield tells him at the end of the novel. Throughout the story, Edgar continually tries..