LitBlog

LitFood

LitCourse 7
How to Read: Point of View
11

 

Point of view—experiment 1

"The Stor of an Hour"—as told in the 1st person by Josephine: "I lingered outside the bedroom door but heard no weeping. After nearly an hour, the door opened, and Louise stepped out. It was most strange, for about her face was a hard, flinty, almost triumphant look. Could my dear sister-in-law be so cold-hearted as to find joy in her husband's death?"

Result: without a limited omniscient narrator, who takes us inside Mrs. Mallard, we would condemn her as cold and uncaring. And we would miss the irony of her death.