Point of View

The story’s narration is written in the past tense and the first-person, always from the perspective of the narrator. This adherence to the narrator’s perspective allows the reader to gain detailed insights into his psychology and motivations. For example, his obsessiveness related to Aspern is established early on when, in narration, the narrator refers to Aspern as the narrator’s god. In this way, the reader may make judgments about the narrator’s unhealthy and immoral behavior that the narrator may not be able to see in himself. As the story progresses, the narrator occasionally gains temporary awareness of the moral degradation caused by his monomania, but his obsession repeatedly overtakes his senses of reason and morality.

In contrast to this close contact with the narrator’s psychology, the story contains many ambiguities regarding the other characters’ thoughts and motivations. Because the only...