Point of View

"The House of Madame Tellier" is written from an omniscient third person point of view. By writing the short story from this narrative vantage, the author is able to render Madame Tellier and her girls' profession and characters through an unbiased lens. The third person narrator is also able to shift between scenes and settings with fluidity, and to delve into passages of exposition or flashback pertaining to each and any of the story's primary characters. For example, the narrative opens with the lines: "They went there every evening about eleven o'clock, just as they would go to the club. Six or eight of them; always the same set, not fast men, but respectable tradesmen, and young men in government or some other employ" (7). This passage continues with added descriptions of the men, and their frequent evenings at Madame Tellier's. Despite this attention to the...