Point of View

The Talented Miss Farwell is written from a close third person point of view. This third person narrator lives closest to protagonist Becky Farwell's consciousness. So throughout the novel, the narrator often moves inside Becky's psyche and assumes her thoughts and feelings. While the narrative is saturated with such examples, one poignant instance occurs at the end of Chapter 3. After Becky acquires her first painting, she sits alone in her room, convening with the work of art. At the close of this scene, the narrator says: "Go on, go on, change me," thus adopting Becky's thoughts (32). Indeed, in moments like this one, the narrator's voice becomes inseparable from Becky's. While the author could have written the entire novel from Becky's first person point of view, the third person vantage allows Tedrowe to enact Becky's feelings of isolation and alienation, both from others and herself. If...