Point of View

Throughout the stories contained in the short story collection, "Casting the Runes and other Ghost Stories," by M.R. James, the author varies in using either the first-person point of view or the third-person point of view. In several of the stories, James uses an impartial narrator who tells the story of a grisly murder or a mysterious occurrence. He uses the first-person narration in this case, although the narrator is someone removed from the action, only describing what he has heard from another or what has been told to him. In short stories like "A Vignette," the author uses a first-person point of view to make the action seem more immediate and to make the experiences the narrator goes through more personal for the reader. In other stories, he uses a third-person point of view, describing the actions of the characters, and to some degree...