Point of View

This story is told in the third person and limited to the thoughts and views of three people: Beatrice Vizzini, Bill Bastrop, and Isadore Zeno. This limited view highlights these three character’s positions as centers of their respective worlds. The third person is close to each character, so the beliefs and feelings of each character are demonstrated through language choice and description. However, the reader does have enough distance to realize any irony in the character’s decisions and has a slightly greater scope than the character does, often having more understanding of a character’s motives than the character does. This is aided by the choice to have three main characters—the readers learn something as soon as a single character knows, and so has access to more knowledge than any one character. This reduces the tension of the mystery somewhat, as the...