Point of View

Matrix is narrated in the past tense from the third person omniscient point of view, meaning the narrator has access to the inner thoughts and feelings of all of the characters, but the narration is focused almost entirely on the protagonist Marie. When the novel begins, Marie is just 17 years old and newly arrived at the abbey after living at Queen Eleanor's court in Westminster. She is preoccupied by her unrequited love for Eleanor and the betrayal of having been sent away. She is distressed at being sent to the abbey because she feels she has “no godly vocation whatsoever” (5). As the novel progresses, though, Marie's feelings and motivations gradually evolve. She comes to see the beauty of the nuns' religious devotion and decides to channel her ambitions into improving the abbey and the lives of its inhabitants. As she later recalls, she decided to...