Point of View

Mrs. Osmond is told from a limited third person point of view. This mainly focuses on Isabel Osmond’s perspective, but there are a few chapters at the beginning of Part II that shift to Gilbert Osmond’s perspective while he is at Bellosguardo in Italy.

Isabel is a character who has never been “without a “position”,” as she has either resided in her father’s home or with her husband after her father’s death for the entirety of her life (74). Given a large inheritance from her deceased uncle, Isabel provides an upper-class point of view, and the reader is likely unable to identify with what Isabel feels is the “burdensomeness of her wealth” (23). It is evident that Isabel is out of touch with how the lower class functions, and this becomes more obvious to Isabel in various encounters with her maid, Staines.

As...