Who is narrating "The Story of an Hour"?

When we consider narration in any given work of
literature, we are actually thinking about point of view and the choice that the author
has made in terms of how to tell the story, or from which point of view the story is
being told. There are three points of view in literature. Firstly, the first person
point of view, which is easily recognisable because it is told from the point of view of
one of the characters in the story, so it is told in the first person ("I"). Secondly,
there is the omniscient, or all-knowing narrator, who is outside of the story but looks
in on it much like a god-like figure looking down on the action. This narrator has
access to the thoughts and emotions of every character and is able to enter their brains
at will. Lastly, the third person limited narrator is told in the third person ("he" or
"she") and is likewise told by a narrator who is outside of the action, but one who only
follows one character around. Thus in this case the narrator does have access to the
thoughts and feelings of only one character, rather than every
character.

If we consider the three different types of
point of view outlined above, it becomes clear that the point of view of this feminist
classic is the omniscient narrator. The narrator is outside of the action, is not a
given character within the story, and is able to enter into the thoughts and feelings of
every character. Consider the following extract:

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There was something coming to her and she was
waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive
to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, raching toward her through the
sounds, the scents, the colour that filled the
air.

Clearly here the story
is told in the third person, and the way that the narrator is able to tell us the
thoughts and feelings of Mrs. Mallard, as well as her sister elsewhere in the story,
reveals that Mansfield has chosen to write this story using the omniscient point of
view.