Wednesday, November 26, 2014

What effect does the point of view have on the story?

The narrator of Virginia Woolf's short story, "A Haunted
House", is most probably a married woman who is living in a house formerly occupied by
the ghost couple when they were living.  Virginia Woolf is most notably known by her
stream of consciousness narration.  This means that the thoughts and emotions of the
narrator flow from one to the next.  The effect it has on this story is two-fold: one,
the reader experiences the thoughts and feelings of the ghosts through the narrator;
two, the reader also gets the thoughts and feelings of the actual narrator.  I believe
Woolf approached the point of view of this story in this way because it conveys the lack
of fear the narrator feels toward the ghosts, and the connection she has with
them. Sometimes the thoughts of the narrator are intertwined with those of the
ghosts. Also, while one expects the story to be "scary" because of the title, the ending
of the story, when the narrator realizes the ghosts have found the love they lost
through death in the relationship she shares with her husband.  It's actually a very
touching and heartwarming story. 

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