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   scarletpimpernel Teacher
   High School - 12th Grade

   eNotes Editor

   The story begins in third person limited point of view because an uninvolved narrator focuses solely on Mrs. Mallard.  While this point-of-view is present throughout the story, Chopin inserts paragraphs with the stream-of-consciousness technique, allowing readers to get inside Mrs. Mallard's head to see her genuine reaction to the news of her husband's death.  The author does not use true first person point of view, but because of her discussion of what Mrs. Mallard sees, how she sees it, and what she thinks about it, the middle of the story reads like first person without the personal pronouns.  This choice fits Chopin's theme of the oppression of women and lifeless marriages because readers must actually read Mrs. Mallard's thoughts to know that she feels oppressed or happy to have escaped her marriage.

    

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   Posted by scarletpimpernel on Wednesday September 23, 2009 at 11:24 AM