Narrator and point of view

The short story “A Painful Case” by James Joyce is a third-person narrative, with an omniscient narrator who confines himself to the point of view of the main character (Mr Duffy) on the events.

The omniscient knowledge is explicit and becomes clear when the narrator describes Mrs Duffy’s thoughts and perspective on life: “Mr. Duffy abhorred anything which betokened physical or mental disorder. A medieval doctor would have called him saturnine.”; “He allowed himself to think that in certain circumstances he would rob his hank but, as these circumstances never arose, his life rolled out evenly — an adventureless tale.”

The narrator’s use of Mr Duffy’s point of view on the events is marked when he describes Mrs Sinico through his eyes and when rhetorical questions are employed to render the ch...