Narrator and point of view

The short story “The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife” by Ernest Hemingway is a third-person narration, featuring a storyteller who is outside the action and who confines himself to the limited point of view of the characters.

The narrative is mostly rendered from the perspective of the main character, Dr. Henry. This can be inferred based on the way the narrator follows him and directly points out the man’s perspective: "Nick's father always assumed that this was what would happen, and hired the Indians..." (ll. 20-21); "He was very fond of it. Then he heard his wife's voice from the darkened room." (ll. 96-98)

However, the narrator also gives us a brief insight into the Native Americans’ perspective: "They could see from his back how angry he was....