Narrator and point of view

The short story “Gazebo” by Raymond Carver is told from the perspective of a first-person narrator who is also the main character.

At first, the reader does not know that the narrator cheated on Holly and he portrays her reaction as exaggerated. She tried to jump out of the window, while the narrator is calm and says that he “had to get her in a hold.”

At first, the narrator does not reveal what he has done. When Holly says that she cannot take it anymore, the narrator says the following: “I could die seeing her like this. ‘Take what?’ I go, though of course I know.” 

The narrator offers very little insight about his thoughts and feelings, and when he does, he is vague and evasive: “I feel so awful from one thing and the other.” He is always vague when he mentions...