Narrator and point of view

The short story “The Fly-Paper” by Elizabeth Taylor is told from the point of view of a third-person narrator. However, the story is told entirely from Sylvia’s perspective, so the narrator is limited. Thus, the readers only have access to Sylvia’s thoughts and feelings and can only guess at the other characters’ thought processes by their actions and words.

Sometimes the narrator provides information about what other characters could be feeling, probably guessed from their tone of voice: “ ‘I must have everything sweet and fresh’, the woman said complacently.” (l. 192), “ ‘Well, sit down, do", the woman said, a little impatiently’ ” (l. 209). The plot twist at the end may be guessed by readers, since it is foreshadowed at length, but we are still led to the inevitable end by Sylvia’s limited perspective.

The narration is mostly explicit, de...