Narrator and point of view

Virginia Woolf’s “The Legacy” has a third person narrator, who is limited to Gilbert’s perspective. This enables the narrator to offer insight into Gilbert’s thoughts and feelings. For example, it is revealed that Gilbert asked Sissy to come get the brooch that Angela left her because Gilbert believed he owed Sissy “this token of consideration”.

At the same time, the limited perspective offers a subjective perception of the other characters, as they are presented from Gilbert’s point of view. For example, Angela’s description is very biased since the only way to know her is through Gilbert’s eyes: “she was so terribly ignorant, she used to say, as if that were not one of her charms”. This shows that Angela considered herself ignorant and Gilbert found th...