What is the narrator point of view in the novel, The Wife Upstairs?

The point of view of the novel is complex and constantly shifting. In “Part One,” Jane narrates the story in first-person present. From her perspective, we are introduced to the world of Thornfield Estates and the handsome widow Eddie, whose wife Bea has tragically been killed in a boating accident. In “Part Two,” the perspective switches to Bea, but she does not narrate in first-person present like Jane. Instead, she writes in a “diary,” which is really just an old novel she is writing over with a pen she found hidden in the back of a drawer in the panic room. In the diary entries, Bea writes that Eddie killed Blanche and locked her in the panic room. These diary entries are matched with italicized third-person narrations by a seemingly objective narrator who presents scenes from Bea’s life prior to the murder.

The perspective continues to switch back and forth between Bea and Blanche for the next nine sections. Bea’s revelations about Eddie and the murder in the diary generate tension in Jane’s perspectives. Jane does not suspect that Eddie is a murderer at first, but the reader is allowed access to this information, and this creates narrative irony. As the novel goes on, however, there begin to be discrepancies between what Bea writes in her diary and what the objective narrator shows us about Bea’s life before the murders. For example, in the diary entries, Bea only ever talks about how jealous Blanche was of her and Eddie. However, in a flashback scene presented by the objective narrator we see Bea sleep with Tripp to get revenge for the way Eddie and Blanche have been flirting. While not the unexpected act, it seems completely out of character for the Bea that is presented in the diary. This is the first hint we get that Bea is writing lies in her diary rather than the truth.

In “Part Ten,” Eddie narrates in the first-person present. Throughout the section, the same objective narrator breaks in with italic sections that narrate the past from a third-person objective perspective. This enables the reader to “make sure” Eddie is telling the truth in his narration and erases any ambiguity about what happened to Blanche. “Part Eleven” returns to Bea’s first-person narration, but then in “Part Twelve,” Bea narrates in the first-person present for the first time in the book. Just like with Eddie’s section, the third-person objective narrator breaks in with italic sections to verify what Bea is saying for the reader.