Point of View

Lauren Groff writes her novel “Fates and Furies” from the third-person limited omniscient perspective, focusing primarily around the characters of Lotto and Mathilde in their respective sections of the novel. The third-person narrator acts as a unifying voice between two different sides to the same story, but also allows the author to explore and create greater depth for other characters, such as Antoinette and Chollie. This is also in keeping with the theme of perception in the novel, where different people may take away different ideas from the same situation or event, such as Mathilde’s sexual arrangement with Ariel. The limited-omniscient aspect of the narration further provides for greater emphasis on perception and perspective, as the reader is given different sides to the same story, and must make up his or her own mind in the end.

Language and Meaning

Lauren Groff writes her...