Point of View

The story is written in the first person and the past tense. Piranesi is the narrator and sole point-of-view character. The perspective is largely informed by the fact that the novel is presented as a series of Piranesi’s journal entries. Piranesi observes the events of the novel based on his own ideas and point of view, and he then transcribes those events accordingly. However, the issue of perspective is highly complicated in this novel by the revelation that Piranesi is an amnesiac. The labyrinth has taken many of his memories, including all of the memories from before he entered the labyrinth. Thus, the progression of the story largely functions based on Piranesi’s realization of these facts. He then also becomes aware of the consequences of his amnesia, such as his forgetting that the other is actually his enemy.

Another consequence of Piranesi’s...