Ian McEwan Writing Styles in The Comfort of Strangers

This Study Guide consists of approximately 25 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Comfort of Strangers.

Ian McEwan Writing Styles in The Comfort of Strangers

This Study Guide consists of approximately 25 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Comfort of Strangers.
This section contains 980 words
(approx. 3 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy The Comfort of Strangers Study Guide

Point of View

The narrator of The Comfort of Strangers is third person, though not quite omniscient. Instead the narrator focuses mainly on Mary and Colin, and so knows only what they know. The narrator describes the other characters in detail, but makes no comment on them. For instance, when Robert appears suddenly on the darkened street, this creates suspense in the reader, but not because of any hints from the narrator. In another instance, the reader watches Caroline struggle with her injuries for quite sometime with no idea of what they are or where they came from. Thus, the reader is as much in the dark as the main characters, Colin and Mary. Therefore the final violence has as much shock value as possible.

In other words, every event - however mundane or horrific - is described in the same even tones. Mary and Colin appear to echo...

(read more)

This section contains 980 words
(approx. 3 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy The Comfort of Strangers Study Guide
Copyrights
BookRags
The Comfort of Strangers from BookRags. (c)2024 BookRags, Inc. All rights reserved.