Point of View

This story is told from the first person point of view of Iris, Will’s husband. As discussed in one of the themes, Iris qualifies as an unreliable narrator because she knows only her part of the story and can tell only what she experiences. She is also an unreliable narrator because she is telling the story from a highly emotional state.

Iris tells her story in the present tense, as it occurring. It is not filtered through the passage of time which might have made Iris a less emotional and more stable narrator. Present tense narration prevents Iris from knowing the outcome of her own story. She is discovering the lies her husband told her and determining how they will impact her opinion of him at the same time the reader is learning about them.

Language and Meaning

Since Iris is a psychologist, there...