Point of View

For the first two pages of the eleven-page story, the author uses the second person perspective to walk the reader through a hypothetical tour of Mrs. Parker’s rooming house. The author begins the story in the second person, with the first sentence reading: “First Mrs. Parker would show you the double parlours” (47). In this hypothetical encounter, Mrs. Parker shows the “you” character the expensive rooms, first, and then only after hurling classist insults shows the cheaper rooms. Subsequently, the author switches to third person with the sentence “One day Miss Leeson came hunting for a room” (49). This serves as our introduction to Miss Leeson, who will serve as the protagonist of the story, and marks the end of the second person POV, as the rest of the story remains in third person, excepting only brief phrases of direct aside.

As soon as the author...