The Protagonist

The unnamed narrator is the protagonist of the story. She is a wanderer who is travelling with two men, Jo and Jim. The story is filtered through the perspective of this narrator, so the reader never attains any descriptions of her physical appearance. Moreover, her personality is only explored through her relationships and interactions with others.

The fact that this character is never named, coupled with the fact that Mansfield does not overtly highlight any details about this character’s personality or appearance, appropriately directs the attention and interest of the reader towards other elements of the story. The decision to avoid providing a name for the protagonist minimizes the protagonist’s importance in the story, so the reader naturally places more importance on the events that the protagonist experiences, rather than placing importance on the protagonist herself.

Mansfield subtly shows that the protagonist is duplicitous through...