Posted: February 11th, 2022

The Narrator

The first person point of view adds to the suspense by showing us the thoughts and feeling of the narrator(James). “I said little, for I felt uneasy. There was something unnatural, uncanny, in meeting this man.” The narrative tells us that he feels uneasy about meeting the man. He feels as if it is unnatural about meeting Mr. Atkinson. The narrator is uncertain and uncomfortable about what is happening. “I began to draw. So intent was I on my work… The final result, for a hurried sketch… It showed a criminal in the dock immediately after the judge had pronounced sentence… He turned round as he heard my steps and I stopped short.
It was the man I had been drawing, whose portrait lay in my pocket.” The author uses figurative language to reinforce why the narrator is uneasy about what is happening. The author uses foreshadowing to help the readers understand why the narrator feels uneasy. He feels uneasy because he has drawn a man that he has never seen before, and now that very man is sitting in front of him. “I tried at first to persuade myself that I had seen him before, that his face, unknown to me, had found a place in some out-of-the-way corner of my memory, but I knew that I was practising little more than a plausible piece of self-deception.”
This piece of evidence it shows that the narrator is uncertain about what is happening and is trying to convince himself that he had seen this man before. Also later on in the text it states, “For some time I sat in silence. Then a cold shudder ran down my spine. I asked him where he had seen the name.” This also supports that the author was uncertain and uncomfortable about the situation.

“I have had what I believe to be the most remarkable day in my life,” The narrator uses foreshadowing to help the theme of the story. We know that the day was a remarkable one but what made it that way. The theme of this story is fate. “I rolled up the sketch, and without quite knowing why, placed it in my pocket… A sudden impulse made me enter.” This supports the theme because it reveals how the narrator acts without knowing why. This suggests that that he acts upon decisions that are not his.
This supports the theme of fate because what he does is determined ahead of time by something other than himself. “‘Oh, I didn’t see it anywhere,’ replied Mr. Atkinson. ‘I wanted some name, and I put down the first that came into my head’…” Mr. Atkinson says that he did not know or have a reason for using the narrators name. That it just popped into his head, even though he has never heard it before. This very innocent and random act supports the theme is fate because it supports that there is something stronger than Mr. Atkinson’s free will that is controlling what he does and the situation.
It also states in the text, “‘The best thing we can do,’ he continued, ‘is for you to stay here till twelve o’clock. We’ll go upstairs and smoke; it may be cooler inside.’ To my surprise I agreed.” This supports the theme because the other does not know why he says yes. It is something bigger than them both that is controlling what they do.

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