Omniscient Narrator

In “The Story of an Hour”, by Kate Chopin, the story is told through the point of view of a limited omniscient narrator. The narrator knows everything that goes on, but seems to have insight into the personal thoughts and feelings of Louise, the main character, while having no such insight into the thoughts of others. In the case of those characters other than Louise, the narrator simply relays what would have been able to be seen or heard had the reader witnessed the event, while with Louise, the narrator offers insight into her emotions and thoughts.
The use of the narrator’s limited omniscience is two-fold. The first reason for the significance of the limited omniscient narration is that a form of omniscient narration is central to the story; without some version of omniscience in the narrator, the reader would be unable to understand the true feelings of Louise, and therefore the reader would be unable to understand the point of the story. It would be a somewhat confusing story if the reader had no
way of understanding Louise’s private feelings. The second reason that limited omniscient narration is important is that it focuses the story on Louise. If simple omniscient narration were used instead, it would distract from the main theme of the story, and bring unnecessary thoughts to the plot. By using limited omniscient narration, the author keeps the story focused on Louise, making the point she is trying to make easier to see and clearly the center of the story.
The point of the story would be very difficult to see without the use of a limited omniscient narrator, or at the very least an omniscient narrator.
In fact, it’s arguable that if the story were written with no insight into Louise’s thoughts, it would project the exact opposite theme, and likely not be a good story at all. With access to Louise’s thoughts, the reader can see that the point of the plot was that her lack of a husband would finally grant her freedom; for once, Louise would be able to live for herself and only for herself, something that she had wanted for some time. However, when her husband returned, all of this was torn away from her, and because she already had a heart condition, she had a heart attack and died. Without access to Louise’s thoughts, the story could be seen in an entirely different way. Without the narrator’s omniscience, it would simply be a story of a woman grieving for her dead husband, and dying from happiness when he appears
alive.
The use of the limited omniscient narrator is central to the plot of “The Story of an Hour”. The choice of narration is often overlooked as a literary device, but it should not be forgotten. In this case, the choice was clearly the correct one and it had a very positive effect on the story. Had a different form of narration been used, the story would have had much less of an impact, or it could be seen to have a different point altogether.