Analyzing Point of View in The Landlady

(by Meslina Rajagukguk, Rizkia Lestari, Rian Andini Nurhasanah)

Point of view is the vantage point from which a writer tells a story. A writer tells a story through the voice of a narrator. Everything you learn about the characters, events, and place in a story depends on the narrator point of view. There are three most common of point of view.
Kinds of point of views:
Omniscient
In the omniscient point of view, the narrator plays on part on the story but can tell us what all the characters are thinking and feeling as well as what is happening in other places.
It may comment on the story’s meaning, character, or events.

Third-person
There are two kinds of point of view such as:
Third person omniscient
It is a method of storytelling in which the narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of all of the characters in the story, as opposed to third person limited, which adheres closely to one character's perspective. Through third person omniscient, a writer may bring to life an entire world of characters.
Third person limited point of view
The narrator plays no part in the story but zoom in on the thought and feelings of one character. It views the actions from the vantage point of a single character, can tell us only what that single character is thinking, feeling, and observing.
First person
In the first person point of view, the narrator is a character in the story and tells the story from using the first person narrator. Participates in the action of the story, can tell us only what he or she is feeling, thinking, or observing. May or may not be objective, honest, or perceptive of what’s going in the story.


The analysis
The author knows about the first actor and the second actor.
First actor: Billy Weaver.
“Billy was seventeen years old. He was wearing a new navy‑blue overcoat, a new brown trilby hat, and a new brown suit, and he was feeling fine. He walked briskly down the street. He was trying to do everything briskly these days. Briskness, he had decided was the one common characteristic of all successful businessmen. …“

“He stopped walking. He moved a bit closer.”

“He found the guest‑book lying open on the piano, so he took out his pen and wrote down his name and address. There were only two other entries above his on the page, and, as one always does with gu­est‑boo­ks, he started to read them.”
The narrator knows about Billy’s character, looking for his describing for Billy in age, his emotion, physical, work, setting of Billy’s stay, his situation.
Second character: Landlady
“She was about forty ‑ five or fifty years old and the moment she saw him, she gave him a warm welcoming smile." Please come in," she said pleasantly. She stepped aside, holding the door wide open and Billy found himself automatically starting forward into the house. The compulsion or, more accurate­ly, the desire to follow after her into that house was extra­ordinari­ly strong. "I saw the notice in the window," he said holding himself back. …“

“She seemed terribly nice. She looked exactly like the mother of one's best schoolfriend welcoming one into the house to stay for the Christmas holidays.”

“She was halfway up the stairs, and she paused with one hand on the stairrail, turning her head and smiling down at him with pale lips.”
The narrator knows all about Landlady’s character, such as physical, situation, her feeling, and her body languages.
The author is also knowing about the setting and situation of the story, it is pointed by:

“…had travelled down from London on the slow afternoon train, with a change at Swindon on the way, and by the time he got to Bath it was about nine o'clock in the evening and the moon was coming up out of a clear starry sky over the houses opposite the station entrance.”

“There were no shops on this wide street that he was walking along, only a line of tall houses on each side, all of them identical. They had porches and pillars and four or five steps going up to their front doors, and it was obvious that once upon a time they had been very swanky residence. But now, even in the darkness, he could see that the paint was peeling from the woodwork on their doors and windows, and that the handsome white facades were cracked and blotchy from neglect.”
According to the analysis above, we agree that this short story used an omniscient point of view.