The first thing that attracted my attention when I read this short story was the absence of quotation marks. As a result, the dialogue and the narration (which also includes the narration thoughts as this short story was written in the first person's point of view) were not distinguished from one another. This omission of quotation marks created ambiguity. For an example, "Don't call me a nice man to her. I'm here to look at her throat on the chance that she might have diphtheria and possibly die of it," may be the doctor's thoughts or the continuation of his speech to Mrs. Olson. Even though I could never pinpoint if the phrase was his thought or his speech, I was introduced to his character and how he viewed the situation.
The use of the first person's point of view was advantageous as I could read into the protagonist's thoughts, but it also made the scene unreliable. It was only viewed from the doctor's point of view, making the doctor's character unreliable as well. The whole scene might even be his imagination! If I were to judge the scene with my stereotypical thoughts towards a doctor, I would not have imagined that he would speak or think as he did in the short story. Furthermore, I was not introduced to the insights of the other characters. Even the interpretation of the girl's thoughts were through the doctor's mind!
The doctor's character was very developed in this short story. His character extended beyond the stereotypical all-good doctor. I was introduced to the insight of the protagonist as a doctor. Despite his noble job, he did not like to be called him a "nice man". He separated himself from his work as he smiled in his "most professional manner". Even though the act of treating patients and curing them of their diseases was "nice", he wanted to keep that entirely professionally. Deep inside, he thought, "It was a pleasure to attack her."
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