Question

Which of the following use/s the device of a `story within a story' with multiple narrators?

• A. A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man
• B. Wuthering Heights
• C. Emma
• D. Heart of Darkness

Hint:

Frame narratives create narrative distance and allow multiple perspectives on the same events.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is B, D

Step 1: Understanding the narrative device.
A story within a story involves embedded narration, where one narrator recounts events told by another narrator, creating layered perspectives.
Step 2: Analysis of correct options.
Wuthering Heights employs a complex narrative structure in which Mr. Lockwood narrates the story largely through the voice of Nelly Dean, resulting in multiple narrative layers.
Heart of Darkness uses a frame narrative where an unnamed narrator recounts Marlow’s oral storytelling aboard a ship, making it a classic example of embedded narration.
Step 3: Eliminating incorrect options.
A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man follows a single evolving narrative consciousness focused on Stephen Dedalus.
Emma is narrated by a third-person omniscient narrator without the use of an embedded storytelling framework.
Step 4: Conclusion.
Only Wuthering Heights and Heart of Darkness clearly use the device of a story within a story with multiple narrators.
Final Answer: (B) and (D)