close reading mark on wall
...on the wall. She is not sure and thinks it 'perhaps' might have been in January. This 'perhaps' gives the reader a feeling that this narrator is not very reliable or not a voice of authority, if she cannot even remember when her own story took place. After reminiscing about some insignificant objects that she saw around her at that time, such as the fire and the image of a 'round glass bowl on the mantelpiece' full of 'chrysanthemums' she finally decides that 'it must have been the winter time.' We are also introduced in the first paragraph to some characteristics of this mark on the wall. The narrator seems interested in what this mark is and the reader is also curious of what this 'small round mark, black upon the white wall' could be. After the unreliable narration of when the story took place, the reader does not have much enthusiasm to want to continue the story other than to find out what the mysterious black mark on the wall is. We also learn that the narrator might not be alone as 'we had just finished our tea' suggest someone else might be in the room. This other person is mentioned in the last paragraph. The other person in this story stands up or enters the room in the last paragraph and has a dialogue with our narrator telling us that the mark on the wall was a...