Mary E. Braddon's The Cold Embrace

“The Cold Embrace” by Mary E. Braddon is a wonderfully tragic short story of a young man’s denial and guilt till the end of his life. Braddon accomplishes this by using Omniscient narration to not only showing us his guilt, denial, and struggle; but also able to present his spiral into a depression filled with delusions and guilt that eventually lead him to lose his mind and perish from outside a first person perspective.
Using Omniscient narration Braddon allows us to delve into the mind of the protagonist without actually being in his perspective. This literary device is displayed when the narrator said “But he is a genius and a metaphysician—grief, true grief, is not for one such as he.” Which gave a deeper look into the protagonists mind and him trying to convince himself that he “he was no worse off than he was yesterday.” and showed him struggling with the loss and attempting to tell himself he was well. (Braddon 140)This device was further utilized when the narrator continually stated “he has forgotten” when directed at thoughts of his cousin, which the repetition of it displays his false lack of recollection of her. (Braddon 141) The

protagonist is in denial and constantly trying to coax himself that he has forgotten the event that shook him so. This excellent use of Omniscient narration was able to proclaim the feelings and emotions of the protagonist without blatantly telling us how he felt.
Due to Omniscient narration the narrator is able to get information across that readers wouldn’t otherwise have access to if in a different point of view .Since the story isn’t exclusively told through the perspective of the protagonist, readers are able to get information that the protagonist is continually going senile over the course of the story.

Omniscient narration is supported when the protagonist feels the cold arms clasped around his neck, it is stated that “It is not ghostly, this embrace, for it is palpable to the touch—it cannot be real, for it is invisible.” Considering how it was written, the statement does not seem to be from the character’s point of view and therefore obtaining knowledge that even though the protagonist feels the cold arms, in reality are not actually there and is a figment of his

mind.
Mary E. Braddon’s The Cold Embrace exemplifies the use of omniscient narration to tell information that other points of view would not. The cold arms, constant reiteration of false recollection, and self-denial are all seen by Braddon’s use of omniscient narration. If it wasn’t for this point of view readers would be without the clues scattered throughout the story to come to conclusions of insanity and denial.