The Invalid's Story

The frame story and the first-person narrative style establish the narrator of “The Invalid’s Story” as the protagonist, although Thompson provides most of the action and dialogue. Readers know little about the narrator beyond the information provided in the frame story—that he is a bachelor of 41 who has lost his health and is dying as a result of the strange story he has to tell. Much can be gleaned, however, from his first-person thoughts, his scant dialogue, and his reactions to Thompson’s actions.

Above all, he is gullible. He never imagines that the smell in the train car could come from anything but the pine box he believes to hold the body of his friend Hackett. He (and Thompson) allow their imaginations to run away with them to such a point that their health is severely compromised. The story provides several points at which the narrator could have discovered the true origin of the smell: when he first sees a white box identical to his own; when a stranger “skips” into the express car and sets a package down on the supposed coffin-box; and when the two attempt to budge the box, bending directly over the package. The story’s dramatic irony depends on this gullibility.

The narrator is also a good, kind friend. When he hears of Hackett’s death and his last wish to have his remains transported to his parents in Wisconsin, the narrator resolves to “start at once” (Paragraph 2). Throughout the story, he refers to Hackett as his poor departed friend; he sighs and weeps over his loss and is inclined to suffer the corpse’s supposed odor in silence. He shows kindness to Thompson as well, helping to revive him as needed and going along with all the expressman’s suggestions.

The author contrasts the narrator and Thompson through the use of dialogue and action. Most of the narrator’s dialogue is paraphrased; his longest direct speech is “Two or three days” (Paragraph 17). In addition, his only contribution to mitigating the smell is the idea of smoking cigars; all the other ideas come from Thompson. The contrast between the characters allows Thompson’s personality and colorful speech to shine, but it also characterizes the narrator as someone meant to tell a story rather than someone who did something worth telling a story about.