Who is the narrator, can she or he read minds, and, more importantly, can we trust her or him?
Third Person (Omniscient)
This is a textbook third person omniscient narrator – we have a privileged view inside the minds of most of the characters, and Austen's strong narratorial voice takes us in and out of the people that populate this novel. However, the narration tends to focus our perspective through Elinor's thoughts most often, and we find our own opinions most clearly influenced by hers. Notably, Austen is primarily concerned with showing us the female perspective here – though we occasionally get to see "inside" Edward or John, we mostly stick close to the women in the novel, and get to know them better than anyone else.