Even when indirect interior monologue is present, Woolf tries to show the lack of efficiency it provides. The technique conveys its limitations. Woolf shows this idea when she writes, “there remains something that can never be conveyed to a second person except by Jacob himself” after presenting Jacob's thoughts (43). Indeed, Melvin Friedman calls Woolf's novel "the first work to rely entirely on stream of consciousness" (Snaith 142) and Anne Snaith calls it "distinctive because indirect interior monologue is deliberately not used extensively in this work" (142 ). Stream of consciousness is best for this novel as Woolf works to show characteristics and examine the idea of ​​a “stable identity” (Snaith 142). If Woolf had used her later technique of indirect interior monologue, Jacob would have been able to define his characteristics through third-person narration. This would defeat the purpose of examining the difficulty in representing identity through observation alone. Through stream of consciousness the narrator plays a distinctive role in examining Jacob from an outside perspective, admitting his ignorance and questioning his assumptions and observations. The narrator makes his lack of knowledge clear when he says,