Narrative Perspective Stylistics 551 Lecture 26

Narrator The narrator tells the story in a novel. Novels contain simple stories which, in their telling, become complicated. There are two overlapping ways in which the novelist can complicate matters. One is by introducing complications in the content: the inclusion of a mass of details about people, places and events makes the story seem substantial and real.

The other way in which the writer can complicate matters is by the way in which he or she choose to narrate the story: a story can be told in many ways, for every narrator will see things form a different point of view. Earlier novelist like George Eliot were confident in their grasp and understanding of life, but at the end of the 19 th century, in works of Hardy, Joyce and Conrad all sorts of experiments with method of narration take place: a certain confidence disappears and suddenly the major novelists are aware of the gap between reality and interpretation of reality.

First-person narrative In a first-person narrative the central character relates the events he or she experienced. As in Dickens’s David Copperfield, this allows us a very direct insight into the character’s mind; often the experiences are viewed retrospectively, so that we are aware of the difference between the character’s immature and mature personality. In all other methods of narrative the narrator or narrators are principally observers of the events.

First-person narrative This point of view is often effective in giving a sense of closeness to the character. It can be very easy to get the reader to identify or sympathize with the main character when the reader is seeing everything through that character’s eye. That is why it lends a psychological insight into the character; revealing his/her motives, desires and feelings.

Omniscient narration In Omniscient narration a narrator who can see everything relates the story. The omniscient narrator can be unintrusive : that is to say we are not really aware of a persona telling the story because the action is presented without many explicit comments or judgments. Such an impersonal method is common in modern realistic novels, such as the works of E.M. Forster and Graham Greene, yet we do gain a sense of a narrator from the style the author adopts.

Intrusive narrator Earlier realistic novelists, such as Jane Austen and George Eliot, use an intrusive narrator who comment on the events and the characters. Such narrators frequently point to the significance of what they are presenting often providing a moral interpretation of events and characters. The narrators in Austen and Eliot are constructive figures, but the intrusive narrator can be disruptive, particularly in comic novels.

Examples The narrator in Thackeray’s Vanity Fair is self mocking, as if saying that life is more complicated than his view of life. This leads us on to a standard complicated technique that can be found in novels. When the narrator at all self-conscious, or complicated, as when several narrators are used for when a character on the fringe of the events relates the story, the impression that comes across is that the events are more puzzling than any interpretation can do justice to.

Examples Emily Bronte in Wuthering Heights presents an extraordinary story which is conveyed to us by two main characters; they are characters involved in the story but incapable of appreciating its significance. Conrad in Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim uses a character called Marlow as narrator: he is an intelligent man but his understanding of what he perceives is limited, simply because, like anyone, he interprets event according to his own beliefs and values. Such narrators are often called unreliable narrators.

How to identify the Narrator Think of the narrative point of view as perspective form which the story is told. Ask: what is the voice the author has adapted for the story—the work’s narrator, speaker, or persona? Just as a writer creates characters, she also creates narrator of the story, so the writer speaks to us through the narrator, rather than directly as in an essay.

First person narrator uses I and we rather than he, she, they. Most often the narrator is a protagonist or one of the major characters. Sometimes may be an observer and a participant in the story. Third person Omniscient –all knowing narrator gives thoughts of characters, judgment about them, as well as details of action and dialog. Third person limited Omniscient Narrator focuses on thoughts, feeling and actions of a single major character.

1 st person: Eye witness account, gives immediacy, realism to story. Gives psychological insight Author can create dramatic irony. Narrator can be unifying element. Disadvantages: No direct interpretation by the author, Bias/limited knowledge of the narrator.

3 rd Person Omniscient: God-like narrator gives thought of character, dimension to story. Most flexible: author can control omniscience Disadvantages: Author can come between reader and story. Shifting form character to character may destroy unity

Third person limited Omniscient Realistic; we see world through one person Disadvantage Limited field of observation