1st Person Advantages Offers immediacy and reality Excellent opportunity for dramatic irony and studies in blunted human perceptivity May give a straightforward judgment Can give own opinion through narrator Disadvantages Offers no opportunity for direct interpretation by the author because he/she is a character Narrator may be limited

3rd Person Omniscient Advantages Know ALL Knows a minimum of what two or more characters think and feel Most flexible point of view Permits widest scope Enables the author to achieve breadth and depth Good for suspense Disadvantages Most easy to abuse Narrator may come between the reader and the story Continual shifting from character to character may cause a breakdown in coherence or unity Can destroy illusion of reality that story attempts to create

3rd Person Limited Advantages Know everything about the character’s thinking and feeling Approximates more closely, conditions of real life Offers a ready-made unifying element since all from 1 character Additional device of characterization Disadvantages Limits reader to this character’s perceptions and has no direct knowledge of what other characters are thinking/feeling May get a biased observation

3rd Person Objective Advantages Roving sound camera Can go anywhere; most speeds; most action Purest Form – entirely dialogue Readers can draw their own inferences Disadvantages Can record only what is seen and heard Can’t comment, interpret, or enter the character’s mind. Must infer what the character thinks and feels, relies heavily on external action and dialogue Offers no opportunities for direct interpretation by the author