This brings the focus in on this one select character and makes the story much more personal. Also, the narrator often takes on the attitudes of the point of view character, assuming that the character’s beliefs about the events of the story are true. By putting limitations on what the reader is able to know, suspense and mystery become much more available to the writer. Austen’s PRIDE AND PREJUDICE is told in third person limited, with Elizabeth Bennet serving as the point of view character. The writer stays by the side of this character, so the story is limited to this one person’s experiences, and the narrator tells the story through this one character’s eyes and mind. THIRD PERSON LIMITED is similar to omniscient, except the writer can only access the thoughts and feelings of one character. The reader may become confused by an apparent inconsistency from shifting points of view, and the story may lose its realism by revealing so much more than what is experienced by the reader “in real life.” For one, the writer may come between her reader and her story by offering too many interpretations of events. However, there are certain inherent dangers to omniscient POV. Third person omniscient gives the writer the most flexibility, and, when used well, it can enable a story to capture both depth and breadth. This happens in the short story “The Most Dangerous Game,” by Richard Connell, where the POV shifts from Rainsford to Zaroff near the end of the story. Other times, a story might be told by a narrator that confines his observations to only one character at a time. Some narrators may reveal the thoughts of all the characters but one, which raises the mystery and significance of the “unknown” character. However, this doesn’t necessarily need to be the case. In this example, the writer is fairly liberal with her knowledge of all the characters. Gretel dropped breadcrumbs behind her as she went, knowing that her bumbling brother couldn’t be counted on to find his way home from the outhouse, let alone from the middle of the woods.Īhead of them, an old witch waited, her stomach rumbling at the thought of what a delicious dinner the two plump children would make.” “Hansel walked ahead of Gretel after all, he knew he belonged in the front because Gretel was just a girl. Italics are used to show the places the narrator conveys knowledge of a character’s thoughts or feelings: Here’s an example of a scene from the classic story Hansel and Gretel told in third person omniscient POV. Unlike third person limited or first person, the writer isn’t tied to what a single character sees or experiences. THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT may appear to a writer as the simplest means of telling a story, because the reader can know the thoughts of all the characters and therefore the writer can take the reader to any scene in the story and reveal as much – or as little – of the story as needed. There are four basic choices when it comes to POV: The point of view (POV) from which a story is told answers more than the simple question, “Who tells the story?” It determines “How much is the narrator allowed to know?” and “To what extent can the narrator perceive the characters’ thoughts and emotions and share them with the reader?” There are few decisions a writer can make that will have a stronger influence on their story than the choice of point of view.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |