Point of View

Point of View means that the story is told through the eyes and mouth of a certain
person; the story can change considerably, depending on who is telling it.
First person narrator:
Story is told from the inside; narrator is a participant in the action
Narrator is often the protagonist or minor character; we see only what he/she sees,
in the way that he/she sees it.
Advantage: first person narrator has immediacy and a sense of life.
Disadvantage: the author may be frustrated in that he/she can only include things
that the narrator would be expected to know; also, we are locked within the mind of
the narrator.
Third person narrator:
usually a nameless narrator who can be identified with the author.
omniscient narrator: godlike narrator; he/she can enter character's minds and know
everything that is going on, past, present, and future.
Advantage: very natural technique; author is, after all, omniscient regarding his
work.
Disadvantage: unlifelike; narrator knows and tells all; is truly a convention of
literature
Viewpoint character: third person narration that is limited to the point of view of
one character in the novel; may be a protagonist or a minor character.
Objective viewpoint: limited narrative, like a drama; narrator can only describe
words and actions that can be seen objectively and cannot get into character's
thoughts
Combination of narrative techniques is possible in a novel.
Tense of narration is important; action narrated in the present can be more dramatic
than past tense narration.
completare de la ymar:
The concept of narrative person is not a grammatical one, but refers to whether the
narrator is within or outside the world of the story: the first-person narrator is within,
whereas the third-person narrator is outside the world of the story.

first person - actional participant (a): the main character tells his own story; eg.
Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders, Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn
first person - observer ( : the story is told by an observer-participant (who may
be a minor character); eg. Emily Bront's Wuthering Heights, F. Scott Fitzgerald's
The Great Gatsby

 third person - objective (a): the observer is `objective', in the sense that no direct
account of what it thinks or perceives is given; instead of the objective third-person
narrator, this type of narrator is sometimes called, quite simply, the objective
narrator; a frequently cited example here is Ernest Hemingway's short story, Hills
Like White Elephants
third person - omniscient ( : the omniscient or omniscient third-person narrator
can move from place to place and backwards and forwards in time, and does not
merely concentrate on the consciousness of one character; this type of narrator is
usually associated with the novel, and can be found, among numerous other
examples, in novels such as Jane Austen's Emma and Charles Dickens' Bleak House.
third person - limited : the limited omniscient or limited third-person narrator has
some of the abilities of an omniscient narrator, but limits its focus, in relation to
external description and to the revelation of consciousness, to only one character;
this type of narrator is commonly found in the short story, as there is less room to
explore the consciousness of other characters in this genre, but is also associated
with the novels of Henry James.

Narrative Theory: A Brief Introduction

Chapter 7: The Narrator

7.1 Is The Narrator Necessary?

The narrator appears to be necessary for all narratives that use language. However, it can be
argued that it may not be necessary in narratives which are not encoded in language, and which

depend on the visual element. For example, film and drama may not have a narrator, at least as
the term is understood in prose fiction (but see the section below for a counter-argument; see also
sections 23-4 below). It has also been argued by Chatman (1978: 152) that the narrator is an
optional element of all narratives; he even regards the narrator as not existing in certain types of
narratives which use language, such as written records and soliloquys .

7.2 The Narrator is Not the Author

The narrator is not the author. However, we may face a problem with autobiographies, as the
author in an autobiography may very well be equivalent to the narrator. But even for
autobiographies, it can be argued that the author usually tries to project himself or herself as
someone quite different from what he or she actually is, in which case the distinction between the
author and narrator remains valid. In autobiographies, the narrator is the author's projection of
himself in the work, and is not always equivalent to the real flesh-and-blood author.
In this regard, the underlying problem may of course not be directly connected with
autobiography itself as a genre, but in the distinction between fiction and non-fiction; while it is
easy to postulate -- with reference to third-person narratives -- a narrator which is merely a
technical device used to tell the story, it is more difficult to postulate such a device for a nonfictional work, as everything or everyone in such a work must exist within the real world, or at
least must at least have an appeal to existing beings within the real world.

7.3 First- and Third-Person Narrators

Traditionally, narrators in prose fiction are classified in terms of two broad divisions: first- and
third-person narrators.
Narrative person refers to whether the
The terms first- and third-person narrators in
narrator is within or outside the world of
narrative analysis should not, strictly speaking, be the story:
viewed in relation to the first- and third-person
The first-person narrator is within,
pronouns in language . The comparison of such
whereas the third-person narrator is
terms in narrative analysis with corresponding
outside the world of the story.
features in language
may create problems, although it may sometimes be helpful if one is not too rigid in one's
comparison (see section 4 below).

The concept of narrative person is not a grammatical one, but refers to whether the narrator is
within or outside the world of the story: the first-person narrator is within, whereas the thirdperson narrator is outside the world of the story.
Strictly speaking, one should use the pronoun it for the third-person narrator, as the thirdperson narrator is not a personage within the world of the story, unlike the first-person narrator,
in relation to whom he or she can be used.

7.4 Grammatical and Narrative Persons

The lack of correspondence between grammatical and narrative persons may result in the thirdperson narrator using the first person pronoun to refer to itself, and (less frequently) the firstperson narrator using the third person pronoun to refer to himself or herself. The use of the
first-person pronoun by the third-person narrator is in fact quite common; in this regard, we
may mention here that the complete suppression of the narratorial use of "I" is called figural
narration by Stanzel (cited by Martin, 1986: 133).
Due to the lack of correspondence between narrative and pronominal persons, the second-person
narrator is not frequently found, especially when one looks at prose narratives. The use of the
second person pronoun by the narrator to refer to the other person who is (usually a
hypothetical) character in the story, does not necessarily entail that we have a second person
narrative. It may still be defined in terms of first-person and third-person narratives, as the
question is really whether the narrator is within or outside the world of the story. Arguably
however, some interactive narratives, where readers or players are involved in the world of the
narrative while still not actually belonging to it, such as in some interactive electronic fiction ,
can be described as second-person narratives (for other possibilities, see Fludernik , 1994).

7.5 Narrators: The Traditional Scheme

According to one scheme in the traditional approach, there are five main types of narrators:

first person - actional participant (a): the main character tells his own story; eg. Daniel
Defoe's Moll Flanders , Mark Twain 's Huckleberry Finn

 first person - observer (b): the story is told by an observer-participant (who may be a minor
character); eg. Emily Bront 's Wuthering Heights , F. Scott Fitzgerald 's The Great Gatsby

third person - objective (a): the observer is `objective', in the sense that no direct account of
what it thinks or perceives is given; instead of the objective third-person narrator, this type of
narrator is sometimes called, quite simply, the objective narrator; a frequently cited example
here is Ernest Hemingway 's short story, Hills Like White Elephants
third person - omniscient (b): the omniscient or omniscient third-person narrator can move
from place to place and backwards and forwards in time, and does not merely concentrate on the
consciousness of one character; this type of narrator is usually associated with the novel, and can
be found, among numerous other examples, in novels such as Jane Austen 's Emma and Charles
Dickens ' Bleak House .
third person - limited (c): the limited omniscient or limited third-person narrator has some
of the abilities of an omniscient narrator, but limits its focus, in relation to external description
and to the revelation of consciousness, to only one character; this type of narrator is commonly
found in the short story, as there is less room to explore the consciousness of other characters in
this genre, but is also associated with the novels of Henry James and other long narratives .

7.6 First-Person Narrators: Distinctive Features

There are some distinctive features of first-person narrators, some of which make them different
from those associated with third-person narrators.
One difference from the third-person narrator, is the enhancement in the immediacy and in the
sense of reality of the story when the first-person narrator is used. Unlike a story told by the
omniscient or limited third-person narrator, there does seem to be less opportunity for the direct
interpretation by the author of the events in the story in a first-person narrative. This may be
viewed either as an advantage or disadvantage over the two other types of narrative. One
advantage is that this does not allow the author to present his/her ideological perspective too
strongly, thus preventing the story from being too dogmatic. The ideology presented is that of
the narrator, and not directly the author's. But the lack of a clear authorial viewpoint in this type
of narrative may make the story lose its sense of coherence or purpose. The first-person narrator
may also face the problem of the character going beyond the sensitivity, knowledge, or the
powers of language which have already been ascribed to him or her by the author.
A first-person narrative, when compared to the third-person narrative, is usually better for the
study of blunted human perceptivity, as the narrator does not know (or is incapable of knowing)
the full import of the events reported, but which the reader has a better knowledge of. As such,

the first-person narrator usually views himself as good, or at least, as behaving correctly, and
doing the best under the circumstances. But this is how the first-person narrator usually likes to
picture himself or herself to be, and not what he or she actually is. The first-person narrator
may be unreliable: in fact s/he usually is, as he or she is supposed to be a human being (and
hence fallible), and not, like the third-person narrator, merely a technical device.

7.7 The Omniscient Narrator

An omniscient narrative is the most flexible of all narrative viewpoints, as it has the widest
scope. It is also widely used in the novel. However, this point of view can destroy the illusion of
reality, as no one can go from one place to another, and to read people's minds whenever the
story demands it.

7.8 The Limited Omniscient Narrator

The limited omniscient narrator places the focus on a single character, sometimes showing
more knowledge of the character than the character himself or herself. As noted earlier, this
point of view is commonly found in short stories, for the simple technical reason that there is not
much breadth in the short story to allow the author to explore other consciousnesses. It was also
noted that it was associated with the novels of Henry James.
Although figural narration (see section 4) is clearly a feature of the objective third-person
narration, it is is also associated, to some extent, with the limited third-person narrator, as it
generally uses the pronoun I to refer to itself less frequently than the omniscient third-person
narrator .

7.9 The Objective Point of View

In the objective point of view (or dramatic point of view), the narrator is like a roving sound
camera and reports only what is seen and heard. It cannot comment, interpret or enter the
characters' minds. The reader here is like a spectator at a movie. The objective point of view
forces the reader to make an interpretation of the events of the story, as the author does not

explain or interpret. As a consequence, the story may lack coherence and becomes as inchoate as
real life itself.
The objective point of view is heavily reliant on external action and dialogue. It may have the
most speed and the most action when compared to the other points-of-view. However, one
consequence of this is that the narrative may become superficial and may lack psychological
depth. The idea of scene, where story time is equal to discourse time (see chapter 3 section 4 and
chapter 5 section 10), is commonly associated with the objective point of view.
The objective point of view has severe limitations, as no story is purely objective. The strife for
objectivity may also be pointless, and may result in the story lacking in meaningfulness. This
point of view is also difficult to sustain, and works best, if it works at all, in short stories. In this
regard, it has been noted, in a response to Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants , that it may
be great for a short story or play but lousy for a novel.

7.10 Narrative Reliability

It has been claimed that the concept of reliability, which gives rise to the concept of the
unreliable narrator in literary criticism, may be applicable only to the first-person narrator, and
not to the third- person narrator (see Martin 1986 141). This is arguable. The third-person
narrator of Washington Irving 's Rip van Winkle , for example, is arguably unreliable . However,
even if we disagree with this, or are not entirely sure about it, we can say that as far as the truth
of observation statements is concerned, the omniscient narrator is, in relative terms, usually
more reliable than the first-person.

7.11 Narrative Intrusiveness

The idea of the intrusiveness or obtrusiveness of the narrator is usually applied to the thirdperson narrator, unless one deals with what can be described as the extradiegetic first-person
narrator (see section 15 below), or with a first-person narrator with supernatural powers.
However, there is a difference in the degree of intrusiveness between the three types of thirdperson narrators: the objective narrator of course, is the least intrusive, while the omniscient
narrator the most.
Intrusiveness is not always negative nor is it always associated with traditional narratives. It may
make the narrative more coherent by linking all the narrative strands together, or it may serve a
comic/ironic function, especially when the narrator reveals certain enigmatic features of a

character at strategic points in a story. The intrusive narrator can be found, for example, in many
eighteenth-century novels including the novels of Henry Fielding , as well as in more
experimental novels, such as in The French Lieutenant's Woman by the twentieth-century
author John Fowles . In the words of Margaret Drabble , who uses the intrusive narrator herself in
her novels, the narrator is part of the story and can intervene whenever he or she wants.
The supposed disadvantages of intrusiveness must be measured against the problems created
when the narrator fails to comment or give a perspective of any kind. The objective narrator's
almost total lack of intrusiveness for example, must be measured against one of the weaknesses
of objective narration itself: the tendency to leave us with no focus whatsoever, or with no
guidelines at all on how to interpret certain events. The argument for this lack of focus or
interpretive guidelines is that a story will be more subtle without them. But the so-called
subtlety may be dependent on cultural factors, which means that people who do not belong to
the same culture are incapable of appreciating it.

7.12 Suspense and Point of View

Suspense may be created by the narrators ignorance of certain future events in a story or by the
narrator's refusal to reveal these events in advance, even when he/she/it has prior knowledge of
these events. In both cases, the narrator's inability or refusal to reveal information prior to its
occurrence in narrative discourse is tied to the consideration that a better story can be told by not
revealing too much earlier.

7.13 Point of View and Focalization

It has been noted that the English term point of view is ambiguous . In addition to the meaning of
the term in non-specialised language, it does not, in its more specialised literary usage, strictly
refer only to the narrator's perspective, but also to the perspective of the speaker, or teller of the
story (i.e., that it includes both the elements of seeing and saying). For these reasons, some
scholars have preferred the term focalization introduced by Genette in relation to perspective.
Focalization is used instead of perspective because the latter word is more associated with the
viewing of physical objects, whereas such an association is less evident in relation to the word
focalization, which is more easily associated with the focus on non-perceptible entities (e.g.
thoughts). However, this term can be criticised for the same reason: for example, the use of the
term focal length in photography, which refers to the viewing of the physical and not the
psychological realm.

The subject of focalization (i.e. the one who focalises), is called the focalizer.
In Genettes terms,
character-bound focalization is called internal focalization, whereas
non-character-bound focalization is called external focalization:
Another way to formulate this is to say
that the focalization of the first-person narrator is internal, whereas
that of the third-person narrator
may be internal (in some stretches of an omniscient or limited third person narrative) or
external (almost invariably the case in an objective third-person narrative).

Table 7.1: Internal and External Focalization

internal focalization
external focalization

first-person narrative
some stretches of ominiscient and limited
omniscient narratives
objective third-person narrative
some stretches of ominiscient and limited
omniscient narratives

Focalization not only concerns the distinction between internal and external, but is also a matter
of degree. Genette uses the term zero focalisation for the God-like knowledge of the omniscient
third-person narrator. What is seen and known by the omniscient narrator has the appearance of
being completely transparent without the apparent intervention of a focaliser, whether it be the
character or narrator.

7.14 Alternative Terms to First- and Third-Person Narrators:

Bal
Some scholars have avoided the traditional terms first-person and third-person narrators.

Bal for example, prefers the terms

external narrator, for a narrator which never explicitly refers to itself as a character (instead
of third-person narrator) and
character-bound narrator for a narrator who does (instead of first-person narrator).

Table 7.2: Bals Alternative Terms

Conventional Terms
third-person narrator
first-person narrator

Bal's Terms
Definitions of Bal's Terms
external narrator
a narrator which never explicitly refers to itself as a c
character-bound narrator a narrator who explicitly refers to himself or herself a

7.15 Alternative Terms to First- and Third-Person Narrators:

Genette
The more famous alternatives to the terms first- and third-person narrators are those of Genette.
Genette uses the following terms:
homodiegetic for a story in which the narrator is present in the story he tells, and
heterodiegetic
Genette also uses the terms
extradiegetic for a narrative in which the narrator is superior, in the sense of being at least one
level higher than the story itself (the narrative now is outside the story), and hence having a
good or virtually omniscient knowledge of the story he tells; and
intradiegetic for one in which the narrator is at the same level as the story itself (the narrative
now, although occurring towards the end, is still technically within the world of the story); the
intradiegetic narrator's knowledge is limited, as it is bound to the knowledge limitations of a
particular character.

<Table 7.3: Genettes Narrators

narrator
features

homodiegetic
heterodiegetic
extradiegetic
intradiegetic

a story in which the narrator is present in the story he narrates

a story in which the narrator is absent from the story he narrates
narrative in which the narrator is superior, in the sense of being at least one level hig
than the story world, and hence has a good or virtually complete knowledge of the s
narrates; and
narrative in which the narrator is immersed within the same level as that of the story
and has limited or incomplete knowledge of the story he narrates.

7.16 Does Genette Make the Terms First- and Third-Person

Narrators Unnecessary?
In spite of Genette's criticism of the terms first- and third-person narratives, and his introduction
of new terms, the more traditional terms do seem to be still operable (at least in the way they
have been defined here), and in fact, they may be able to further refine Genette's concepts. For
example, both the first-person homodiegetic and first-person heterodiegetic narratives are
possible; the same can be said about the terms first-person heterodiegetic and third-person
heterodiegetic.
If a homodiegetic narrative is one in which the narrator is present in the story he tells, a firstperson narrative is also one in which the narrator is present in the world of the story. There is a
difference here. A personage who is present in the world of the story (first-person narrator) can
either be present or absent in the story itself (i.e. can either be homodiegetic or heterodiegetic).
In other words, if a first-person narrator is not a character in the story and is outside the story
proper, then he or she is a heterodiegetic first-person narrator. If a first-person narrator is a
character (whether minor or major) within the story, then he or she is a homodiegetic firstperson narrator. The latter the homodiegetic first-person narrator is more commonly
found. A heterodiegetic first-person narrator may receive information on the story from a
secondary source, but is not actually part of it (unless, of course, there is a sub- or outer plot in
which he is involved, in which case he should be regarded as homodiegetic). Alhough a
heterodiegetic first-person narrator may be found, a heterodiegetic narrator is more commonly
a third-person narrator.

Table 7.4: Intermingling of First/Third Persons &

Homo-/Heterodiegetic
first-person narrator
either homodiegetic or heterodiegetic
heterodiegetic narrator either first-person or third-person

7.17 Levels of Narration

There are several levels or layers of narration. The following illustration will lead us to a
discussion of further terms associated with the narrator:

P
r

author

implied author

narrator

character {speaker(s)}

n
R
e

character {listener(s)}

narratee

implied reader

reader

7.18 The Implied Author

The implied author which is a concept introduced in the first edition of Wayne Booth 's The
Rhetoric of Fiction (1961) is not the same as the real author. The implied author is the
author presumed by the narrative. As such, he/she/it may not share the views of the real author.
Being a personage presumed by the narrative, the implied author does not actually exist in the
real world, and hence is not a real person like the actual author, but merely a technical device.
It has been claimed that the observation statements made by the implied author are usually
more truthful than those made by the third-person narrator; but one must view this in relative
terms, as even the implied author has been regarded as not completely reliable. The implied
author should also not be confused with the narrator. To Chatman (1978) for example, certain
literary narratives, like soliloquy and written records which as we have seen (in section 1
above), do not, to him, have narrators do have implied authors.

7.19 The Narratee

The narratee is the personage the narrator relates the story to. According to Chatman, the
narratee is optional.
In first-person narratives, the narratee is the character the narrator tells the story to. If this
personage is absent, the implied reader may be regarded as the narratee: this is especially
evident when the first-person narrator uses second person pronouns to address the implied
reader. We may mention here that the implied reader is a term popularised by Wolfgang Iser
(who has in fact written a book with the term as its title).
In third-person narratives, the narratee exists when there is a narrator telling the story to
another imaginary personage; this imaginary personage is, in effect, the narratee. In this regard,
it can be argued that the narratee can be equated to the implied reader, as the narrator uses
second person pronouns to address him/her.
Toolan (1988) however, has a more restricted definition of narratee: to him, the narratee is
always addressed by an intradiegetic narrator, in the sense that both the narrator and the
personage the narrator speaks to are within the same narrative level. However, Toolan does not
regard the narratee as belonging to the overall framework of narrative (as illustrated in relation
to the levels of narrative in section 17 above).

7.20 Sympathy between Levels

The various personages listed in section 17 may have a sympathetic relationship with one
another. There may be a sympathetic bond, for example, between the reader and narrators,
between the narrator and characters, between the implied author and the reader and so on.
Sympathy may also apply to the narrator's view of what happens in the story.

7.21 Irony
Irony may arise if there is a discrepancy (as perceived by the real reader) between

the messages sent by the various personages noted in section 17 above

the messages received by them, or,
the messages sent and received between them.

For example, there may be discrepancies, amongst other possibilities, between the messages of
the implied author and the real author, between those of the implied author and the narrator,
and between those of the real author and the narrator.
Narrative irony may also arise in the discrepancies between the messages received by the real
reader and the implied reader, by the real reader and the narratee and so on. Also, there may be
discrepancies between them. Irony viewed in these terms has been discussed by Chatman 1978:
228-237.

7.22 Boris Uspenskys Approach

Boris Uspensky (in his Poetics of Composition, 1973) has a slightly different approach to point
of view, although we can discuss his conceptions in relation to what has been discussed above.
To Uspensky, point of view can be viewed in terms of the phraseological, spatiotemporal,
psychological, and the ideological planes.
In the phraseological plane, it is expressed largely using language in order to present an
attitude.

 In the spatiotemporal plane, it is the subject's physical and temporal nearness or distance from
what is observed that is of concern, or, we should add, the spatial angle, or the subject's
appearance or concealment from what is observed.
The psychological plane can be related to first- or third-person narration: of whether the point
of view is presented through a character in the narrative (first-person), or through a device that
does not exist in the world of the story (third-person).
The ideological plane has to do with the assumption of a characters perspective by the
narrator.
The four planes are of course inter-related, and may converge or inter-connected patterns may be
seen in them. There is a convergence of the psychological and ideological planes, for example,
in first-person narration.

7.23 Does the Narrator Exist in Drama?

It can be argued that the narrator does not exist in drama. But we can say this only in the sense
of a clear-cut personage telling the story for us, and in fact, even if we take this definition, there
are instances of overt narrators in drama. The narrator is also defined (at least in the traditional
Anglo-Saxon approach) in terms of the perspective given to us in relation to a story (see section
13 above). Thus the concept of the narrator is not clearly distinguished from that of point of
view. In this light, it is difficult to dismiss the dramatic narrator (or at least a related concept)
completely. In this regard, we can see that the objective third-person narrator in prose fiction, or
what is also known as the dramatic third-person narrator, is still regarded (at least traditionally)
as a narrator, and not summarily dismissed.

7.24 How about the Narrator in Film?

If we dismiss the narrator from drama, we have to dismiss it from film as well. But most
scholars believe that some kind of narration is at work in film, even though it is not strictly or
faithfully viewed in terms of first- and third-person narrators. The terms used in film theory in
relation to the narrator are camera-eye narration and voice-over narration (or related terms),
although what complicates matters is that something similar to first- and third-person narration in
written narratives also finds its way into cinematic narrative. (For more discussion, see sections
20-23 and 25 of chapter 11.)

200410; last revised: 11 October 2011.