Narrative Voice: Understanding Point of View in Storytelling
Point of View as Narrative Voice
In both descriptive and narrative discourse, a voice explains the sequence of events. The narrator is the voice we hear describing settings, characters, and events. The narrator is perhaps the most important technique created by the author to dispense information about events, characters, and settings to readers or viewers.
The role of the narrator in descriptive and narrative discourse is paramount because they decide what to tell or conceal about the story, manipulating the information.
Two other powerful narrative techniques are:
- Point of view of the narrator: the way of telling the story.
- The methods of presentation of the speech and thoughts of the characters.
In literary studies, the term “Point of view” can be understood in at least two senses:
- World view, ideology.
- Narrative technique.
In the first sense, “narrative point of view” involves ideology, assumptions, and beliefs, and in this case, it is a synonym for opinions or attitudes.
In the second sense, it refers to the relation between the narrator and the story, that is, the techniques that show the stance (position) they have chosen in telling their narrative.
However, both meanings—the sense of opinions or attitudes and the sense of “narrative technique”—may, on occasion, overlap or be closely interconnected.
The narrator’s point of view is actually a narrative technique in which they may adopt different perspectives or points of view to tell the story.
The number of points of view probably has no limits; however, two large groups can be made: one for the single point of view, also called “limited point of view,” and another for multiple points of view, also called “combined points of view.”
Single Point of View
The omniscient narrator: An all-knowing narrator able to “peer into” the private thoughts of all characters. This narrator knows everything going on in the story. For example, the narrator can describe internal emotions and reasoning that would not be visible to an ordinary person. The ability to explain the emotions, motivations, and thoughts inside the characters’ minds makes this an omniscient narrator.
Example: In Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones.
The first-person narrator: The narrator is an “I” (occasionally a “we”) who speaks from their subjective position. That narrator is usually a character in the story who interacts with other characters. We see those interactions through the narrator’s eyes, and we can’t know anything the narrator doesn’t know. For example: Defoe’s Moll Flanders or Robinson Crusoe.
Third-person narrator: A narrative or mode of storytelling in which the narrator is not a character within the events related but stands ‘outside’ those events. In a third-person narrative, all characters within the story are referred to as ‘he,’ ‘she,’ or ‘they.’ However, this does not prevent the narrator from using the first person ‘I’ or ‘we’ in commentary on the events and their meaning. Third-person narrators are often omniscient or ‘all-knowing’ about the events of the story, but they may sometimes appear to be restricted in their knowledge of these events. Third-person narrative is by far the most common form of storytelling.
The fringe narrator: Is also a fictional character like the first-person narrator, but their role in the events of the plot is minimal or irrelevant, as they stand on the outskirts or borders of the action. Their main function is to observe, and when they take a hand in the plot, their role is a minor one.
Intrusive “author” or authorial intrusion: Many stories, especially in literature, alternate between the first and third person. In this case, an author will move back and forth between a more omniscient third-person narrator to a more personal first-person narrator. Omniscient point of view is also referred to as alternating point of view because the story sometimes alternates between characters. Often, a narrator using the first person will try to be more objective by also employing the third person for important action scenes, especially those in which they are not directly involved or in scenes where they are not present to have viewed the events in the first person.
Multiple Points of View
Epistolary novel: With letters as its usual modality, it can add greater realism and verisimilitude to a story, chiefly because it mimics the workings of real life.
Chinese boxes: Are a set of boxes of graduated size, each fitting inside the next larger box. In literature, a Chinese box structure refers to a novel or drama that is told in the form of a narrative inside a narrative, giving views from different perspectives.
Bouncing points of view and alternate narrators: One variation of alternate narrators is the shift from first to third-person narrators. Many stories, especially in literature, alternate between the first and the third person.