Point of view / narrator
For additional definitions of point of view, narrator: see Glossary in Geddes, pp. 394-5
- narrators: omniscient (access to any character); limited omniscient (usually with access to only one character); observer (outside, no access); first person. NB. retreat from omniscient narrators of 19th Century (period of Realism) in modernist period in favour of more direct study of consciousness of one character
- reliable, unreliable narrators (i.e., whether information about events and judgements made are to be trusted;
- external point of view (POV) -- internal (a continuum from distant to intimate)
- discourse types (rendering speech, thought): indirect or reported, direct (as if quoting), free indirect (FID)
Example of omniscient, from George Eliot (Realism):
One of Lydgate's gifts was a voice habitually deep and sonorous, yet capable of becoming very low and gentle at the right moment. About his ordinary bearing there was a certain fling, a fearless expectation of success, a confidence in his own powers and integrity much fortified by contempt for petty obstacles or seductions of which he had had no experience. But this proud openness was made lovable by an expression of unaffected good-will. Mr Bulstrode perhaps liked him the better for the difference between them in pitch and manners; he certainly liked him the better, as Rosamond did, for being a stranger in Middlemarch. One can begin so many things with a new person!-even begin to be a better man. (Middlemarch (1871-2), from Ch. 13)
Only example in course: Flannery O'Connor, "Good Country People" (1955)
Chekhov. Plotless, "no point" (Nabokov's comment, p. 60)? Approaching Modernism
Structure; time, point of view (examples)
Episodes Time Point of view 1 Meeting at Yalta, p. 60 flashback, pp. 60-1
iterative, p. 61limited omniscient: Gurov focus 2.a Affair begins, p. 62 flashback, p. 63 sea at Oreanda, p. 64 2.b Regular meetings, then part, p. 65 iterative, p. 65 3.a Moscow routine of Gurov, p. 66 iterative, p. 66, 67 Gurov's emotions, p. 67 (FID) 3.b Travels to S--- meets Anna, p. 67 'the end', p. 69 Anna's, p. 69 4 Anna visits Moscow, p. 70 iterative, p. 70
'the end', p. 71, 72Anna's, p. 71; then both Students: Examine point of view in part I (60-61); where do shifts occur between Gurov's perspective and that of the narrator? What do they mean? Whose judgements are being expressed? You can assume it is Gurov most of the time; but when is it not?
E.g., contrast:
"He had begun being unfaithful to her long ago -- had been unfaithful to her long ago -- had been unfaithful to her often and, probably for that reason, almost always spoke ill of women . . ." (narrator; seems to hesitate here for a moment about how Gurov is to be understood)
"It seemed to him that he had been sufficiently tutored by bitter experience to call them what he pleased . . . " (Gurov; he could report this of himself if asked)
This technique of shifting point of view (several examples pp. 60-61 and beyond): unobtrusively provides appropriate (and reliable) discriminations about the character of Gurov (likeable character but distasteful behaviour and attitudes . . .)
Interpretation, overall.
Character of Gurov, change:
1) from philanderer to lover
2) from public life to private (public, p. 66; private, p. 70)
-- hence, clarifying role of true love?
Other stylistic and artistic matters
Cf. Chekhov's advice to writer:
- Beyond the commonplace, p. 352
- Compactness, p. 353
- Hero's actions not state of mind, p. 352
Document prepared September 4th 2002