THIRD-PERSON NARRATIVE

Contents

Third person, limited

Third person, omniscient/dramatic

See also

Third person, limited

Main articles: Third person limited omniscient

This style of narration is similar to first-person in that readers are privy to the thoughts and emotions of only a single character. In fact, its perspective is essentially the same as a first-person narrative; the key difference is simply grammatical. Usually third-person limited demands a certain amount of empathy from the reader, since it allows the reader to understand why a character takes the actions he does. It allows for more formal prose, since it follows the thought processes of the central character, but is not constrained to the character's exact diction. It also allows the narrator to present the character's experiences out of order. For example, the narration could begin in media res and the narrator could gradually fill in the backstory while intermittently advancing the plot.
A third-person limited narrator is disembodied. In other words, the narrator is not a character or intermediary storyteller providing his own input. Rather, the narrator functions more like a lens through which the reader can view the action. The narrator provides the voice but no insight outside that of the central character.
In ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'', by James Joyce, the narrative is limited to the experiences of Stephen Dedalus.
Thomas Pynchon's ''Gravity's Rainbow'' remains in third person throughout, but at various times, it is third-person limited inside the mind of a particular character, and not always a sane one. For example, in one chapter, we have an extremely unreliable third-person narrator describing an entire ship that is somehow the "toilet" of the German Navy; the effective point of view is that of minor character Horst Achtfaden, locked in the toilet of a ship and going crazy.

Third person, omniscient/dramatic

An omniscient narrator, as in more limited third-person forms, is also disembodied; it takes no actions and has no physical form in or out of the story. But, being omniscient, it witnesses all events, even some that no characters witness. The omniscient narrator is privy to all things past, present and future - as well as the thoughts of all characters. As such, an omniscient narrator offers the reader a birds-eye view about the story. The story can focus on any character at any time and on events where there is no character. The third-person omniscient narrator is usually the most reliable narrator; however, the omniscient narrator may offer judgments and express opinions on the behavior of the characters. This was common in the 19th century, as seen in the works of Jane Austen, Leo Tolstoy or George Eliot. A more modern example is Lemony Snicket. In some unusual cases, the reliability and impartiality of the narrator may be in question.
==Third person, objective==
The author does not enter a single mind, but instead records what can be seen and heard. This type of narrator is like a camera or a fly on the wall. This is used by journalists in articles—it only gives the facts, from one fixed perspective.

See also

★ Third-person interpretation