The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne Barry 2010 Point of View

 The point of view of a novel is the perspective from which it is told, or the perspective of the narrator.  A novel’s point of view affects how the audience perceives the action of the story.  You can think of point of view as a pair of glasses through which the reader sees the action of the story.

Narrator  The narrator of a novel is the person telling the story.  Sometimes the narrator is a character in the story.  Other times, the narrator is simply the disembodied voice speaking the words on the page.

First person  In first person narration, the protagonist (main character) is telling the story.  First person narration uses the pronoun “I.”  When first person narration is used, the reader only knows the thoughts and feelings of the protagonist.

First person  Read this example of first person narration from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: “I began to like New York, the racy, adventurous feel of it at night and the satisfaction that the constant flicker of men and women and machines gives to the restless eye. I like to walk up Fifth Avenue and pick out romantic women from the crowd and imagine that in a few minutes I was going to enter their lives, and no one would ever know or disapprove.”

Second Person  In second person narration, the narrator directly addresses the reader.  Second person narration uses the pronoun “you.”  Second person narration is used very rarely in literature, but is used for instructions and how- to guides.

Second Person  Read this example of second person narration from Jay McInerney’s Bright Lights, Big City. “You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the morning. But here you are, and you cannot say that the terrain is entirely unfamiliar, although the details are fuzzy.”

Third Person  In third person narration, the narrator is separate from the protagonist, but the story is told from the protagonist’s viewpoint.  Third person narration uses the pronouns “he” and “she” and the characters’ names.  Third person narration is preferred for academic writing, and is the most common point of view for literature.

Third Person  Read this example of third person narration from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens “The moment Scrooge’s hand was on the lock, a strange voice called him by name, and bade him enter. He obeyed.”

Third Person Limited  In third person limited narration, the narrator only tells the thoughts and feelings of one character.  Read this example from Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls. "Robert Jordan could walk well enough himself and he knew from following him since before daylight that the old man could walk him to death. Robert Jordan trusted the man, Anselmo, so far, in everything except judgment.”

Third Person Omniscient  In third person omniscient narration, the narrator can describe the thoughts and feelings of all characters.  Thus, in the same novel, a book written from third person omniscient point of view can be written from the perspective of several different characters.

Third Person Omniscient  Read these two passages from Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. “Exactly at midnight, when Anna was still sitting at her desk finishing a letter to Dolly, she heard the measured steps of slippered feet, and Alexei Alexandrovich, washed and combed, a book under his arm, came up to her.” “The house was big, old, and Levin, though he lived alone, heated and occupied all of it. He knew that it was even wrong and contrary to his new plans, but this house was a whole world for Levin.”

Changing Point of View  How could you rewrite this passage from a new point of view? p. 39 “Knowing well her part, [Hester Prynne] ascended a flight of wooden steps, and was thus displayed to the surrounding multitude, at about the height of a man’s shoulders above the street.”