Lecture 17: He, She, It—Third-Person Point of View
o A generation later, we hear a similar voice in Jane Austen,
who seems to stand halfway between the warm-blooded,
judgmental third person of the 18th century and the cooler but
still sympathetic close third person of the 20th century. Much
of 3ULGHDQG3UHMXGLFH is told in the close third person from
Elizabeth Bennet’s point of view, but there are also memorable
passages in which the author herself passes direct and
unmediated judgment.o Perhaps the most enthusiastically judgmental narrator of all time
is Charles Dickens, whose third-person narration often has great
fun at the expense of his characters and doesn’t shy away from
stern moral outrage, especially at the injustices of society.o Modern writers are no less opinionated than their
predecessors, but rather than telling the reader what to think,
most contemporary novelists prefer to stand back and let the
events of the novel and the actions and ideas of the characters
speak for them.Omniscient Third Person
z The omniscient third person is often described as godlike, but not just
because it allows the writer complete access to the created world and the
inner lives of the characters. It also allows the writer to give readers the
same range of perspectives—from the most all-encompassing views of a
community, to the most intimate exchange between two individuals, to a
character’s most private thoughts.z There’s an overlap here with plotting. As mentioned in an earlier lecture,
constructing a plot requires you to choose what to reveal to the reader
and when, and when you’re writing in this kind of third person, those
choices usually depend on which perspective you use.z The hallmark of the omniscient third person is that you can often
swoop in a single chapter—and sometimes in a single passage—from
the widest view of the story to the most intimate. A good example