Narrative Method

The author may select either of the following four types of narrators:
the main character, a minor character, the omniscient (all-knowing)
author, the observer author.
Writing in the first person, the author takes on the role of a character
(or characters) and tells the story ‘from the inside’. This ‘first-hand
testimony’ increases the credibility.
A third-person narrative offers different possibilities. The author or
narrator adopts a position which is ‘godlike’(omniscient type) or
becomes a ‘fly on the wall’ (observer type). The omniscient author can
wander away from the subject of the narrative to state his personal
view or to make a general statement. This statement is known as the
author’s digression.
Home Activity 1:
1- First person) The French Lieutenant’s Woman
by John Fowles
I arrived at the station in ridiculously good time the next morning; and
have gone through the ungentlemanly business of seeing my things
loaded into the baggage van and then selected an empty first-class
compartment, I sat impatiently waiting for the train to start. Other
passengers looked in from time to time, and were rebuffed by that
Gorgon stare (this compartment is reserved for non-lepers) the English
have so easily at command. A whistle sounded, and I thought that I had
won the solitude he craved. But then at the very last moment, a
massively bearded face appeared at the window. I met this man’s in a
hurry to get aboard cold stare with my even colder gawk.
I heard the latecomer’s mutter ‘Pardon me, sir’ and made my way to
the far end of the compartment. He sat, a man of forty or so, his top
hat firmly square, his hands on his knees, regaining his breath. There
was something rather aggressively secure about him; he was perhaps
not quite a gentleman ... an ambitious butler (but butlers did not travel
first class) or a successful lay preacher- one of the bullying tabernacle
kind, a would be Spurgeon, converting souls by scorching them with the
cheap rhetoric of eternal damnation. A decidedly unpleasant man, I
thought , and so typical of the age – and therefore emphatically to be
snubbed if I tried to enter into conversation.
2- Third person
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Yesterday afternoon set in misty and cold. Heathcliff had half a mind to
spend it by his study fire, instead of wading through heath and mud to
Wuthering Heights.
On coming up from dinner, however he dines between twelve and one
o’clock; the housekeeper, a matronly lady taken as a fixture along
with the house, could not, or would not comprehend his request of
being served at five. On mounting the stairs with this lazy intention,
and stepping into the room, he saw a servant-girl on her knees,
surrounded by brushes and coal-scuttles and raising an infernal dust as
she extinguished the flames with heaps of cinders. This spectacle drove
he back immediately; Heathcliff took his hat, and, after a four miles’
walk, arrived at the garden gate just in time to escape the first feathery
flakes of a snow shower.
On that bleak hill-top the earth was hard with a black frost, and the air
made him shiver through every limb. Being unable to remove the chain,
he jumped over, and, running up the flagged causeway bordered with
straggling gooseberry bushes, knocked vainly for admittance, till his
knuckles tingled, and the dogs howled.
He mentally ejaculated: ‘Wretched inmates! You deserve perpetual
isolation from your species for your churlish inhospitality. At least, I
would not keep my doors barred in the day time – I don’t care – I will
get in!’
So resolved, Heathcliff grasped the latch, and shook it vehemently.
 Home Activity 2
First-person Main character tells the story
narrative (internal analysis of events)
+ reader is given direct access into the
mind of the main protagonist
+ POV characters tend to reveal
themselves more through their words,
rationales and excuses
- readers are confined to one
perspective for the entire story
- it's very difficult to develop subplots
without putting the main character
into each one, which isn't feasible
Minor character tells the story
(outside observation of
events)
+ the reader, can experience the
protagonist from the viewpoint of
the someone else
+ this perspective may add more
objectivity to how the reader sees
the protagonist
- this type of narrator will not
know what the protagonist is
thinking, unless the protagonist
chooses to share his thoughts

Third- Omniscient author tells the story Observer-author tells the

person (internal analysis of events) story (outside observation of
narrative events)
+ the author can write from a broader - observer does not have the
perspective ability to know everything about
- it can be difficult to establish every situation. The observer is
connection with the reader limited to his own perspective
+ the narrator knows everything about + It can give the author some
everyone in the story. He knows the flexibility
motivations, childhoods, inner
thoughts and emotions of every
character. The narrator becomes god-
like. This narrator can provide accurate
and insightful commentary because he
knows how everything is connected.

Characters and Means of Characterization

In most literary works one character is clearly central and dominates
the story from the beginning up to the end. Such a character is
generally called the main, central, or major character, or the
protagonist. The antagonist is the personage opposing the protagonist
or hero. The villain is the character with marked negative features.
When a character expresses the author’s viewpoint directly, he is said
to be the author’s mouthpiece
Characters may be simple (flat) or complex (well-rounded). Simple
characters are constructed round a single trait. Complex characters
undergo change and growth, reveal various sides of their personalities.
The characters may be described from different aspects: physical,
emotional, moral, spiritual, social.

Home Activity 3:
1) The author accurately conveys the descriptions: “No neck,
reddish hair ruched back. Features as bunched as kissed
fingertips. Eyes the color of plastic. The monstrous chin, a freakish
shelf jutting from the lower face.”
Proulx writes with a great impatient verve, leaving out extraneous
words—often subjects and conjunctions. She loves lists. She used
diction, details, and figurative language in her writing to explain
the protagonist and why he is a complex character.
2) Charles Dickens make Mr Bounderby stands for abstract
ideas(industrialism and money). There is a satire (A man who was
always proclaiming, through that brassy speaking-trumpet of a
voice of his, his old ignorance and his old poverty. A man who was
the Bull of humility). He mostly used formal diction in an ironic
sense.

Various means of indirect characterization are the following:

1) Presentation of the character through action. How characters
behave in various situations will form our view of them.
2) Speech characteristics. Speech characteristics reveal the social
and intellectual standing of the character, his age, education and
 occupation, his state of mind and feeling, his attitude and
relationship with his interlocutors.
One should pay attention to the following:
a) style markers (official, informal, contracted forms,
colloquialisms, elliptical sentences, tag questions, initiating
signals, hesitation pauses, false starts)
b) markers of the emotional state of the character: emphatic
inversion, the use of emotionally coloured words, the use of
the breaks-in-the-narrative that stand for silence;
c) attitudinal markers: words denoting attitudes and intensifiers
d) markers of the character’s educational level (bookish words,
rough words, slang, vulgarisms, deviations from the standard)
e) markers of regional and dialectal speech, which define the
speaker as to his origin, nationality and social standing (foreign
words, local words, graphons)
f) markers of the character’s occupation (terms, jargonisms);

g) markers of the speaker’s idiolect (i.e. his individual speech

peculiarities), which serve as a means of individualization and
verisimili-tude
3) Psychological portrayal and analysis of motive. The ‘inner life’ of
a character can be revealed directly, particularly in a first-person
narrative
4) Description of the world of things that surround the character.
a) The character’s room, clothing and other belongings may also serve
as a means of characterization.
b) The writer may introduce a foil as a means of characterization. The
foil accentuates the opposed features of the character he is contrasted
to.
c) The naming of characters may also serve as a means of
characterization. The name may be deliberately chosen to fit a certain
character. The use of a proper name to express a general idea is called
antonomasia.
5) The use of a foil. The foil accentuates the opposed features of the
character he is contrasted to.
6) The naming of characters. The name may be deliberately chosen to
fit a certain character. Then it is called a speaking name.
7) Imagery and symbols. Characters may be described using a simile
and a metaphor, or may be associated symbolically with, for example, a
colour or an element.
When you analyze a character, highlight the following aspects:
· Appearance: what do the aspects of the character’s appearance
reveal about his traits?
· Words and actions : what kind of language does the hero use? What
can we learn from his words?
· Background: what past experience has the character got? How does
the past effect the character’s thoughts and actions in the present?
· Motivation: what makes the character act and speak as he does?
· Conflict: is the character involved in some conflict? Is the conflict
internal (within the character’s mind) or external (between the
character and the other force)? How is the conflict resolved?

Remember! Always support your views and opinion with evidence by

referring to points in the text.

Home activity 4:
1) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
“Jean Louise Finch (Scout)”
- appearance: an active, feisty tomboy in overalls who hates
have to dress up like a little lady. "soft brown hair and eyes"
and "oval face and snug-fitting ears" are inherited from his
mother.
 - Words and actions: Scout asks tough questions, certainly
questions that aren't "politically correct," but she can ask these
questions because she is a child. As a child, Scout doesn't
understand the full implication of the things happening around
her, making her an objective observer and a reporter in the
truest sense.
- Background: the child Scout complains "Our father didn't do
anything . . . he never went hunting, he did not play poker or
fish or drink or smoke. He sat in the living room and read."
- Motivation: Scout faces so many issues in the duration of the
novel, but one of the most lingering for her is the question of
what it means to "be a lady."
- Conflict: main conflict is between her own individuality and an
imperfect world that wants her to fit in.
Home activity 5:
Speech What does the character say?
How does the character speaks?
Thoughts What is revealed through the
character’s private thoughts and
feelings?
Effect on others What is revealed through the
character’s effect on other
people? How do other characters
feel or behave in reaction to the
character?
Actions What does the character do? How
does the character behave?
Looks What does the character look
like? How does the character
dress?