Theoretical preliminaries

The narrative method involves such aspects as (a) who narrates the story and (b) the way the narrator stands in relation to the events and to the other characters of the story.

We are all well aware of the fact that the same people and events may seem quite different when seen by various people or from different angles. Like in photography, the effect may be absolutely different if a picture istaken from below or above the usual eye level. In the same way the author can vary the narrative method depending on what he wants his readers to concentrate on. He can tell the story from the point of view of a character in the story, or from without — as an onlooker.

The author may select either of the following four types of narrators: (1) the main character, (2) a minor character (3) the omniscient author, (4) the observer-author.

1. When the main character tells his story, the events of the story are presented to the reader through his perception. The author in this case places himself in the position of the main character and tells of things that only the main character saw and felt. (E. g. Jane Eyre by Ch. Bronte, The Catcher in the Rye byJ. Salinger).

2. When a minor character, who participates in the actions, nar­rates the story, the events are described through the perception of this character. The author places himself in the position of a minor character and gives this character's version of the events and perso­nages. (E g. The Pawnbroker's Wife by M. Spark)

3. The author may narrate his story anonymously, analysing and interpreting the character's motives and feelings. The reader sees what goes on in the minds of all the characters. He is then guided by what is known to be the omniscient (or analytic) author. The omniscient author reproduces the characters' thoughts and comments on their actions. (E. g. Angel Pavement by J. Priestley, The Cop and the Anthem by O'Henry).

4. The story may be told in such a way that we are given the impression of witnessing the events as they happen —we see the actions and hear the conversations, but we never enter directly the minds of any of the characters. In this case the reader is guided by the observer-author. The observer-author merely records the speech and actions of the characters without analysing them (as it is often done in E. Hemingway's stories).

The following table shows the interrelationship between the nar­rative types and the types of narrators.

Narrative Types	Types of Narrators
First-person narrative	Main character tells the story (Internal analysis of events)	Minor character tells the story (Outside observation of events)
Third-person narrative	Omniscient or analytic author tells the story (Internal analysis of events)	Observer-author tells the story (Outside observation of events)

It may be seen from the table that there are common features between the four types of narrators. When the story is told by the main character or the omniscient author, the events are analysed internally, reflecting the main character's point of view. When the narrator is either a minor character or the observer-author, the story is an outside observation of events and does not reflect the main character's feelings and attitude, his point of view. When told by a character in the story, the story is a first-person narrative. When told by the author» it is a third-person narrative.

If the story is a first-person narrative, it is told from the narrator's point of view and the reader gets a biased understanding of the events and the other characters, because he sees them through the perception of the character who narrates. At the same time any story always reveals the author's point of view even if it is implied. The character's and the author's viewpoints may or may not coincide. The point of view of the author may even be contrary to that of the narrator; as in The Lady's Maid by K. Mansfield. The story is narrated by a maid who proves to be naive. Though the reader learns no more about her life than she herself tells, he suspects that the maid is misjudging people, that she, so to say, measures them according to her own yardstick. The more the maid praises and justifies her cruel grandfather and her egoistic mistress, the more obvious is her naivety, the clearer is the fact that she is utterly mistaken and that she does not realize how those people ill-treat her, how miserable her life has always been. The discrepancy between the maid's view of the way things are and the reader's opinion is the irony of her life. Indirectly (through this irony) K. Mansfield makes it clear that she does not share the maid's point of view and invites the reader to reject it, too.

Therefore, when the author shifts the responsibility of telling the story to a first-person narrator, he actually provides his reader with two versions of one and the same story: (1) the explicity expressed subjective version (the narrator’s version) and (2) the implied objective version, which the skilled reader is expected to derive. To understand the implied objective version one should take into account which type of narrator the story-teller is and whether he is a reliable narrator or an unreliable one.

Several advantages of the first two methods (i. e. the first-person narrative made by one of the characters) should be mentioned.

A 1st-person narrative is a very effective means of revealing the personality of the character who narrates. The narrator tells what he thinks and feels, and the reader easily understands his motives, his nature. The writer without resorting to analysis gets the advantage of defining this character more closely. He does not have to say whether the character is sensitive, easily affected or self-controlled, kind or cruel, he simply lets the character demonstrate his features. That becomes clear and visible to the reader, and this first-hand testimony increases the immediacy and freshness of the impression.

Secondly, these two narrative method s increase the credibility of the story. The narrator's statements gain in weight and are more readily accepted by the reader, for they are backed by the narrator's presence in the described events — he relates what he himself has seen.

Thirdly, a story told by a first-person narrator tends to be more confiding. The narrator often assumes the informal tone, addresses the reader directly and establishes a personal relationship with him. The reader is treated trustfully as one to whom the narrator confides his personal impressions and thoughts. This can be clearly seen in The Lady's Maid by K. Mansfield. On account of all that, it is the inner world of the character-narrator that is generally in the focus of interest.

However, the possibilities of the first-person narrator are limited. One of the basic limitations is that a story told by a character is limited to what that character could reasonably be expected to know. (The first-person narrator is a person, and he can see and hear only what would be possible for a person to see and hear in his situation. He cannot enter into the minds of the other characters, he cannot know all that they do and say.The first-person narrator may be reliable or unreliable. He may misinterpret some events, which he sometimes cannot fully understand He relates them and meditates about them from his subjective point of view. The reader, therefore, gets a biased view of the other characters (as in the case of The Lady's Maid by K. Mansfield). But this limitation may turn into an advantage: the reader is stimulated to reflect and pronounce his own judgement. The fact that the character who narrates has less experience than the reader creates an irony. If The Lady's Maid had not been told by the maid herself, if she had not been so naive, and if her life-story had been told by a dispassionate narrator, it is doubtful that the story would arouse such deep emotional response and convey its message so effectively.

There are no limitations on the freedom of the omniscient author. He is all-seeing and all-knowing. He can follow any character to a locked room or a desert island. He may get inside his characters’ minds, add his own analysis of their motives and actions. It is the author's voice, his evaluations, his opinion of the events and characters that the reader hears and, therefore, the reader can easily understand the author's point of view.

Moreover, the omniscient author may wander away from the subject of the narrative to state his personal view or to make a general statement. Such a statement is known as the author's digression.

A digression usually involves a change of tense from the past (the usual tense in stories and novels) to the generic 'timeless' present. In this way the author directly conveys his presence as a guide and interpreter. The story The Cop and the Anthem by O'Henry can serve as an illustration of the possibilities of the omniscient author. Here the omniscient author resorts to digressions. He does not only relate the events, he tells the reader what his character longs for and plans to do. To convey Soapy's thoughts the omniscient author uses indirect speech: "...A roasted mallard duck, thought Soapy, would be about the thing...", inner represented speech: "...Disconsolate, Soapy ceased his unavailing racket. Would a policeman lay hands on him? In his fancy the Island seemed an unattainable Arcadia.

The reader generally places complete reliance on all the judgements made by the omniscient author and adopts his point of view.(The objectivity of the author's evidence is taken for granted] At the same time the reader gets the possibility to accompany the characters anywhere, to see what happens to them when they are alone, to know what goes on in their minds and what they think about one another. It means that the omniscient author reveals the viewpoints of the characters, too.

The omniscient author may also assume a detached attitude and tell the readers all about his characters, concealing his own point of view. For example, the story The Pleasures of Solitude by J. Cheever is told by a detached omniscient author, who describes what the protagonist saw, felt, thought and did, without giving his own analysis of her actions.

In many modern short stories since A P. Chekhov the omniscient author appears to have a limited omniscient point of view. The author chooses one character, whose thoughts and actions are analysed, giving no analysis of the other characters. The author therefore may by partially omniscient.

The omniscient author may tell the story so vividly that his presence is forgotten, the characters and the scenes become visible.

Such are the advantages of the narrative made by the omniscient author.

In the case of the observer-author, the story is a scene or a series of scenes, narrated by an onlooker who does not interfere for any comments or reflections of these events. The main focus of interest is the study of actions and events. The advantage of this narrative method is that the observer-author lets the reader see, hear, and judge the characters and their actions for himself. He stimulates the reader to form his own impression and make his own judgements.

Stories told by the observer-author may be presented in either of the following two forms: (1) the dramatic, or (2) the pictorial form.

A story is said to have a dramatic form, when one scene follows another and the characters act and speak as in drama. (In drama nobody comments and explains the scenes, they appear). Arrangement in Black and White by D. Parker and The Killers by E. Hemingway serve as examples.

A story is considered to have pictorial form, when the observer-author pictures the scenes, but he tells of what anyone might see and hear in his position without entering into, the minds of any of the characters, without analysing their motives. (Indian Camp by E. Hemingway illustrates the pictorial form of presentation).

In one and the same story the author may vary the narrative method, sometimes giving us one character's version of events (or point of view) and sometimes that of another, sometimes assuming omniscience and sometimes narrating as an onlooker.

Thus in The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber when des­cribing a lion hunt Hemingway lets the reader see things through the eyes of the lion, whereas the events preceding Macomber’s death are given through the perception of Macomber himself. There are, there­fore, several shifts in the point of view.

The narrative method determines the dominant point of view. Depending on who tells the story, the dominant point of view may be either that of the character (if he tells the story), or that of the author (if the story is told by the author). The dominant point of view does not rule out the possibility of introducing other viewpoints into the story. If the viewpoints are presented as independent, the story is said to be “polyphonic”. However, the dominant point of view generally subordi­nates the other viewpoints.

The narrative method conditions the language of the story. Thus if the story is told by an omniscient author, the language is always literary. When the story is told by a character, the language becomes a means of characterization (as direct speech always characterizes the speaker). It reflects the narrator's education, occupation, emotional state and his attitude. The social standing of the character is marked by the use of either standard or non-standard lexical units and syntactic structures. In The Ladie’s Maid markers of Ellen’s social standing are as follows: "we was living", "all of I a tremble", a ducky little brooch" and others. The use of rare and specialized vocabulary serves as a marker of the character's occupation (or educational level, or both). In the case of The Ladie’s Maid these are "No, madam", "...is it, madam". The emotive and evaluative lexical units (such as "she's too good", "the sweetest lady", "poor grand­father", etc.) reflect the feelings of the narrator, her attitude to the people she describes. In this particular story some of the evaluative units appear to be reappraised, as the narrator's point of view is unreliable (she misinterprets events and misjudges people). From the way Ellen's lady and grandfather are presented it becomes clear that the lady is by no means "too good" — on the contrary, she is hypocritical, cunning and egoistic; the grandfather appears to be mean, calculating and deserves no justification for his cruelty.

One has to keep in mind that the language of a first-person narrative requires careful attention not only because it characterizes the narrator, but also because it is a means of representing the world through the eyes of that character. It therefore reflects his outlook (which may be naive, or primitive, or limited), his pattern of cognition, his psychology. That is why most stories related by the main character are deeply psychological.

Moreover, the narrative method may affect presentational sequencing of events. Thus the omniscient author will arrange the events of the story as they occur in chronological order. A first-person narrative more often than not is disrupted by digressions, or may have haphazard transitions from one topic to another, or may contain flashbacks to past events (as in the case of the The Lady's Maid). The events are then presented in psychological order.

Apart from that, the narrative method may also affect the sequencing of literary representational forms. If we turn to The Ladie’s Maid we can see that it is a complex pattern of narration, description, direct speech and reasoning, but it does not include the author's digressions because the author has shifted the responsibility of telling the story to the major character. Whereas in a story told by the omniscient author (e. g. The Cop and the Anthem) one may find all the literary representational forms.

Whether a story is convincing and exciting, whether it produces a vivid and enduring impression, whether it arouses interest and emotional response – all that relies heavily on the narrative method employed by the author.

TEXT 7.

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