Narrative perspective and voice is a major aspect of a novella as Jeremy Hawthorn suggests in Studying the Novel, “[s]ource and medium affect the selection, the authority and the attitude towards what is recounted of the narrative” The narrative perspective can be used to shape or in some cases mis-shape the story. Looking at both Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and George Eliot’s Middlemarch, the narrators of these novellas hold a quality of influence over the reader. Through comparing and contrasting how the two different authors have used the narrative perspective to develop their novels, through voice, linguistic register, free indirect discourse and narrative distance in respect to the intimacy of the information shared with the reader.
Looking at both Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and George Eliot’s Middlemarch, the point of view otherwise known as perspective and voice, do contrast one another. Perspective and voice are defined by Hawthorn, as the views of the characters and events in the novella are relatable by human experience, which in turn makes the novella more realistic . Pride and Prejudice can be seen in this light as the narrator explains events as the plot unfolds. In this line of thinking the voice can be interrupted as third person semi-omniscient, but the perspective is mainly Elizabeth Bennett. The use of a semi-omniscient voice works well as information is not so readily disclosed to the reader. Within Middlemarch the voice would be third-person omniscient as the narrator knows all and discloses this information, but the perspective would predominantly be Dorothea, Lydgate and the narrative. Through the narrative, the reader discovers information before the other characters within the novella. As Ha...
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...res that make these books continue to live on for centuries. Due to the constraints of the essay not all aspects of the narrative perspective could be discussed and the role they play with the novellas.
Works Cited
• Austen, J. Pride and Prejudice (Ware: Wordsworth Classics, 1993)
• Eagleton, T The English Novel (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2005)
• Eliot, G Middlemarch (Ware: Wardworth Classics, 1994)
• Hawthorn, J, Studying the Novel (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2010)
• Morris, P Realism (Oxon: Routledge, 2003)
• Newton, K.M. ‘Narration in Middlemarch Revisited’ in George Eliot Review, 42 (2011), p. 19-25,6 [accessed 1 April 2014]
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Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Vol. A. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print
...iece, with lengthy, persuasive essay-like chapters throughout the text. Austen compresses her commentary and the narrator does not dominate the discussion. As it concisely conveys its message, Austen's work represents a development from Fielding's inflated treatise on the subject. The issue of the novel as respectable or as art was clearly an important issue of debate; the greatest speakers for both novelists were the "authors" of their respective texts.
Lipking, Lawrence I, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume 1c. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
Weldon, Fay. From Letters to Alice: On First Reading Jane Austen. Taplinger Publishing Co. Inc, 1984 in Readings on Jane Austen. Ed. Clarice Swisher.
L’Engle, L'Engle. “Focus On The Story, Not Readers…” Writer Apr 2010: p. 24-25. MAS Ultra-School Edition. EBSCOhost. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.
Jane Austen's Persuasion is a dark novel. From the jolting breaks in the romantic drama--the falls of little Charles and Louisa Musgrove--to the heroine's depressing existence--Anne Elliot has a "great tendency to lowness" (Austen 66)-- to the overall autumnal mood, the work is at times a gloomy, though always interesting, read. Perhaps its darkest facet though is the ubiquitous presence of an antagonist. While Mr. Elliot appears, most blatantly, to be the villain, in actuality, it is Lady Russell, whose persuasions are both manipulative and, frighteningly, pervasive, who should truly bear that stigma.
The comparison of Fay Weldon’s 1984 epistolic novel Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen (here after ‘Letters’) enhances the understanding of the importance of values, issues and context in the 1813 novel, Pride and Prejudice (here after ‘Pride’). This is demonstrated through the examining of the similar and contrasting connections between the texts. Despite the large varsity between the contextual
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Norton Critical 3rd edition, ed. Donald Gray New York and London: Norton, 2001.
The novel is a humorous fantasy, written in the tradition of a boy’s adventure story. It recreates the child’s vision of the world. It entertains the adult by reminding him of his own childhood feelings and by showing him his own adult world from the viewpoint of a child. From this childish viewpoint, the adult world appears rather foolish. The few examples of narrative criticism of social institutions education and the church are not made in a serious way. There is a distinct pattern of loss and gain throughout the novel. Tom’s fortunes swing between the two and his moods follows suit. There are two distinct types of language, the narrative voice and the
Eliot, George. “Middlemarch.” Bibliomania: Free Online Literature and Study Guides. Bibliomania. 12 May 2009 .
Narratives.” Studies In The Literary Imagination 29.1 (1996): 73. Academic Search Complete. Web. 7 May 2014.
Pride and Prejudice is written in 3rd person omniscient, which allows the reader to delve into the minds of more than one character. The narrator can be persuasive and influential, (this is most common during passages of large summary) although at other times a ‘silent observer’/goes without commentary, (During character dialogue) however the ‘point of view’ becomes more focused through the character of Elizabeth. The narrator has control of selection of detail, and chooses what the reader is entitled to see. (Eg selects the incidents we see, and finds the words to describe them.)
Jennings, Charles. A Brief Guide to Jane Austen: The Life and times of the World's Favourite Author. London: Robinson, 2012. Print.
Fergus, Jan. “Biography.” The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jane Austen. Ed. Janet Todd.