What is the point of view in Persuasion by Jane Austen?
The point of view in Jane Austen's novel Persuasion is that of the
omniscient narrator who tells about the actions, speech,
thoughts, perceptions and feelings of any character present in a scene. For
instance, in Chapter 1, Austen's narrator starts out talking about what Sir
Walter Elliot thinks, perceives and does then switches to Elizabeth then again
to Lady Russell, the discussion of whom leads rather neatly into a conversation
between Lady Russell and Anne.
The other options for narrator, other than the
first person narrator (I saw and I felt...), are the
limited and the objective narrators. Had
Persuasion been written with a limited narrator, Austen would have contented herself with telling the story from one person's experience, feelings, perceptions and thoughts; most likely Austen's choice would have been Anne, the heroine. Had Austen chosen an objective narrator, only actions and speech would be narrated: there...
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would be no foundation for interior knowledge, such as knowledge of thoughts, feelings or perceptionsunless these were stated out loud either to the air...or to another person or persons.
What is the point of view of Roger Michell's 1995 film of Jane Austen's Persuasion?
Finding the point of view in film is actually a lot similar
to finding the point of view in piece of writing. In writing, the
narrator of the story reflects the point of view. If we see
the story narrated in the first person, then we know we have a first person
point of view. If we see it narrated by a voice outside of the characters and
storyline, then we know that the point of view is either third person or
objective, depending on if we hear the thoughts of the characters or just see
the actions ("Narrative Point of
View"). A lot of films do not contain voice-over narrators; therefore, for
the most part, the point of view of film is third person
objective. However, a lot of times an objective film point of view can
focus on one character or another, making it a limited
third person objective point of view.
When analyzing the point of view of film, we have to notice what characters the
camera is focusing on. For example, in Persuasion, we see the
camera focusing on Anne a great deal, especially
portraying her emotions. One good example is towards the
beginning of the film when the camera shows Anne alone in an attic, packing,
and looking at a letter folded in the shape of a boat, hidden in a book. The
camera gives us a closeup of her face, showing us her silent emotions. Also,
when Captain Wentworth begins socializing with the Musgroves and comes to call
on Mary and Anne at the cottage the morning after dining for the first time at
Uppercross, the camera focuses on Anne as she silently greets him and silently
observes him. The camera is allowing us to see all of the pain she is silently
feeling in his presence. Hence, we see that point of view is limited to
Anne; it is only Anne's story that the camera is really interested
in.
However, while we observe Anne's pain in her silence, we never hear her
thoughts except what she says out loud, hence we know that the point of view is
objective rather than subjective. Nor is the point of view omniscient, because
even an omniscient narrator would get inside of characters' heads.
Therefore, we know that the point of view for the film
Persuasion is third person objective, with a
limited focus on Anne.