As you know in English class we are reading Mrs. Dalloway. When we were discussing it in class we talked about how Mrs. Dalloway has a unique point of view where we get the perspective of multiple different characters in one book. Being completely honest, I got very confused at multiple points throughout the book because of this unique point of view.
Upon further consideration though, I decided to write a blog post on point of view. Each author chooses their point of view for a reason, and I wanted to research more about third person omniscient narrators (this is the point of view that Mrs. Dalloway has).
I found an interesting article on the three main points of view. The three main points of view are first person singular, third person limited, and third person omniscient. This article gives a great description of all three points of view, but for this blog post I am just going to focus on the third person omniscient point of view.
Third person omniscient point of view has an all-knowing narrator. “You have the storytelling powers of a god. You’re able to go anywhere and dip into anyone’s consciousness.” When you think about novels that these narrators are found in they tend to have a large cast of characters. I think that having a lot of characters makes it useful for a third person omniscient narrator. If you have an all knowing narrator you are able to know what is going on inside other people’s thoughts for the entire novel instead of focusing on one character.
I am surprised that this article says this is one of the most common types of point of view because I cannot recall reading a novel with this point of view until I read Mrs. Dalloway. I have read books that switch narrators, but this is such an interesting concept of knowing everything about all people all the time. Hearing it described as godlike in the article I found made me think about how godlike it is. I believe in a god that know everything about everyone just like an author ought to know everything about his work. This omniscient point of view is confusing to me because it is something I am unused to, and not something as a human I am able to do. I am not able to know everything about everyone, but when we consider the narrator as a godlike figure it makes since for the narrator to know everything about everyone.
Reading Mrs. Dalloway made me very curious about this third person omniscient point of view. An outsider that looks in and knows everything would have to be some sort of a god figure, and this is fascinating to think about. I hope to someday read more books with this point of view to learn more about this omniscient view.