Saturday, September 15, 2012
Narrator Critical Analysis
The article split up the narrator into three personalities; "the teller of the tale, historian, and to a polemicist" (he creates opinions and arguments). The point of the narrator is the relay the story in 3rd person. The narrator however is omniscient (all knowing and relays background info that is helpful in the reader's understanding), which is when he becomes the historian. Its third personality is when the narrator starts adding his own opinions this is when the author overtakes the narrator. "After all, the author and the narrator are parts of the same individual-- they work together". Also, to give a full perspective to the reader, the narrator also on occasion skips from character to character in a specific scene. I liked this article because it broke down the complex layers of the narrator in this book. It also made it clear that the narrator depicts the personality of the book and it is a representation of the author himself.
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I found this article very interesting. When I was reading the novel, I noticed the frequent shifts in narration tones and to be honest, it bothered me some. I found it confusing at times and helpful at others. Personally, I felt that Dickens was the narrator, not some 3rd person, omniscient character. This articles does highlight the fact that the narrator and the author (Dickens), are almost one in the same. Although Dickens could not change the voices of the historical narrator, through the polemicist he enforces his point of view into the novel.
ReplyDeleteI also found this article very interesting; one point in particular was the fact that the narrator can just skip around from an outside perspective to inside a characters head, to show the entire picture not just from one point of view. Also that the narrator can skip between time and places to hint or imply a certain feeling or symbol more effectively than having to wait for one character, who most likely has a biased point of view, to come across that particular time and place. I liked this article because it showed points that I had not noticed before, like the inside and out perspective.
ReplyDeleteI felt that this article spun the narrative in ATTC differently than I'd initially understood it. However, I enjoyed this analysis of it, and especially the description of what distinguished each narrative, the "teller", historian, and polemicist, from one another. Naturally, I never considered that, rather than just change his tone or allow an entirely different character to take up the narrative, Dickens may have just been developing his own 3 personas. I found the polemicist's satirical commentary concept to be particularly intriguing. Ultimately, I agree that Dickens, as he said himself in his preface, infused and invested himself entirely in ATTC, from his metaphorical talents as a story teller, to his descriptive portrayals of historical events, and his satirical commentary, every inch of his narrative is most definitely an expression of he himself.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the 3 narration perspectives are different from Dickens, and part of him at the same time.
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