Definition
 'Point
of view' is a term from literary studies which describes the outlook
from which events are related.
It
is used of a statement which offers a particular viewpoint or perspective
on something.
Examples
- I think Bill's taste in clothes is appalling.
- "I think Bill's taste in clothes is appalling" John
said sneeringly.
- She tried desperately
to persuade me of her
husband's honesty.
Use
'Point
of view' is an important concept in analysing and understanding
both speech and writing.
Point
of view may be overt and explicit, or it may be subtly implied.
It
is often used to create character by presenting recognisable opinions.
It
may also be used to present psychology in depth by revealing unconscious
thoughts.
Information
may often be presented from a particular point of view without
revealing the source - which the observer is invited to guess.
It
may also be mischevously imitated for ironic effect.
The
concept of 'point of view' is essentially concerned with identifying
the source of information.
This
is not always a straightforward matter, because statements may
contain more than one point of view.
In
the first example - I think Bill's taste in clothes is appalling -
we are given only one point of view: that of the 'I' who
is making the statement. We have no way of putting this view into
any other perspective. Strictly speaking, we do not know if Bill's
taste is bad or not. We only know the opinion of 'I' about the
matter.
In
the second example - "I think Bill's taste in clothes is
appalling" John said sneeringly - the same statement is
made by John, and this is reported to us by someone else - the
narrator. The narrator informs us that the statement was made 'sneeringly'.
This casts John's opinion into a critical light, because the term
'sneering' carries very negatives overtones.
Thus
in this second example we have two points of view - John's and
the narrator's. One is passing comment on the other. This gives
the reader more information with which to make judgements.
In
the third example - She tried desperately to persuade me of
her husband's honesty - there are again two points of
view, though the second is less obvious this time.
The
first point of view is that of the 'me' recounting events. This
person - the narrator - controls what we know. The second point
of view is that of the 'she' who is discussing her husband. This
view however comes to us from the narrator - the 'me'.
The
terms 'desperately' and 'persuade' suggest that this effort is
being made under emotional pressure - and that the attempt is not
succeeding.
But
the person recounting this event [the narrator] might have a bias
of some kind, or prejudice against the woman. We tend to believe
that narrators are telling the truth, but what if this person were
a robber who had just broken into the house and was stealing the
family jewels?
The
point here is that we cannot know if the husband is actually honest
or not. We only have two points of view - that of the wife who
is trying to persuade a narrator, and failing. [It's a complex
business, isn't it?]
Sometimes
a point of view may be implied rather than directly stated. Consider
the following example, from a story which concerns a young girl
making a journey at night:
A faint wind blowing off the water ruffled under Fenella's hat, and she put
up her hand to keep it on. It was dark on the Old Warf, very dark; the wool
sheds, the cattle trucks, the cranes standing up so high, the little squat
railway engine, all seemed carved out of solid darkness. Here and there on
a rounded wood pile, that was like the stalk of a huge black mushroom, there
hung a lantern, but it seemed afraid to unfurl its timid, quivering light
in all that blackness; it burned softly, as if for itself.
[KATHERINE MANSFIELD]
Here
the first point of view is that of a narrator - telling the story
of Fenella, the young girl. But then in the second sentence, starting
with terms such as 'cranes standing up so high' and 'the little
squat railway engine', the events are narrated from the young girl's
point of view - as they might seem to her.
This
is a very typical example of a writer using 'point of view' to
offer readers an imaginative experience - in this case seeing the
world as it would be perceived by a young girl.
Point
of view may also be impersonated, assumed, or mischevously implied
in both speech and writing for ironic effect.
To
summarise, point of view is important because we need to place
any statement into a context before we
can evaluate it properly. |
