English 12 / Unit 5: The Victorian Era
5.6 Point of View in Victorian Fiction
Notes
Narration shapes what we know and trust.
- First-person narrators (Jane Eyre) give intimacy but limited knowledge.
- Omniscient narrators (often in Dickens) know every character's thoughts and comment on society.
- Unreliable narrators hide or distort facts. Look for gaps, bias and contradictions.
- Bildungsroman: a novel about a young person's growth. Jane Eyre and Dickens's Great Expectations follow this pattern.
Practice
A novel narrated by "I" who describes only what she personally sees and feels uses:
"I" signals first-person narration with limited knowledge.
A narrator who knows the thoughts of every character and comments on social problems is:
An omniscient narrator has access to all minds.
A novel tracing an orphan's growth into adulthood and moral understanding is best called a:
A bildungsroman follows a character's maturing.
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