Summary of Free Indirect Discourse, the one and the many

Free Indirect Discourse, the one and the many

A great way to explain indirect discourse would be by using one of Jane Austen's novel. In her novel, the passage appears to be express, that is to say, from the point of view of a very well informed impersonal narrator. One could use the term 'omniscient', but that might be misleading because the narrator shows no obvious sign of knowing what will happen in the future. That is to say, there is a touch of ambiguity about whether this is actually narrator speaking, or whether it is the character.  This is known as free indirect discourse, where instead of just telling us the facts of the case 'objectively', or giving us a character's words to others, the narrator does something in between. As Austen's narrative progresses, the use of free indirect discourse becomes more obvious. The observation of elisabeth's act seems to come from a third person narrator who is looking at her from the outside. Note that this blurring of the boundary between narrator and a character does not rule out the irony that we have already discussed it in this novel. The author let us see through Elisabeth's eyes but we still known that the scene is managed by a narrator. The heroine is placed at centre stage; her point of view is clearly the one that the narrator finds most sympathetic and wants to identify with; but, ironically, just because we get so close to her, we can see the ways in which she may be deceiving herself.

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- Chisa Diaz K.A. (048)
- Selvy Jessica B. (049)
- Riyandi Darmawan. (057)
- Firza Garuda. (059)