SCRIBBLE
FREE DIRECT DISCOURSE What are they thinking? by Mr Allen
W
hen analysing a text at A Level students often become bogged down with a strict focus on word level analysis in a vain attempt to tick the AO2 ‘methods’ box. Unfortunately, the days of ‘the effect of this personal pronoun suggest that this event is very personal to the narrator’ do not quite cut it at A Level (or, with that example, at GCSE either!) One way that you can really showcase your abilities at A Level is to discuss with confidence some of the narrative methods that a writer has used and one of the most interesting but often misplaced examples of this is the use of Free Indirect Discourse.
What is Free Indirect Discourse|? When we think about narration, we are asking ourselves a very basic question: ‘who is telling the story?’ There are many different options for a writer here, are we given an omniscient perspective by a narrator that knows everything about all of the characters within a text? Do we have a narrator who focuses more specifically on an individual character giving a more limited point of view? Do we see things from the point of view of an individual character (or characters) so that we see things exclusively from their point of view? Is our narrator even reliable and to be trusted? Free indirect discourse blurs the boundaries of these narrative perspectives to create something new and far more intriguing for a student of English.
Back to basics In general, when writing is in the third person, the reader is positioned ‘outside’ of the action. Everything we are told is controlled and determined by the narrator either directly or through reported information. He walked into the room. ‘What an ugly colour’ he thought. In this example, we begin by listening to the narrator. We then take a step into the thoughts of the character before leaving again because of the speech marks. The narrator remains present at all times. We are told directly what the man thought as he entered the room but this can also be reported: He walked into the room. He thought the colour was ugly. The narrator remains in control. We know no more or no less than the narrator wants us to know and our understanding of the character’s thoughts remains limited. Now consider this example: He walked into the room. How ugly. At this point, do we not move from an outside perspective to the perspective of the character himself? The response to the room is more likely to be from the character rather than the narrator. It is better exemplified when we read more: He walked into the room. How ugly. The ridiculous floral curtains only further enhancing the absurdity of her colour choice. That framed picture was another issue altogether.
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