Narrated Monologue in Jane Austen’s Emma
A novel is a form of a narrative written in a fiction way with some reality in it to entertain people. While writing a novel, certain voices are used. The voice refers to the style used by authors to make their work quality and unique as well as display their attitude, personality, and character. Rachel Oberman is an author who narrates monologue in Jane Austen’s Emma in her article illustrating the importance of identifying the voice used in narration. Rachel Oberman refers to the Emma as a novel written in third-person technique making it difficult for the reader to determine whether the voice heard in the novel belongs to the narrator or a character in the novel. The article shows how lack of understanding of the difference between the narrator’s and character’s voices leads to a misinterpretation of the literature in the novel.
Understanding who is speaking is essential in understanding the flow of the story in a novel. The article reveals that false understanding between author and character leads to. misinterpretation of literary works. Misunderstanding the voices leads to a contradiction in the narrator’s thoughts and characters thoughts (Müller, 2017). The article shows incidences when it was hard to locate the voices from the Emma’s novel like where she talks about the blood of gentility being untainted maybe as a result of the blood from many gentlemen. The voice was not clear whether it was a heroine’s or narrators. The article shows many occasions where it is not easy to differentiate the heroines and the narrator’s voice due to the use of similar style and language. The article reveals how a novel that has been written in third –person technique challenges the readers by providing specific examples. Therefore, the strength of the article is revealed by how the author of the article uses examples to illustrate the contradiction caused by the third-person technique in narratives.
Differentiating between the narrative voice and the communal voice has been a problem faced in Emma as highlighted from the article. Finch and Peter commented that the narrative voice of Emma is equal to the communal voice from the people’s opinions (Holm, 2017). Finch and Bowen concluded that the narrative voice of Emma is like an average gossiper who is not sure of their information, which is an evidence used in the article to show disadvantages of third-person technique. The article emphasizes on lacking certainty in the narrator’s voice by citing the initial description of Emma’s novel. Also, the article quotes another speech in the Emma’s narrative where monologue occurs in the conversation between Highbury and Mr. Knightley. The conversation highlighted by the article shows how third-person technique in narratives results in misunderstanding of ideas. However, the author of the article does not state the advantages of the third-person technique, which is the main weakness of the article.
In conclusion, the author of the article claims that it is difficult to differentiate between the narrator’s voice and characters voice in Emma’s narrative. The author has done this by quoting paragraphs directly in the novel showing where the sounds are not clear. The author explains the cause of misinterpretation in the novels written using the three-person technique by stating the paragraphs that are not clear in the novel. The author has brought other people’s opinions regarding the uncertainty of the voice in the novel, which has created a clear picture of what third-person narrated novels mean. The main strength of the author of the article is evident through the incorporation of other people’s opinions regarding third –person writing technique. However, the author of the article does not state any advantage of third-person technique in writing, which is the major weakness in the article.