The storyteller It is the voice that describes and recounts, from their point of view, the events that are told in a narrative text.
There are different types of narrators, but most of them are fictional entities and are concerned with organizing how the information in a story appears in relation to:
- The plot. The facts are counted chronologically, inserting the events or omitting events that are mentioned or not mentioned later.
- The descriptions. The characteristics of the characters, places, objects and feelings are stated.
The narrator can be external to the events he tells, a character who participates in the story he tells or, in certain cases, as in an autobiography, he can coincide with the author.
Generally, in novels, stories, biographies, chronicles or poems there is only one narrator. However, in certain cases, a story may be narrated by different characters.
Types of narrators according to the grammatical person
There are different types of narrators depending on which grammatical person is used the most. In some texts, these narrators can be combined.
- first person narrator (I we). It is used to narrate events from the point of view of a character, who may or may not be the protagonist. It is an internal narrator, because it is part of the story told.
- second person narrator (you you you). He directs his speech to the reader, to a character or to himself. Some texts may be entirely narrated in the second person or may combine this person with the first or third person. This type of narrator is the least used in literary texts, and appeals to the empathy of the reader.
- third person narrator (she, he, they, they). It tells the facts from the point of view of an entity that is outside the story. In some cases, this narrator may have a limited participation in the plot.
Types of narrators according to their knowledge
The narrators are also classified according to the knowledge or the level of closeness they have about the facts, the themes or the characters and according to how their intervention in the plot is.
- protagonist narrator. He is the main character and uses the first person to tell the story. Therefore, the facts are told subjectively, that is, the opinions, feelings and intentions of this character are included, but the thoughts and feelings of the rest are not mentioned. It may happen that this narrator does not know some facts of the story.
- Omniscient narrator. He does not participate in the story and recounts the events in the third person and objectively. Also, she knows everything that happened and what are the feelings, thoughts and intentions of the various characters.
- witness narrator. Use the third person and, in some cases, the first person to recount the events. He is a character in the story, but he is never the protagonist, since he only observes or the events that happened to other characters. There are three types of witness narrator:
– impersonal witness. It narrates events that he witnessed, but in which he did not participate. The story is usually told in the present tense.
– Eyewitness. He is a secondary character who narrates from his perspective the events in which other characters participated or in which he had little intervention.
– informant witness. Narrate what happened as if you were transcribing the facts or information into an official document. - observant narrator. He tells the story in the third person and objectively, that is, he does not think about what happened. He does not participate in the plot and can only tell what is perceived with the senses, therefore, he does not mention the thoughts, intentions and feelings of the characters.
- equiscient narrator. He tells the story in the third person and focuses on telling what happened to him and what a single character knows, about which he tells his thoughts, his feelings and his intentions. About the rest of the characters you can only guess.
- multiple narrator. Several narrators who tell the same story are combined and alternate, that is, the events are told from multiple perspectives.
- encyclopedic narrator. Relates facts or explains theories or concepts in the third person and in an objective and impartial manner. This narrator is not used in literary texts, but in scientific or academic texts, such as encyclopedias or school manuals.
narrator examples
- First person narrator – Autobiographyby Agatha Christie
One of the best things that can happen to one in life is a happy childhood. Mine was. I had a house and a garden that I liked very much, a judicious and patient nurse, and for parents two people who loved each other tenderly and whose marriage and parenthood were a complete success.
Looking back, I see that ours was a happy home, thanks in large part to my father who was a very accommodating man. In our days not much importance is given to this quality. People often ask if a man is intelligent and industrious, if he contributes to the common good, if he has influence.
- Second person narrator – Posthumous memoirs of Brás Cubasby Joaquim Machado de Assis
Hold onto this expression, reader; keep it, examine it, and if you do not understand it, you can conclude that you are ignorant of one of the most subtle sensations of that world and of that time.*
*In many parts of this book, the second person is used to speak to the reader, but most of the novel is narrated in the first person.
- Third person narrator – iliadfrom Homer
The other gods and men, owners of war chariots,
They slept all night, but pleasant sleep did not control Zeus,
who doubted in his mind how to honor Achilles
and destroy many on the ships of the Achaeans.
And here is the plan that was revealed to him the best in his mind:
send the pernicious Dreaming on Agamemnon Atris.
- Protagonist Narrator – David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens
If I am the hero of my own life or if someone else will replace me, these pages will tell. To start my story from the beginning, I will say that I was born (according to what I have been told and I believe) on a Friday at twelve o’clock at night. And, curiously, the clock began to chime and I began to scream simultaneously.
Taking into account the day and hour of my birth, the nurse and some neighborhood midwives (who had taken a vital interest in me for several months before we were able to meet in person) declared: first, that I was predestined to be miserable in this life; and second, that he would enjoy the privilege of seeing ghosts and spirits.
- Omniscient narrator – “The circular ruins”, by Jorge Luis Borges
The stranger stretched out beneath the pedestal. He was awakened by the sun high. He verified without surprise that the wounds had healed; he closed his pale eyes and slept, not from weakness of the flesh but from determination of the will. He knew that this temple was the place that required his invincible purpose; he knew that the incessant trees had not managed to strangle, downriver, the ruins of another auspicious temple, also of burned and dead gods; he knew that his immediate obligation was sleep. Around midnight he was awakened by the inconsolable cry of a bird.
- impersonal witness narrator Beehiveby Camilo José Cela
The woman walks down the sidewalk, on her way to Alonso Martínez square. In a window of the Café that is on the corner of the boulevard, two men talk. They are two young men, one in his twenties and the other in his late thirties; the oldest looks like a jury in a literary contest; the youngest has the air of being a novelist.
- Eyewitness Narrator – Heart of Darknessby Joseph Conrad
He was silent. Llamas glided down the river, small green llamas, red llamas, white llamas, chasing and catching up, coming together, then crossing and parting very slowly, or very quickly. The traffic of the big city continued in an increasingly dense night, on a river that never slept. We watched each other, waiting, patiently. There was nothing to do until the tide turned, but only after a long silence, as Marlow said, in a hesitant voice, “I suppose, comrades, you may remember that I once tried my hand as a landlubber” did we realize that we were doomed to hear, before the current began to recede, another of his ambiguous experiences and inconclusive stories.
- Informant witness narrator – The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quijote of La Manchaby Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
When I heard “Dulcinea del Toboso” said, I was stunned and in suspense, because then it occurred to me that those briefcases contained the story of Don Quixote. With this imagination, I urged him to read the beginning, and doing so, turning the Arabic offhand into Spanish, he said that it meant: History of Don Quixote of La Mancha, written by Cide Hamete Benengeli, an Arab historian. A great deal of discretion was required to hide the satisfaction I received when the title of the book reached my ears; And, skipping the merchant, I bought the boy all the papers and folders for half a real; that if he had discretion and knew what I wanted them, he could well promise himself and take more than six reales from the purchase. I then withdrew with the Morisco through the cloister of the main church, and begged him to turn those folders, all those that dealt with Don Quixote, into the Spanish language, without removing or adding anything to them, offering him whatever payment he wanted. He contented himself with two arrobas of raisins and two bushels of wheat, and he promised to translate them well and faithfully and as soon as possible; but I, to make the business easier and not to let such a good discovery out of the hand, brought him to my house, where in little more than a month and a half he translated it all, in the same way that it is referred to here.
- Observant narrator – “El matadero”, by Esteban Echeverría
It happened, then, at that time, a very copious rain. The roads were flooded; the swamps were swamped and the streets in and out of the city brimmed with watery mud. A tremendous flood suddenly rushed down the Barracas Creek, and majestically extended its murky waters to the foot of the high ravines. The growing raging Plata pushed those waters that were looking for its channel and made them run swollen over fields, embankments, groves, farmhouses, and spread like an immense lake throughout all the lowlands. The city encircled from the North to the East by a waist of water and mud, and to the South by a whitish sea on whose surface some little boats floated at random and blackened the chimneys and the tops of the trees, cast astonished glances from its towers and ravines. to the horizon as if imploring mercy to the Most High. It seemed the threat of a new deluge.
- Equiscient narrator – “Continuity of the parks”, by Julio Cortázar
He had started reading the novel a few days before. He abandoned it for urgent business, he reopened it when he was returning to the farm by train; she slowly allowed herself to be interested in…