Essential Elements of a Narrative Text: Setting, Characters, and Narrator

The context of the story

The setting is the place and the time of the story. Time

setting usually refers to the time of the day, the

season, the year; but it is important to be aware of the

context within which the action of a novel takes place,

so social historical factors are also important.
Place setting can be interior or exterior and it deals

with the description of the landscape, interiors and

objects. A novel may begin with the description of a town

or a landscape which is the primary setting of a story

and also provides important information about the

characters who live in it. When the description is very

detailed, depending on the language of the senses or

metaphorical expressions, the setting may acquire the

status of a character, almost a protagonist of the story.

Characterization of characters

Characters are the people who appear in a novel and

represent the most important ingredient in the world of

fiction. The presentation of a character can be direct or

indirect. The two methods of presentation are often mixed

by authors in order to create portraits that are

realistic but also provide a psychological insight into

the inner life of their characters.Depending on their

role in the story there can be major and minor

characters. A further distinction can be made between

round and flat characters. Flat characters, also called

"types" or "caricatures", are built around a single

psychological trait or quality; the are easy to recognise

and do not develop throughout the story, even if they

experience different relationship and situations. However

this does not mean the are always artistically inferior

to round characters. As a matter of fact, the author can

use them to create a particular atmosphere inside a

complex narrative frame. Round characters pass through

the crucial events of the story, change their personality

as the narration develops and can even influence the

plot; they are more complex and have more than one facet,

like human beings.

Role of the narrator

An essential element of a narrative text is the speaking

voice, that is, the narrator. The narrator is not the

author of a book; author is a real person, with his own

experiences, personality and ideas. the narrator is the

voice who tells the story, either the protagonist or a

witness. It may also be a voice outside the story who

tells events he has not taken part in. In this case it is

called external.

First-person narrator

The first-person narrator employs the "l" mode; it can

coincide with a character in the story or the protagonist

who tells his life. The choice of this narrator can have

the following functions:

-to bring the reader close to the mind and feelings of

the narrator;

- to convey an impression of reality

- to restrict the reader's prospective.

Third-person narrator

The thir-person narrator knows everything about the

events and the characters' thoughts and intentions; this

is why such a narrator is also called omniscient. The

omniscient third-person narrator can be obtrusive when he

addresses the reader directly by making personal remarks

and digressions or by providing a comment on the society

of the time, on some of the characters. The obtrusive

narrator takes away the realistic illusion and reduces

the emotional intensity of what is being told by focusing

on the act of narrating. The narrator is unobtrusive when

he shows what happens but he does not interfere with the

story