The Ways in Which Narrative Perspectives Vary in The French Lieutenant's Woman and Hawksmoor

The Ways in Which Narrative Perspectives Vary in The French Lieutenant's Woman and Hawksmoor

Although there are many different perspectives taken in the two novels

that shape the overall theme of each plot, comparisons can be drawn

between them to show that they share a few fundamental similarities in

the way that the authors present their narrative. By looking at the

this presentation, it is possible to extract that the authors share

common ground in the role that they take in the novel, the

post-modernist way they seem to perceive their own role as a novelist

and their perspectives on the theme of time in a novel. These factors

combine to suggest that the novels, which have very different stories,

actually are very similar in the way that they break the conventional

moulds of story telling.

Without a doubt, the author plays the greatest role of all in

construction of a novel but it is not often that this role is

furthered by involvement in the plot, or questioned in the way that

these two authors do. Both novels have aspects of this but show it in

different ways: for example, in 'Hawksmoor', Peter Ackroyd adopts

multiple narrative voices and presents himself to the reader in

different ways, whereas John Fowles literally places himself in the

book and also hides behind some other subtle characters. Ackroyd

creates three different narrative voices that appear and continue

throughout the novel - the voice of Nick Dyer in the first person, the

voice of the unobtrusive narrator in the third person and finally the

extraction of the narrative in the play script form. Through Dyer's

narrative, the reader gains a biased view of the events ...

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...s, Fowles not only breaks the rules, but

constantly contradicts them and calls them into question, making the

narrative unclear. On the other hand, 'Hawksmoor' does not show all

the signs of a post-modern novel and when Ackroyd breaks rules, he

does not share it with the reader in the same way as Fowles, nor does

he leave unanswered questions about his power. He does, however, leave

unanswered questions in his plot and raises questions about time,

which seems to be the predominant theme. Some novels may change the

reader emotionally or may change their opinions but the varying

perspectives that these two writers take, have big impact on the way

that the reader approaches the novels. This is very useful for the

novelists because it means that they can shape not only what the

reader receives but also how they receive it.