Free indirect discourse

How it is used

Common in fiction analysis, especially for novels. It lets readers feel close to a character's mind while staying in third person.

Example sentences

1. In the seminar, we identified free indirect discourse when the narration stayed in third person but suddenly carried Emma's impatience.

   Here the term describes a shift where the narrator's voice absorbs the character's private attitude without quotation or reporting verbs.

2. The editor asked for a note because free indirect discourse made the intern mistake the narrator's irony for the hero's belief.

   In this sentence, the term highlights how blended voice can create ambiguity about whose perspective shapes the wording.

Common collocations

• use free indirect discourse
• free indirect discourse in fiction
• master free indirect discourse
• free indirect style

Related terms

• narratorThe voice that tells the story to the reader. It may be a character in the story or an outside voice, and it is not the same as the author.
• point of viewThe position from which a story is told, which decides whose eyes we see events through and how much we learn, for example first-person or third-person.

More terms: Narration and Point of View

• narrative
• first-person narrator
• omniscient narrator
• unreliable narrator
• stream of consciousness
• focalization
• literary persona
• narratee
• simultaneous narration
• heterodiegetic narrator