O omniscient narrator, also called omnipresent, is a type of narrator who knows the whole story and plot details.
Also, he has knowledge about his characters, from feelings, emotions and thoughts.
In this type of narrative focus, the story is usually told in third person and therefore the narrator does not participate in the actions.
However, sometimes the plot can be narrated in first person. Since this narrator knows everything, he presents some thoughts or streams of consciousness from his characters.
Remember that narrative text is usually written in prose and encompasses: plot, narrator, characters, time and space.
Classification
Intruder Omniscient Narrator
The intruding omniscient narrator receives this name because at the same time he narrates the story, he criticizes the characters and inserts value judgments on some actions.
Thus, he is free to judge and position himself on the facts of the plot and, therefore, presents his opinion.
Example:
“But that's too many ideas — too many ideas; in any case they are dog ideas, dust of ideas — even less than dust, the reader will explain. But the truth is that this eye that opens from time to time to fix the space, so expressively, seems to translate something, that it shines in there, far in the background of something else that I don't know how to say, to express a canine part, which is not the tail or the ears. Poor human language!
Finally fall asleep. So the images of life play in him, in a dream, vague, recent, rags from here, patch from there. When he wakes up, he has forgotten the evil; it has an expression in it, which I don't say is melancholy, so as not to aggravate the reader. It is said of a landscape that is melancholy, but it is not said the same thing about a dog. The reason cannot be other than that the melancholy of the landscape is in ourselves, while to attribute it to the dog is to leave it outside of us. Whatever it is, it is something other than the joy of a moment ago; But come a whistle from the cook, or a gesture from the master, and there it all goes, his eyes shine, pleasure rolls up his snout, and his legs fly like wings.” (Quincas Borba, Machado de Assis)
Neutral Omniscient Narrator
The name already indicates that, unlike the intruder, this narrator is neutral and, therefore, does not insert observations about the plot.
Here, he is only concerned with character descriptions and storytelling. Therefore, your report is impartial and does not influence the reader.
Example:
“After he was married he lived off his wife's fortune for two or three years, eating well, rising late, smoking in big porcelain pipes, only coming home at night after the show, and attending the coffees. The father-in-law died and left little; he was outraged by this, set up a factory, lost some money in it, and retired to the country, where he intended to get even. But since he didn't understand farming any more than he did cheetahs, and because he rode the horses instead of putting them to work, he drank cider by the bottles instead of selling it in barrels, he ate the best poultry and shined his hunting boots with the bacon of the pigs, he soon realized that it was better to abandon the whole area. speculation.” (Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert)
Multiple Omniscient Narrator
This narrator has different opinions and views on the facts. It influences the reader to take a stand. It is a selective narrator where free indirect speech prevails.
Example:
“It was really small for them, but they claimed it was big - and they marched, half confident, half restless. They looked at the boys, who were looking at the distant hills, where there were mysterious beings. What were they thinking? hummed Sinha Victoria.
Fabiano was puzzled by the question and growled an objection. Boy is a small animal, don't think. But Sinha Vitória renewed the question - and her husband's certainty was shaken. She must be right. She was always right. Now he wanted to know what the children would do when they grew up.” (Dried lives, Graciliano Ramos)
Read too:
- Narration
- Narrative text
- Narrative Focus
- Types of Speech
- Narrative Elements
- Observer Storyteller
- Narrator character