Yusupov Oybek Nematjonovich Ahmedova Nigora Shavkatovna

Narrative Types 
Types of Narrators 
First-person 
narrative 
Main character tells 
the story (Internal 
analysis of events) 
Minor character tells the story 
(Outside observation of events) 
Third-person 
narrative 
Omniscient or analy-
tic author tells the 
story (Internal analy-
sis of events) 
Observer-author 
tells 
the 
story 
(Outside observation of events) 
It may be seen from the table that there are common features between the four 
types of narrators. When the main character or the omniscient author tells the story, 
the events are analyzed internally, reflecting the main character’s point of view. When 
the narrator is either a minor character or the observer-author, the story is an outside 
observation of events and does not reflect the main character’s feelings and attitude, 
his point of view. When told by a character in the story, the story is a first-person 
narrative. When told by the author it is a third-person narrative. 
If the story is a first-person narrative, it is told from the narrator’s point of view 
and the reader gets a biased understanding of the events and the other characters, 
because he sees them through the perception of the character who narrates. At the 
same time any story always reveals the author's point of view even if it is implied. 
The character’s and the author’s viewpoints may or may not coincide. The point of 
view of the author may even be contrary to that of the narrator; as in 
The Lady’s Maid 
by K.Mansfield. The story is narrated by a maid who proves to be naive. Though the 
reader learns no more about her life than she herself tells, he suspects that the maid is 
misjudging people, that she, so to say, measures them according to her own yardstick. 
The more the maid praises and justifies her cruel grandfather and her egoistic 
mistress, the more obvious is her naivety, the clearer is the fact that she is utterly 

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mistaken and that she does not realize how those people ill-treat her, how miserable 
her life has always been. The discrepancy between the maid’s view of the way things 
are and the reader's opinion is the irony of her life. Indirectly (through this irony) K. 
Mansfield makes it clear that she does not share the maid’s point of view and invites 
the reader to reject it, too. 
Therefore, when the author shifts the responsibility of telling the story to a first-
person narrator, he actually provides his reader with two versions of one and the same 
story: (1) the explicity expressed subjective version (the narrator’s version) and (2) the 
implied objective version, which the skilled reader is expected to derive. To 
understand the implied objective version one should take into account which type of 
narrator the story-teller is and whether he is a