Point of View

The novel, Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, uses a third-person omniscient point of view. This is a method of storytelling where the reader is privy to all of the thoughts and feelings of all of the characters, as the narrator choosed to present them. This technique allows authors like Dickens to create a rich and varied world, allowing the reader to experience the story through the eyes of several different characters. It also allows Dickens to show the same events through the eyes of different characters. For example, although the reader knows about halfway through the novel that John Rokesmith is actually John Harmon, Bella is not privy to this information. Through the use of omniscient narration, we can see how her thought processes and feelings develop as she suspects something is awry with her husband and he is not who he seems. We also...