Point of View

Rita Dove tells her play, The Darker Face of the Earth, from the third person omniscient narrative point of view. While much of the play is driven by character dialogue, an omniscient narrator explains some of the events as they unravel, so that the reader (and potentially the audience, if the play was being acted on stage) could understand the plot as it unfolds. Because of the diverse number of unique characters crucial to the plot, conflicting emotions, sordid and tumultuous events, and metaphysical and philosophical concepts, Dove chooses to allow the play to proceed beyond the oftentimes narrow realm of first-person perspective. Third-person therefore suits the play aptly, and helps to ensure the reader is able to understand and see things from various points of view.

Setting

Because Rita Dove's play The Darker Face of the Earth is an American antebellum retelling of the Greek...