Free Indirect Style - What it is and how to use it

I was first introduced to free indirect style as a craft element while reading How Fiction Works by James Wood. Wood describes free indirect style (also known as free indirect speech or free indirect discourse) as a blending of narration and thought in which the character’s mind becomes indistinguishable from the narrator’s voice. It is typically seen in the close third-person point of view. When writing in free indirect style, the author eliminates dialogue tags and authorial flagging, immersing the reader in the mind of the character.

Wood argues that the omniscient narrator draws attention to the author by intentionally exposing her knowledge and writing acumen. Free indirect style, however, shows humility by allowing the character’s voice and wisdom (or lack thereof) to come through. Done effectively, free indirect style hides the author from the narrative.

As a novice writer, the concept was hard to grasp and even more difficult to master. As a reader, dialogue tags such “he said/she said” and “he thought/she thought” seem almost an ever-present part of third-person narration. Because of their prevalence, when the tags are pulled away, readers are often so immersed in the story that it is difficult, without careful analysis, to realize what the author has accomplished.

Kate Chopin, author of Regret — Kate Chopin, author of *Regret*

But achieving free indirect style is not as simple as just pulling away the tags and letting the narrative flow. This would be clunky and confusing if not set up properly. In order to understand, let’s take a look at the short story “Regret” by Kate Chopin and analyze her use of free indirect style.

The main character is Mamzelle Aurlie, a fifty year-old spinster and plantation owner in the Antebellum South. Her neighbor is Odile, a black woman with four children who gets called away because of her mother’s illness, leaving Mamzelle to care for the young children.

When Mamzelle is left with the children, Chopin writes:

Mamzelle Aurlie stood contemplating the children. She looked with a critical eye upon Marcline, who had been left staggering beneath the weight of the chubby Lodie. She surveyed with the same calculating air Marclette mingling her silent tears with the audible grief and rebellion of Ti Nomme. During those few contemplative moments she was collecting herself, determining upon a line of action which should be identical with a line of duty. She began by feeding them.

In this paragraph, Chopin writes in a typical narrative style and voice. In other words, she does not hide herself from the narrative. She does this with authorial flagging using terms like “she looked” and “she surveyed.” Chopin also uses language that is probably unfamiliar to the character such as, “staggering”, “calculating”, and “rebellion.” But Chopin must do this in order to ease the reader into the world of the character.

Consider this paragraph:

She was, indeed, very inapt in her management of Odile's children during the first few days. How could she know that Marclette always wept when spoken to in a loud and commanding tone of voice? It was a peculiarity of Marclette's. She became acquainted with Ti Nomme's passion for flowers only when he had plucked all the choicest gardenias and pinks for the apparent purpose of critically studying their botanical construction.

Here, Chopin maintains a typical narrative style, but manages to bring the reader in even closer. Rather than describe the main character's observations, she describes the main character’s thoughts. And although Chopin does not use tags such as “she thought” she is still narrating in such a way that separates the character from the narrator. This becomes obvious in the third sentence when Chopin introduces the main character’s thought with “She became acquainted with”. A real person would not think such a thing, therefore there must be a storyteller. But we’re closer!

Now consider this paragraph.

At night, when she ordered them one and all to bed as she would have shooed the chickens into the hen-house, they stayed uncomprehending before her. What about the little white nightgowns that had to be taken from the pillow-slip in which they were brought over, and shaken by some strong hand till they snapped like ox-whips? What about the tub of water which had to be brought and set in the middle of the floor, in which the little tired, dusty, sun-browned feet had every one to be washed sweet and clean? And it made Marcline and Marclette laugh merrily -- the idea that Mamzelle Aurlie should for a moment have believed that Ti Nomme could fall asleep without being told the story of Croque-mitaine or Loup-garou, or both; or that Lodie could fall asleep at all without being rocked and sung to.

The first sentence begins as regular narration, but in the second sentence Chopin launches into free indirect style from the viewpoint of the children. “What about the little white nightgowns that had to be taken from the pillow-slip in which they were brought over, and shaken by some strong hand till they snapped like ox-whips?” This is not the voice of the narrator, nor does the narrator make any attempt to place herself in these free-flowing thoughts. Because of the work Chopin did earlier in the story, the reader does not need to be told who is thinking or what is happening. It is quite obvious and becomes very enjoyable to read.

Now it’s time to become blended into the mind of the MC. Let’s take a look.

But this coming, unannounced and unexpected, threw Mamzelle Aurlie into a flutter that was almost agitation. The children had to be gathered. Where was Ti Nomme? Yonder in the shed, putting an edge on his knife at the grindstone. And Marcline and Marclette? Cutting and fashioning doll-rags in the corner of the gallery. As for Lodie, she was safe enough in Mamzelle Aurlie's arms; and she had screamed with delight at sight of the familiar blue cart which was bringing her mother back to her.

Again, we see the narrator in the first sentence. But, like a rug pulled from under us, the narrator disappears. We see only the mind of the MC, knowing this without ever being told or shown. It is blended and effortless. For instance, “The children had to be gathered,” could be the narrator or the character—we don’t know. The next four sentences clearly belong to the character but in a way that is completely natural. The narrator re-enters the final sentence but is barely noticeable among the flowing thoughts. With this kind of free indirect style, we are there with the character, seeing and feeling alongside her without realizing that someone is telling us a story.

Free indirect style is a powerful literary device that emerges readers deep within the mind of a character. When done effectively, it blends the voices of the narrator and the character making them seem like one-in-the-same. By using free indirect style and engaging readers in the mind of the character, empathy is created which ultimately leads to an emotional response.

Sources:

James Wood, How Fiction Works, (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008).

Kate Chopin, Regret, The Kate Chopin International Society, https://www.katechopin.org/regret/.

Are you an author in need of a professional editor? We’d love to help. Take a look at our editing services.