: Re: Can a third-person narrator ask questions instead of the characters? In novels, when the PoV follows a particular character, is pretty common that we get to hear his/her thoughts. Sometimes, those

@Jamie945

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It does not make sense if your third-person narrator is omniscient, impersonal and - perhaps most to the point - is not strictly speaking a character. If your narrator is set up as something which knows everything, then it logically does not make sense for that narrator to ask about anything.

The case where a third-person narrator could ask questions is when they are specifically presented as someone or something which does not understand everything which is happening and therefore has a right to contemplate upon it. I don't quite remember the name of the book off the top of my head, but the third-person narrator in that book was Death (and no, this was not a Discworld book). Death saw everything and he was explained as a "presence which was everywhere (because of course he was) but could only truly focus on one thing at a time". Nonetheless, Death did not understand many of the peculiarities of mortals and frequently pondered upon them.

In other words, in the example above, the narrator is basically a character who has the capacity to observe the story without strictly being part of it; the narrator has his/her own voice and personality which ensures they do not understand everything and therefore have the capacity to ask their own questions.

Quick sample of Death as a narrator:

If I recall correctly, it was on the 1st of April when Jeremy lit his friend's house on fire. Presumably, it was meant to a be day of hilarity. I still can't get the image out of my mind when he was shaking his head and chuckling, cursing Jeremy, even as I stared him in the eyes. What is it about such an arbitrary date that turns what would be feared into a joke, I wonder?

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