# Point of view > The perspective a story is told from: who narrates and how much they know. First person says "I," second person says "you," and third person says "she" or "they," either limited to one character or omniscient. Also known as narrative point of view, narrative perspective ## In practice Point of view decides whose eyes the reader looks through and how much they are allowed to know. The same robbery told by the thief, by the bank teller and by a narrator who sees everyone at once becomes three different stories. Choosing a point of view is choosing what the reader learns, when, and how close they stand to the people involved. In prose, point of view is set by the narrator: first person ("I"), second person ("you") or third person ("she," "they"), with third person ranging from close to one character to all-knowing. The choice affects voice, suspense and sympathy. A first-person narrator can hide things from us; an omniscient one can show us what every character is thinking. A screenplay has no narrator in the prose sense, because the camera shows the scene from outside. Screenwriters control point of view instead by choosing whose scenes we see, what the audience learns before a character does, and when to use voice-over or a POV shot. A film that never leaves its protagonist is as restricted as a first-person novel. ## A scene restricted to one character's view **A new nurse on her first night shift** ``` INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - NIGHT We stay with JUNE (20s), new scrubs still creased, as she pushes a cart toward Room 14. Behind her, at the nurses' station, voices drop. She doesn't turn around. At the door of Room 14 she stops. Through the small window: an empty bed, sheets stripped, the monitor dark. She checks her chart. Checks the number on the door. JUNE He was here an hour ago. Footsteps behind her stop. June turns. We don't see who it is, only her face as she understands. ``` The scene never cuts away from June, so the audience learns what she learns, when she learns it: the hushed voices, the empty bed, the person behind her. It is the screen version of close third person. By refusing to show who is standing there, the writer keeps the audience inside June's point of view at the moment of discovery. ## What point of view is Point of view, often shortened to POV, is the perspective a story is told from: who is narrating, whose thoughts we can hear, and how much the narrator knows. It is defined by grammatical person (first, second or third) and by how close the telling stays to one character's mind. Point of view shapes every other choice in the writing. It sets the voice, because a first-person teenager and an omniscient narrator sound nothing alike. It sets suspense, because a narrator who knows less can be surprised along with the reader. And it sets sympathy, because readers tend to side with the character whose mind they share. Do not confuse point of view with a character's opinions, which is the everyday meaning of the phrase, or with the POV shot in a screenplay, a camera direction that shows what a character sees. The POV page in this glossary covers that shot. The literary point of view is about who is telling the story and how much they can tell. ## First, second and third person point of view First person point of view uses "I" or "we": the narrator is a character inside the story. It feels intimate and immediate, as in The Catcher in the Rye, told by Holden Caulfield, or The Hunger Games, told by Katniss. The narrator can also be a witness rather than the hero, as Nick Carraway is in The Great Gatsby, and a first-person narrator can be unreliable, hiding or misreading the truth. Second person point of view uses "you": the reader is placed inside the story as the character. It is rare in novels because it is hard to sustain, but Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City is written entirely this way, and N. K. Jemisin uses it for parts of The Fifth Season. It is common in choose-your-own-adventure books, games, instructions and song lyrics. Third person point of view uses "he," "she" and "they": the narrator stands outside the characters. It is the most common choice in fiction because it is flexible. It can stay with one character, move between several, or rise above them all, and those variations are the next section. ## Third person limited vs. omniscient Third person limited stays with one character at a time. The narrator uses "she" or "he" but can only report that character's thoughts and what that character perceives. The Harry Potter books are mostly told this way, close to Harry, which is why readers discover the mysteries alongside him. Many novels rotate limited point of view between characters by chapter, as George R. R. Martin does. Third person omniscient is all-knowing. The narrator can enter any character's mind, explain the past and the future, and comment on events, as in Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. It gives the writer scope and authority, but it can feel distant, and switching minds within a scene without control, called head-hopping, confuses readers. Third person objective, sometimes called the dramatic point of view, reports only what can be seen and heard, with no access to anyone's thoughts. Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" is the classic example: two characters talk around a decision they never name. It is the closest prose comes to a screenplay, where the camera can only show behavior. ## Point of view in screenwriting Film tends toward the objective, but screenwriters still choose a point of view through structure. A script that stays with one character in every scene, like Rear Window, which confines us to Jeff's apartment, creates the effect of limited point of view: we know only what he can see. A script that cuts between the hero and the villain gives the audience a wider, more omniscient view and lets them know more than any one character. Voice-over brings first person to the screen. Goodfellas is narrated by Henry Hill and then partly by Karen, and the shift tells us whose version of the story we are hearing. Fight Club's narrator is also unreliable, and the twist depends on the audience having accepted his point of view. Used with purpose, voice-over adds a voice the images cannot; used as a crutch, it explains what the scene should show. The POV shot is the camera's version of first person, showing exactly what a character sees. A few films have tried to stay in it from start to finish, such as Lady in the Lake in 1947 and Hardcore Henry in 2015, but most use it for short moments of discovery or threat. When you plan a script, decide whose story each scene belongs to, and you will know where the camera, and the audience, should stand. ## Official sources & context Sources reviewed Oct 29, 2026 - [Encyclopaedia Britannica — Point of view](https://www.britannica.com/art/point-of-view-literature-and-film) ## Common questions ### What is point of view in a story? Point of view is the perspective a story is told from: who is narrating and how much they know. The main types are first person ("I"), second person ("you") and third person ("he," "she" or "they"), which can be limited to one character or omniscient. ### What is third person point of view? Third person point of view tells the story from outside the characters, using "he," "she" and "they." In third person limited, the narrator follows one character's thoughts; in third person omniscient, the narrator can see into every character's mind. ### What is first person point of view? First person point of view is narration by a character inside the story, using "I" or "we." It feels personal and immediate, and it limits the reader to what the narrator knows, notices and chooses to say. ### What is second person point of view? Second person point of view addresses the reader as "you" and makes them the main character: "You wake up in a room you don't recognize." It is rare in novels but common in interactive fiction, games and instructions. ### What is the difference between third person limited and omniscient? Third person limited stays inside one character's head at a time, so the reader knows only what that character knows. Third person omniscient can move into any character's thoughts and reveal things none of them know. ### Which point of view is best for a novel? There is no single best choice. First person suits intimate, voice-driven stories and mysteries; close third person is the most flexible and the most common; omniscient suits large casts and epic scope. Choose the one that controls what the reader learns in the way your story needs. ### Does a screenplay have a point of view? Yes. Screenplays are written from the camera's outside view, but the writer controls point of view by choosing whose scenes we see, what the audience knows before the characters, and when to use voice-over or POV shots. ## Related terms - [POV](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/pov): On the page, POV usually marks a shot through a character's eyes (or a device standing in for them). In craft talk, point of view also means whose experience the scene privileges. - [Narrator](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/narrator): The voice that tells a story: a character speaking as "I," or a voice outside the story. The narrator is not the author, and who narrates, and how much they know, shapes everything the reader learns. - [Unreliable narrator](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/unreliable-narrator): A narrator whose account the audience cannot fully trust, because they lie, misremember, misunderstand or hide something. On screen that usually means a voice-over or a flashback that shows the story the way one character tells it. - [Voice-over (V.O.)](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/voice-over): Dialogue heard but not spoken aloud in the scene's space at that moment — narration, a remembered voice, a character's thoughts, the far end of a phone call. Marked as (V.O.) on the character cue. --- Canonical page: