Uncertainties Brought by Free Indirect Speech

The English term “free indirect style” comes from style indirect libre，coined in 1912 by the Swiss linguist Charles Bally，who was a student of Saussures.To conclude with frank words，free indirect discourse occurs when the narrator disappears and presents the narrative from the perspective of a character.Free indirect discourse becomes an elegant way to represent a characters thoughts，speech，and perceptions directly without the intervention of a narrator who reports these.

The walls of different kinds of narrators are torn up by free indirect speech.Perspective of narration shifts smoothly from first-person to third-person and second-person and objective and subject views of the plot and access to internal thoughts of characters are being provided at the same time.These are the benefits of using free indirect speech.If there is no such a technique in writing，the article would be a little woody and here is an example：

“They look like white elephants，”she said.

“Ive never seen one，”the man drank his beer.

“No，you wouldnt have.”

Hills like White Elephants is a short story by Ernest Hemingway in which the whole story is basically conversations between two main characters.With clear grammar markers，readers can easily distinguish who said what.However，readers may be left in dark about the real thoughts of characters and the opinions of writer are scarcely reviewed.

On the other hand，Virginia Woolf，famous for her “stream of consciousness” novels，is thought to be one of the most frequent users of free indirect speech.However，the application of free indirect speech in her novels is somehow more like monologues ，thoughts and feelings rather than speeches are presented by the narrator.In her books，the background information，the plot and the construction of character are all like pieces of a puzzle represented by thoughts，feelings and opinions of the writer.The puzzle can only be put together by careful and repeated reading，especially when they coming in length of pages instead of two or three sentences.

In Woolfs novel To the Lighthouse，the usage of free indirect speech can be easily found and sometimes can be rather seen as free indirect monologue.One or two phrases may be easy to deal with，however when free indirect speech emerges in large groups and when there is more than one character in a scene，uncertainties arise.Readers have to be vigilant and catch up to the speed，asking themselves the question -“who is uttering this thought？” constantly.Sometimes they belong to one certain character or the narrator，but certain sentences just hang in the air between the characters，belonging to no-one exclusively and as if they exist independently of hidden thinkers.

First，free indirect speech may lead to misinterpretation of personalities of characters.In the book，there are some explanations about why guests like Tansley would come to stay with the Ramsays and how Mrs.Ramsay treats them and why：

for their chivalry and valour，for the fact that they negotiated treaties，ruled India，controlled finance； finally for an attitude towards herself which no woman could fail to feel or to find agreeable，something trustful，childlike，reverential； which an old woman could take from a young man without loss of dignity，and woe betide the girl—pray Heaven it was none of her daughters！—who did not feel the worth of it，and all that it implied，to the marrow of her bones！

This paragraph is hard to categorize.It seems to be the narrators voice telling why Mrs.Ramsay would have the other sex under her wings.If so，Mrs.Ramsay appears to be an old lady who is afraid of losing her beauty and desperately trying to win affection of men.However，the sentence； “pray Heaven it was none of her daughters！” offers readers a different perspective that those comments are introspections of Mrs.Ramsay.She is combing through her own thoughts and being self-mockery.If so，Mrs.Ramsay then is considered to be normal human being with secular behaviors and would be easily forgiven by readers.

Besides causing confusions in interpretations of characters，free indirect speech can also cause confusion in plot developing.In To the Lighthouse，there are several figures and some developments of the plot in which inconsistence is shown：

while the sun poured into those attics，which a plank alone separated from each other so that every footstep could be plainly heard and the Swiss girl sobbing for her father who was dying of cancer in a valley of the Grisons，and lit up bats，flannels，straw hats，ink-pots.

If the sentence is not in it，this paragraph can be interpreted as a description of sunlight pouring into an attic.However，all of sudden，this sentence jumps out and then disappears leaving no trace.And there is no further development of this plot until chapter 5：

she had said，"the mountains are so beautiful." She had said that last night looking out of the window with tears in her eyes."The mountains are so beautiful." Her father was dying there，Mrs.Ramsay knew.

Still，nothing more is revealed more about this girl except her name and her few words.It left for us to wonder why this girl gets mentioned in seemingly irrelevant context and with no further introduction of her story.

Humans mind runs freely without any restrictions and Woolf captured this then applied it into her novel writing.No one knows what comes next and that is what makes her novel so full of surprises.

Voices of the character and the narrator are in harmony with each other with subtly differences in vocabulary，sentence structure，and intonation.Each characters thoughts together with the narrators are presented at the same time thusly causing great difficulty to distinguish them and predict where the story is going.New discoveries can be made in each reading experience，even just few words.

References

[1]Ernest Hemingway.（1927）.Man without Women.[online]Available at（19/12/2017 09：47）

[2]Anna Snaith.（1996）.Virginia Woolfs Narrative Strategies： Negotiating between Public and Private Voices.Journal of Modern Literature，Vol.20，No.2（Winter，1996），pp.133-148

[3]Virginia Woolf.（1927）.To the Lighthouse.[online] Available at（23/12/2017 15：27）

作者簡介

曾卓寒（1996—），女，漢，四川安岳，碩士在讀，首都師范大學，研究方向：跨文化。