Stream of consciousness
Stream of consciousness is a literary technique through which a fiction writer reveals the thoughts of a character randomly. “I want her I really do oh no! He can’t he just can’t stop it she’s mine!” is an example. Here the character is thinking these thoughts about a girl without uttering a word to the other two characters, but even without it we understand that he loves her and is very uncomfortable with the situation although he is not acting upon it.
In stream of consciousness, the character speaks to nobody but himself. The difference between a soliloquy and stream of consciousness is that a character speaks out a soliloquy for the benefit of the audience. It was mainly used in plays, as a way to reveal the thoughts of a characters to the audience without the other characters knowing anything about it. However, in stream of consciousness, the thoughts remain just that, thoughts. It is used to reveal the thoughts of a character to the reader without touching the plot/action.
Let’s see how famous writers have used stream of consciousness to highlight a character’s thoughts.
This extract is from A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway. Its protagonist, Henry, is describing an accident.
A flash and a roar that started white and went red and on and on in a rushing wind. I felt wind. I went out swiftly, all of myself, and I knew I was dead. Then I floated, and instead of going on I felt myself slide back. I breathed and I was back.
This accident has been captured through the thoughts of Henry. Showing the accident through the eyes of the victim does two things – it pushed the plot forward and describes the feelings of the character. The impact of the accident echoes in the reader’s mind because it has been “felt” by the character, not just seen. In short, it builds in a greater impact.
OR
You can only describe the feelings of the character emphatically, if that is the priority.
Oh mama mia, mama Mia…Dio te salve, Maria, Dio te salve, Maria. Oh Jesus shoot me Christ shoot me mama mia mama Mia oh purest lovely Mary shoot me. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Oh Jesus lovely Mary stop it. Oh oh oh oh.
ANOTHER way to bring out the psychology of the character is to have the character talk about herself. Like Molly Bloom did in James Joyce’s Ulysseus.
“I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes. “
Once you get into the head of a character, you can show – herself, other characters or the action in an intense and innovative way.
T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Afred Prufrock was wholly written in stream of consciousness. And it is a brilliant poem, believe me.
And indeed there will be time
To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair–
(They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”)
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin–
(They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”)
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
In this stanza, Prufrock even sees himself from the eyes of others when he says “With a bald spot in the middle of my hair, they will say . . .” Such thoughts speak a lot about the personality of Prufrock. He is shy, introverted, suffering from a split personality, acutely conscious of his appearance, magnifying his deeds like hell, and so on.
With stream of consciousness, you can hit two birds with a single stone. You can reveal the personality of your character and also move the plot forward without boring the reader.
Warning: Use with discretion.
