Searching Focalization in The Prussian Officer by D. H. Lawrence

Abstract

In this paper I will try to analyse the underlying meaning of the short story The Prussian Officer from the level of narration and focalization. Narration is the process of narrating a story mediated through the voice of the narrator (identified as who speaks?) And Focalization is viewpoint or the perception through which the events are being reported (identified as who sees?). The novel focuses on the suffering and self-deterioration of a young soldier by his captain who seeks forbidden sexual admiration that makes the soldier victim to the captain’s sexual frustration. The narrator allows readers to learn the minds of characters from shifting the internal focalization simultaneously. Under the light of Narrative theory of Gerard Genette Narrative Discourse this paper will focus on how the narrative information filters through the shifting focalization between the two main characters in the story and their repressed conscious struggle and how this influences the narration. All the narratological models prepared and presented for analysis of the text based on the basic difference between story and discourse. On this basis an author can create multi-layers to present his story in different aspect. Since, the story remains same and is independent of its narrative form mainly discourse therefore, we may report same course of event in more than one version or point of view. On this basis the original chain of events presented through the discourse may have several different ways other than one single perspective. Gerard Genette named it focalization and discussed in detail in his work Narrative Discourse.