Examples of Third Person Writing From Classic Fiction

Voyage of the Pequod
Everett Henry/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

If you're still a little confused about what the third person writing looks like in fiction, study these classic examples and examine how each author handles point of view.

Examples of Third Person Writing From Classic Fiction

Jane Austen's clear prose provides a perfect sample of the third person. Though Pride and Prejudice are very much Elizabeth Bennet's story, the narrator is not Elizabeth Bennet. "I" or "we" would only occur within quotations:

When Jane and Elizabeth were alone, the former, who had been cautious in her praise of Mr. Bingley before, expressed to her sister how very much she admired him."
He is just what a young man ought to be," said she, "sensible, good humoured, lively; and I never saw such happy manners! -- so much ease, with such perfect good breeding!"
"He is also handsome," replied Elizabeth, "which a young man ought likewise to be, if he possibly can. His character is thereby complete."

We can find a more recent example of the third person in Joseph Heller's Catch-22. Again, though it's Yossarian's story, he isn't telling the story to us. Note the dialogue tags (e.g., "he answered" and "Orr said.") In the third person, you'll never see "I said" or "we said."

"What are you doing?" Yossarian asked guardedly when he entered the tent, although he saw at once."There's a leak here," Orr said. "I'm trying to fix it."
"Please stop it," said Yossarian. "You're making me nervous."
"When I was a kid," Orr replied, "I used to walk around all day with crab apples in my cheeks. One in each cheek."
Yossarian put aside his musette bag from which he had begun removing his toilet articles and braced himself suspiciously. A minute passed. "Why?" he found himself forced to ask finally.
Orr tittered triumphantly. "Because they're better than horse chestnuts," he answered.

Finally, contrast these with the first-person example from Moby-Dick. In this case, the story is told by Ishmael, and he speaks directly to the reader. Everything is from his perspective: we can only see what he sees and what he tells us. The dialogue tags, of course, vary between "I said," when Ishmael is talking, and "he answered," when the other person speaks.

"Landlord!" said I, "what sort of chap is he -- does he always keep such late hours?" It was now hard upon twelve o'clock.
The landlord chuckled again with his lean chuckle, and seemed to be mightily tickled at something beyond my comprehension. "No," he answered, "generally he's an early bird -- airley to bed and airley to rise -- yea, he's the bird what catches the worm. -- But to-night he went out a peddling, you see, and I don't see what on airth keeps him so late, unless, may be, he can't sell his head."
"Can't sell his head? -- What sort of a bamboozingly story is this you are telling me?" getting into a towering rage. "Do you pretend to say, landlord, that this harpooneer is actually engaged this blessed Saturday night, or rather Sunday morning, in peddling his head around this town?"

A trick to ensure that you are consistently using third person narrative in a piece of fiction is to do a complete read-through only paying attention to the point of view. Remember that third person writing can be limited or omniscient.