Voice

A voice is a style or structure in which narrators narrate their narrative. It’s noticeable when a writer puts himself or herself into words and gives the impression that a character is a genuine person, expressing the writer’s intended message. It is, in simple terms, an author’s personal style of writing or viewpoint. Whenever an author connects personally with a subject, he enriches that work of literature with his personality. This distinctive personality is distinct from others that other authors have incorporated into their works. As a result, voice is a literary work’s own personality. Authors may employ a single voice or numerous voices, depending on the nature of the work.

Voice: Definition

Voice Definition– The rhetorical blend of language, style, perspective, and syntax that causes phrases, paragraphs, and sentences to flow in a certain way is referred to as voice. The narrator’s voice, as well as the voices of specific characters, can all be heard in a novel.

Types of Voice

Although there are many other sorts of voices, there are two that are most typically used:

Author’s Voice – The author’s voice is the writing style that he uses in a specific tale or written message.

Character’s Voice – A character’s voice is the primary character’s voice and how he perceives the world. For first and third-person viewpoints, it is a frequent narrative voice. The author employs an aware person as the story’s narrator.

Function of Voice

When determining the role of voice in literature, it’s important to think about the narrator’s objectivity, dependability, and knowledge. The voice indicates through whose eyes the reader sees the story, giving a literary work personality. Furthermore, a strong voice makes every word count, establishes consistency, and, most importantly, draws the reader’s attention.

Difference between Author’s Voice and Character’s Voice   

Character’s voice:

The voice of a character is the distinct tone that a skilful author embodies on various characters. For example, the main character in a story might be friendly and talkative to the point that words flow from their mouth almost endlessly, much to the disgust of other characters. This does not, however, imply that each character in the story must be similarly verbose. Each character has a distinct combination of persona and speech-language through their conversation in the eyes of an expert author, thus no characters read similarly.

Author’s voice:

The reader can hear an author’s voice in two ways: through third-person narrative or via the viewpoint represented in the work.

Famous writers like Tony Morrison and Nathaniel Hawthorne, for example, use an omniscient third-person narration to deliver their works. Both the authors, however, have their own distinct voices, which are defined by tone, word choice, paragraph and chapter structure, and a story’s pacing.

The general point of view presented inside the chapters of a novel is also referred to as the author’s voice. This viewpoint is based on the book’s atmosphere and worldview rather than specific details or conversation.

In English Grammar, there are two types of voices- Active Voice and Passive Voice. Let us now have a quick look at them.

Difference between Active and Passive Voice

A subject who performs the verb is the subject of an active voice sentence. A topic is a beneficiary of a verb’s action in passive voice. You may have picked up on the fact that perhaps the passive voice is weaker and inaccurate, but it’s not that simple. The passive voice is acceptable when it is used appropriately and in moderation.

Active voice:

A sentence uses active voice when the subject executes the verb’s action. The active voice has a forceful, direct, and distinct tone in its sentences.

Passive voice:

A sentence in the passive voice when the verbs are acted on by the subject. The passive voice is frequently composed of a bound form of  ‘to be’ and the verb’s past participle. As a result, a preposition is usually produced. That sounds a lot harder than it really is, voice is indeed easy to spot.

Examples of Active and Passive Voice

Active Voice:

Elephants adore bananas.

The banker counted the money.

The tiger chased the deer.

Passive Voice:

Bananas are adored by elephants.

The money was counted by the banker.

The deer was chased by the tiger.

Conclusion

There are two types of grammatical voices that show the relationship of the verb with the subject. They are active and passive voices. However, in a narrative, we have the character’s and the author’s voice that points out the different points of view in a narrative. The article contains all the necessary in-depth details about voice in literature. In addition to this, it includes an introduction to voice, definition of voice, types, and function of the voice. The article explains a brief difference between the author’s voice and the character’s voice.