Third Person Omniscient: The Ultimate Guide + Examples

Third person omniscient is perhaps the oldest narrative form of recorded storytelling, used by our ancestors to tell the tales of Odin, Heracles, and Amun-Ra. By allowing readers to access the thoughts, emotions, and experiences of multiple characters in a story, it's considered one of the most flexible (yet challenging) POVs for authors to use.

Let’s look at why storytellers in the past have loved it so much, and what makes this point of view so powerful — as well as what’s caused it to fall out of favor in modern times.

What is third person omniscient point of view?

Third person omniscient point of view is a narrative technique that provides a panoramic and all-knowing perspective in a story. As with third person limited, it uses the pronouns he, she, and they to describe the main character’s thoughts and actions.

Here’s an example:

She wished to see the world, but her father, who thought the world dangerous, forbade her from stepping outside.

This POV, in which an unspecified narrator with a “god’s eye” tells us the story, used to be the dominant mode of storytelling until the 1900s when first person POV and third person limited POV took over. Today, it’s not impossible to find third person omniscient in books on the shelves, but it’s certainly rarer.

How is third person omniscient different from third person limited?

Like third person limited, third person omniscient is a type of third person point of view. So what’s the difference between the two of them?

It comes down to the kind of narrator behind each point of view. In third person limited — which is sometimes also called “close third —” the narration is intrinsically connected to the main character. We are more often than not almost “inside” the character’s head, and an author using this POV can only write what the character feels, thinks, sees, and knows.

In third person omniscient, however, the narrator is external to all of the characters. This all-seeing narrator can reveal anything that is happening, has happened, or will happen in the world of the story. In effect, it’s a god-like narrator telling us the story — hence why this POV is called the “god’s eye view.”

The case for third person omniscient point of view

When executed well, third person omniscient can be extremely powerful in its own right. Let’s talk about why.

Omniscient narrators have a wealth of breadth and scope

Because they know what each character is thinking and feeling at all times, an omniscient narrator gives authors a unique opportunity to examine many characters’ psyches at once. The narrator can also know things about the characters that they aren’t aware of yet — or wouldn’t be willing to divulge if they were the ones telling the story. 

But the omniscient narrator’s power also goes a step beyond: as well as knowing what every character knows, the omniscient narrator is privy to all things that they don’t know. This becomes information that can be shared with the reader at critical moments, to great effect.

All-seeing narrators can summon suspense from thin air

An omniscient narrator knows more about the events of the story than the main characters do, so they can be used to create tension and dramatic irony. That is where the reader knows something that the main characters do not. Sometimes, this irony is used for humorous effect but more often, we’ll see it as a device for ratcheting up the suspense.

The narrator can become a character in their own right

Although omniscient narrators take a god’s eye view of the story, that doesn’t mean they have to be cold, detached figures. In fact, these unnamed storytellers often have a distinct personality or worldview that they add to the story. Just look at the funny narrator in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series or the dry narrator in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice for a cue.

Just as omniscient narrators can have personalities, they can also express their own thoughts and feelings. While bound by their own limitations as passive observers, they might have something to say about the story they’re telling. 

For example, Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief is narrated by Death himself, a character who watches over humanity. While he only plays a small role in the lives of the protagonists, he has much to say about what he witnesses and wants the reader to learn from it, like he has. 

The case against third person omniscient point of view

With all that said, it’s generally advised to proceed with extreme caution whenever using third person omniscient for one simple reason: it’s extraordinarily difficult to pull off. 

First-time authors trying out third person omniscient will often find themselves running into the pitfalls of this type of point of view — telling and not showing, too much exposition, not an interesting enough omniscient narrator, a constant breaking of the fourth wall, excessive head-hopping, and more.

By nature, third person omniscient is also less immersive than either first person point of view (where you’re directly in the character’s head) or third person limited point of view (where you’re extremely close to the character’s head.) So unless it’s well-executed, some readers may find this mode of narration jarring.

As a result, it can be harder to convince a literary agent to take on a third person omniscient book in the modern market. That’s not to say that you should never use it! However, if you do decide to try third person omniscient, do so purposefully.

Let’s turn to some third person omniscient examples now to see what that might look like.

Examples of third person omniscient point of view in action

As you can see in the examples of third person omniscient below, it’s possible to turn this POV into a compelling and effective way to tell a story.

1. “Brokeback Mountain” by Annie Proulx

During the day Ennis looked across a great gulf and sometimes saw Jack, a small dot moving across a high meadow, as an insect moves across a tablecloth; Jack, in his dark camp, saw Ennis as night fire, a red spark on the huge dark mass of mountain.

In this passage from Annie Proulx’s short story "Brokeback Mountain," we are privy to two separate, private moments of longing.

Unbeknownst to each other, both Ennis and Jack look for each other during the day, demonstrating how they are present in each other’s thoughts. The images playing in their heads are a great reflection of their character: Ennis’s thoughts are simpler, imagining ants on a tablecloth, while Jack’s are grander and more romantic, conjuring up fire and sparks in the night. 

With this brilliant example of show, don’t tell, we can see the strength of their connection in its quietest, most private expressions. This particular moment would be impossible to describe with a limited viewpoint.

2. The Nether World by George Gissing

Society produces many a monster, but the mass of those whom, after creating them, it pronounces bad are merely bad from the conventional point of view; they are guilty of weaknesses, not of crimes.

Another example of an omniscient narrator with a strong worldview can be found in George Gissing's The Nether World. Gissing’s book exposes the lives of the poor in Victorian London and concerns itself with showing all the hardships experienced by the lower classes. The novel’s (and the narrator’s) views are incredibly pessimistic and, for the time, controversial. 

This passage is the novel’s thesis statement, an assertion that underpins the entire story being told. However, taking this approach can be politically risky, especially when the subject matter is so closely related to problems of the real world. If your omniscient narrator has a specific worldview, but isn’t established as a character in the story, readers will likely assume these opinions are yours 一 so do take care if you’re writing ironically about sensitive topics.

3. Middlemarch by George Eliot

The troublesome ones in a family are usually either the wits or the idiots. Jonah was the wit among the Featherstones, and joked with the maid-servants when they came about the hearth, but seemed to consider Miss Garth a suspicious character, and followed her with cold eyes.

Middlemarch’s subtitle, “A Study in Provincial Life,” allows the reader to imagine that the narrator is some sort of academic. In describing the town’s citizens, this narrator takes an almost sociological view, putting the reader in mind of a middle-class inhabitant of the community who makes pithy observations about their neighbors and how they act. They invite the reader to see the good people of Middlemarch through their perspective and analysis. 

4. The Inugami Curse by Seishi Yokomizo

That was the end of the life of Sahei Inugami – the end of his eighty-one turbulent years. In hindsight, we now know that his death set in motion the blood-soaked series of events that later befell the Inugami clan. 

In the mystery novel The Inugami Curse, a wealthy family awaits their patriarch’s death to see who will inherit his fortune. But as the narrator reveals, they have no way of knowing — as they sit by his deathbed — what tragedies await them. 

The omniscient narrator tells the readers, with a wink and a nudge, what to expect as the story unfolds. But at this moment, the characters remain clueless about the murders and intrigue that will come as they fight for control of Sahei Inugami’s will. Thus, a sense of tension and dread is conjured — something perfectly suited to a detective novel.

5. Discworld by Terry Pratchett

Killing off a wizard of a higher grade was a recognised way of getting advancement in the orders. However, the only person likely to want to kill the Bursar was someone else who derived a quiet pleasure from columns of numbers, all neatly arranged, and people like that don’t often go in for murder*.

*At least, until the day they suddenly pick up a paperknife and carve their way out through Cost Accounting and into forensic history.

If you’ve built a vast world, an omniscient narrator can make exposition easier because they’re supposed to be all-knowing. It would be odd, for instance, if you were writing in third-person limited and your narrator randomly dropped the fact that the universe is made of cheese. Omniscient narrators, on the other hand, have the license to explain the world to readers.

When should you use third person omniscient point of view?

Like second person POV, you should only use third person omniscient point of view when you have a strong storytelling reason to do so. Before committing to this POV, ask yourself these key questions:

• What genre are you writing in? As with the other points of view, third person omniscient is a better fit for some genres than others. Epic fantasy, for example, is a traditional fan of third person omniscient (think of the historian-like narrator of Lord of the Rings). You’ll also sometimes see third person omniscient in literary fiction.
• How close do you want readers to get to the story? Third person omniscient constantly reminds readers that they’re being told a story. Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams both employ a sly narration style — and they both use footnotes regularly to tug the readers out of the narrative. Whether you view this as a plus or minus, however, is up to you.
• Are you telling a story that begs for a) an external narrator with b) their own voice? If your book would benefit from a fully external narrator telling the story with a distinct voice, then you should seriously consider using third person omniscient. This is the only POV that will grant authors these unique advantages.

Again, there’s no one “best” point of view to use. It all depends on which point of view is right for your story, so feel free to experiment with it and see!

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Now that we're all caught up with third-person viewpoints, let's learn more about a unique yet underused narrative perspective: fourth person POV.