Narrator Tropes

Rizzo: How do you know what Scrooge is doing? We’re down here, and he’s up there.
Gonzo: I keep telling you—storytellers are omniscient. I know everything.
Rizzo: Hoity-toity, Mr. Godlike Smartypants.
Gonzo (turning towards the fourth wall): To conduct a proper search, Scrooge was forced to light the lamps.
[The window lights up from the lamps]
Rizzo: How does he do that?

— The Muppet Christmas Carol

Tropes about the Narrator— the helpful invisible person that fills in the blanks of the story. Compare Dialogue. See also Point of View, Framing Device. Do not confuse with Narrative Tropes.

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Tropes:

Related to:

• Point of View
• Speeches and Monologues
• Exposition
• Information Desk

Main topic:

• Narrator: A character who describes the events of the story as they happen.

Other tropes:

• The All-Concealing "I": A first-person narrative is a handy way of keeping the protagonist's identity hidden before revealing it in the twist ending.
• All First-Person Narrators Write Like Novelists
• All-Knowing Singing Narrator
• …And That Little Girl Was Me: Someone tells another person a story that they eventually reveal to be about themselves.
• Anonymous Killer Narrator
• Another Story for Another Time
• Captain's Log
• Character Narrator: An onscreen character who interacts with the others does the narrating.
• Cozy Voice for Catastrophes: A dark premise is told in a calm tone of voice.
• Delayed Narrator Introduction
• Direct Line to the Author
• Epistolary Novel
• Fauxlosophic Narration
• First-Person Peripheral Narrator
• First-Person Perspective
• First-Person Smartass
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You (nor will it protect the narrator)
• Greek Chorus
• Helpless Observer Protagonist: Is usually a first-person narrator in prose.
• Horror Host: Many works of the horror genre have a framing device where a creepy individual is presenting the story to the audience.
• Infallible Narrator
• Inner Monologue
• Interactive Narrator: The narrator and the story's characters directly speak to each other.
• Lemony Narrator
• Let Me Tell You a Story
• Mr. Exposition: A character whose purpose is to provide exposition to the other characters in order to move the plot forward.
• Multiple Narrative Modes
• Narrating the Obvious: The narrator points out stuff that should already be obvious to the audience.
• Narrating the Present
• Narration Echo
• Narrative Backpedaling
• Narrator All Along: A character within the story turns out to have been the one narrating the story all along.
• Nostalgic Narrator
• Opening Monologue
• Opening Narration: The opening of the work has a narration describing the work's premise.
• Posthumous Narration: The story is narrated by a character who died in the story.
• Present Tense Narrative
• Private Eye Monologue
• Second-Person Narration
• Sidelong Glance Biopic
• So Once Again, the Day Is Saved
• The Storyteller
• Switching P.O.V.
• Unreliable Narrator: It's hinted that the narrator isn't telling the complete truth in their story.
• Unreliable Voiceover: What the narrator describes is clearly not the same as what the audience sees.
• War Was Beginning
• The Watson

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