
An interesting exercise to foreground your understanding of narrative is to think about how narratives would be different if they had some aspect of the narrative style changed. For instance, imagine The Great Gatsby told through an objective, omniscient third-person narrator. How different would this be from Nick's story? Would Nick, and what he does, feature very much at all?
In the same way, try and do this with Keats. If we heard the story of Lamia or La Belle Dame from the women concerned, how might the telling of the story change? What about Lamia from the point of view of Apollonius? This sort of exercise can be useful in helping you to think about narrative perspectives. In Lamia, there are moments where the perspective seems to change, so that we sympathise with one character more than with another. Can you identify them, and pick out some of the details that create this impression?
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