Earnest Hemingway's Use of Outer Limited Point of View

In my last blog post, I discussed the use of the outer limited point of view by French novelist Alain Robbe-Grillet. I gave examples from his famous novel Jealousy as well as another one of his works. But America has its own master of the outer limited point of view too—Ernest Hemingway. He also used outer limited point of view, also called dramatic or objective point of view by some, in many of his short stories and novels, although he often combined it with other points of view such as the unlimited point of view or first person.  Here is an excerpt from his short story “Hills Like White Elephants”: 

The hills across the Valley of the Ebro were long and white. On this side there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun. Close against the side of the station there was the warm shade of the building and a curtain, made of strings of bamboo beads, hung across the open door into the bar, to keep out flies. The American and the girl with him sat at a table in the shade, outside the building.

In this passage, Hemingway is showing what can only be seen. We can only observe the American and the girl. He does not allow us into their heads. And so it goes with the outer limited point of view. We can only observe actions, listen to the dialogue and interpret the author's description of the scene.

Hemingway was particularly skilled at writing dialogue in the outer limited point of view. Take, for instance, this scene from his short story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”:

The waiter took the brandy bottle and another saucer from the counter inside the café and marched out to the old man’s table. He put down the saucer and poured the glass of brandy.

“You should have killed yourself last week,” he said to the deaf man. The old man motioned with his finger. “A little more,” he said. The waiter poured on into the glass so that the brandy slopped over and ran down the stem into the top saucer of the pile. “Thank you,” the old man said. The waiter took the bottle back inside the café. He sat down at the table with his colleague again.

“He’s drunk now,” he said.

“He’s drunk every night.”

“What did he want to kill himself for?”

“How should I know?”

“How did he do it?”

“He hung himself with a rope.”

“Who cut him down?”

“His niece.”

“Why did they do it?”

“Fear for his soul.”

“How much money has he got?”

“He’s got plenty.”

“He must be eighty years old.”

“Anyway I should say he was eighty.”

“I wish he would go home. I never get to bed before three o’clock. What kind of hour is that to go to bed?”

 *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

“Another,” said the old man.

“No. Finished.” The waiter wiped the edge of the table with a towel and shook his head.

The old man stood up, slowly counted the saucers, took a leather coin purse from his pocket and paid for the drinks, leaving half a peseta tip.

Although Hemingway never tells us directly how these waiters feel about the old man, we have a good idea based on their conversation. Here the dialogue tells the story. We also get a clue about how one of the waiters feels or what he must be thinking when he shakes his head while wiping the table and trying to tell the old man that he will serve him no more drinks. 

Dialogue, action and scene description all work together to convey the story written in the outer limited point of view.

Examples of Outer Limited Point of View

Despite of the challenges of writing in the outer limited point of view, many authors have done it successfully and skillfully.  One such author who has given us valuable examples of what the outer limited looks like is French author Alain Robbe-Grillet. Robbe-Grillet is one of the few writers to successfully write almost an entire novel in the outer limited point of view, with the exception of a small portion he writes in the unlimited point of view. His novel, titled Jealousy, is the story of a jealous husband spying on his wife who is having an affair.  In the story he refers to her as A. Here are a couple of paragraphs from Jealousy:

A . . . is lying fully dressed on the bed. One of her legs rests on the satin spread; the other, bent at the knee, hangs half over the edge. The arm on this side is bent toward the head lying on the bolster. Stretched across the wide bed, the other arm lies out from the body at approximately a 45 degree angle. Her face is turned upward toward the ceiling. Her eyes are made still larger by the darkness. . . .

Between this first window and the second, there is just room enough for the large wardrobe. A . . ., who is standing beside it, is therefore visible only from the third window, the one that overlooks the west gable-end.

Notice how Robbe-Grillet has to give outward details only. He has to refrain from letting us know what the woman in the scene is thinking or feeling. He has to remain totally objective throughout the novel as an observer only. Although Jealousy was Robbe-Grillet’s only novel written almost fully in the outer limited point of view, he also incorporates outer limited in several passages of another one of his novels titled In the Labyrinth about a soldier. In this scene the soldier has just returned to his barracks which is also being used as an infirmary for other soldiers:

The folded bedclothes from two dark rectangles against the lighter background of the mattress, two rectangles which overlap at one corner. The beds to the right and left are both occupied: two bodies lying on their backs, wrapped in their blankets; the heads are supported by bolsters of the same light shade as the mattresses; the man on the right has also put his hands under his neck, the folded elbows pointing diagonally on each side. The man is not sleeping: his eyes are wide open.

Again, Robbe-Grillet must describe the scene apart from interior monologue or knowledge of the inner thoughts of the characters, except that which may be revealed through dialogue. Description of scene is of utmost importance when writing in the outer limited point of view because the scene, in a sense, must tell the story.

To get a firmer grasp of the outer limited point of view, I strongly recommend you read Jealousy.