Voice

VOICE
Definition of Voice
Voice in literature is the individual style in which a certain author
writes his or her works. Voice includes many different literary devices
and stylistic techniques, including syntax,
semantics, diction, dialogue, character development, tone, pacing,
and even punctuation. Though the definition of voice can feel like a
somewhat nebulous concept, voice is integral to appreciating a piece
of literature. Authors are generally thought to have a unique voice
that appears across their entire oeuvre, even if they change from
one genre to another.
Common Examples of Voice

Each of us has a literal voice that is different than anyone else’s. Not
only does it sound different; we also use specific speech patterns,
vocabulary, inflections, turns of phrase, and so on that makes our
voice recognizable and unique. We become accustomed to the
regularity and uniqueness of the voices of loved ones and famous
people alike. Those who are adept at impressions can pick out the
way that a person uses his or her voice in that unique way. Consider
the fact that many people, when they read the following lines, think
of Martin Luther King’s specific and unique voice delivering these
words:
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by
the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
Significance of Voice in Literature

Though voice sometimes may seem hard to define and distinguish
from one author to another, there is a scientific way to research a
unique author’s voice. Developed in the late 1800s by Polish
philosopher Wincenty Lutosławski, there is a technique called
stylometry meant to define the linguistic style of a particular writer.
Lutosławski created this method originally to establish a chronology
of Plato’s works, but it has been used in many different ways. For
example, some literary scholars doubted the provenance of William
Shakespeare’s works, wondering if he wrote all of them or if they
should be attributed to other writers of his day, such as Christopher
Marlowe. A thorough analysis of the voice via the methods of
stylometry proved that all of Shakespeare’s works that are attributed
to him were indeed written by him; the voice was consistent.
Indeed, just as each human being has a unique voice, so too does
each writer have a unique voice in their works of literature. Some of
these are more distinct than others; below, you will find some of the
most famously unique literary voices in all of history.
Examples of Voice in Literature

Example #1
ROMEO: But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou her maid art far more fair than she:
Be not her maid, since she is envious;
Her vestal livery is but sick and green
And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.
(Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare)
William Shakespeare’s works are characterized by many factors, such
as his penchant for iambic pentameter, metaphor, and deep themes
of love, envy, greed, and vengeance. Those who applied stylometry
methods to Shakespeare’s works found a certain consistency in word
usage, sentence length, and the arrangement of words in a line.
Though other writers of his time used similar techniques, there is
simply no writer like Shakespeare.
Example #2
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”
(“The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe)
Edgar Allen Poe used many macabre, dark, and mysterious elements
in his writing. The central plot of his famous poem “The Raven” is a
narrator who goes incrementally madder as he thinks on his lost love
and contemplates a raven who will not leave him alone. There is
often a sense of creepiness that invades his works of literature, but
Poe is also amazingly adept with meter and rhyme. His poetry often
does not stick to more common meters such as Shakespeare’s iambic
pentameter, but instead experiments with more rolling rhythms and
differing line lengths.
Example #3
…and Gibraltar as a girl where I was a Flower of the mountain yes
when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall
I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I
thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my
eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes
my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and
drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes
and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.
(Ulysses by James Joyce)
James Joyce’s style varied wildly from one text to another, and yet
even as his style evolved, his authorial voice is consistent. The above
excerpt is the very final part of Molly Bloom’s soliloquy that ends
Joyce’s epic masterpiece Ulysses. Joyce often experimented
with stream of consciousness writing, and pushed the bounds of
what could be considered a sentence. There is a certain exuberance
on display in the above excerpt that makes it a beautiful example of
voice.
Example #4
‘Four reales.’ ‘We want two Anis del Toro.’
‘With water?’
‘Do you want it with water?’
‘I don’t know,’ the girl said. ‘Is it good with water?’
‘It’s all right.’
‘You want them with water?’ asked the woman.
‘Yes, with water.’
‘It tastes like liquorice,’ the girl said and put the glass down.
‘That’s the way with everything.’
‘Yes,’ said the girl. ‘Everything tastes of liquorice. Especially all the
things you’ve waited so long for, like absinthe.’
(“Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway)
Ernest Hemingway has one of the most distinct voice examples in all
of literature, though it’s not because of the way he embellished his
sentences. Instead, it’s for stripped down way he writes a story,
focusing only on the most important details and doing away with
most adjectives, adverbs, and even conjunctions. Hemingway’s work
often deals in subtext rather than saying everything outright. Though
another writer might not choose to highlight the above dialogue, it’s
clear that these simple sentences have more weight behind them
than Hemingway is willing to show the reader right off.
Example #5
Amaranta felt a mysterious trembling in the lace on her petticoats
and she tried to grasp the sheet so that she would not fall down at
the instant in which Remedios the Beauty began to rise. Úrsula,
almost blind at the time, was the only person who was sufficiently
calm to identify the nature of that determined wind and she left the
sheets to the mercy of the light as she watched Remedios the Beauty
waving goodbye in the midst of the flapping sheets that rose up with
her, abandoning with her the environment of beetles and dahlias and
passing through the air with her as four o’clock in the afternoon
came to an end, and they were lost forever with her in the
upper atmosphere where not even the highest-flying birds of
memory could reach her.
(One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez)
Gabriel García Márquez is famous for being part of the generation of

Latin American writers who worked with magical realism. His style
allows for supernatural things to occur without any characters being
overly surprised that they’re happening. García Márquez often writes
long, beautiful sentences, in contrast to Hemingway’s short, sharp
sentences.
Test Your Knowledge of Voice

1. Which of the following statements is the best voice definition?
A. A style in which an author writes a particular book, and which
varies greatly depending on the book.
B. The consistent way in which an author writes across his or her
entire body of works.
C. The way a narrator presents a plot.
Answer to Question #1 Hide
Answer: B is the correct answer.
2. Which of the following literary devices is not a part of the author’s

voice?
A. Setting
B. Grammar
C. Syntax
Answer: A is the correct answer.
3. Consider the following quote:

TRUE!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am;
but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my
senses—not destroyed—not dulled them. Above all was the sense of
hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I
heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and
observe how healthily—how calmly I can tell you the whole story.
Considering the example of voice in this quote, which of the following
authors excerpted above do you think wrote it?
A. William Shakespeare
B. Edgar Allen Poe
C. Ernest Hemingway
Answer: B is the correct answer. This is the opening paragraph of Poe’s macabre story
“The Tell Tale Heart.”

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VOICE

Common Examples of Voice

Significance of Voice in Literature

Examples of Voice in Literature

Gabriel García Márquez is famous for being part of the generation of

Test Your Knowledge of Voice

Answer: B is the correct answer.

2. Which of the following literary devices is not a part of the author’s

Answer: A is the correct answer.

3. Consider the following quote:

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