A query about who see's who in fiction

Schumi

Schumi

I was reading some information about viewpoints on a website, and I came across this passage of writing that I found interesting. Here it is:

"She picked up her flashlight, then hesitated. There it was again--that odd, spine-tingling sensation that made her feel as if someone was watching her. She'd felt it several times a day since she'd moved into the house on Humboldt Street. Sometimes there were other weird sensations--a whisper of air on the staircase, a movement caught out of the corner of her eye, a patch of heat or cold in an otherwise temperate room."

Because I used such phrases as "made her feel," "She'd felt it," "movement caught out of the corner of her eye," the reader is kept quite firmly inside Laura through all of this passage.

If I had written Laura picked up her flashlight, a frown on her pretty face, I would have slipped out of Laura's viewpoint by looking at her from the outside. Either I'm in someone else's viewpoint and that person is watching Laura, or I'm omniscient. I cannot see my own face without a mirror, so how could Laura see hers without a mirror?

It is the last paragraph I have a slight problem with. Is the author suggesting that without the aid of a mirror, the character would have no idea if she were frowning or not? If you stood in front of somebody, and for example they told you that you looked really ugly, you would probably frown at them (you may also be tempted to get physical with this person, but that's beside the point). Surely you would have an idea at what sort of expression you were showing?

I may be making to much out of this, so feel free to comment. I'd like to hear your views.

Carol

I see what you mean, but I interpreted it as not that she would need/or other being to see herself frown- you can feel when you frown- but that she has a pretty face. That suggests an omniscent or someone else's view.
So you are right in that you would be aware of your own expression.
Now I'm confused!

Hippo

Funny you should ask this, Schumi.  This morning I was rereading something I'd written from a first person viewpoint and I'd put something like 'I moved the bottles, frowning with concentration'.  I decide to take out the bit about frowning for the very reason you mention - I've actually read the same article as you on that website! - but now that I think about it, I think you're right.  We do know when we're frowning or smiling or whatever else - our faces aren't generally out of control.  I'm going to put that sentence back in! 

Tilly

I think "a frown on her pretty face" is a description of something that Laura cannot see(unless she is looking in a miror) therefore it is an outsider's view but if the phrase was "Laura frowned" then it is referring to an action made by Laura and it could be from her point of view.

Jan

Tilly has the correct interpretation.

Read the actual words, not your own interpretation of the scene.

Carol

I know we read the actual words, but our brain interprets it, and that is where the confusion comes because we all pick up different elements of things.
Tilly is right if you ignore everything but the words. But a reader doesn't work that way.