Stream of consciousness and different types of interior monologue



The term stream of consciousness was coined by the American psychologist and philosopher William James in The Principles of Psychology (1890)
It is the continuous flow of thoughts and sensations that characterize the human mind. It is a psychic phenomenon


The interior monologue is the verbal expression of a psychic phenomenon

• It lacks chronological order
• Time is subjective
• Rules of punctuation are disregarded
• There is no logical order

The indirect
The narrator does not let the characters' thoughts flow without control and mantains logical and grammatical organization

He uses DIRECT SPEECH
ex. He said 'I'll come back here to see you again'
He uses FREE DIRECT SPEECH
I'll come back here to see you again
He uses FREE INDIRECT SPEECH
He would come back there to see her again the following day

The direct
where the characters' thoughts flow freely, not interrupted by external events.There are no introductory expressions like'He thought....Take for example, Molly's monologue. Molly lies in bed thinking over the day. Various scenes from her past life crowd into her mind, while she is  thinking of her husband in particular.

The interior monologue
with two levels of narration

• one is external to the characters' mind
• the other is internal

An example is Leopold's funeral when the narrator follows Ulysses' associations,memories, reflections, stimulated by external ,even unimportant, trivial things