"Authors have more scope to develop and explore their characters when they use interior monologue than by using a narrator who reminisces. Do you agree? Comment, making detailed references to "The Great Gatsby" and "The Stone Angel"
In answer to the above question, I do agree with the statement declared. Writers do have a wider range of options to develop and explore their characters when they use interior monologue. This is because the characters' thoughts and feelings are openly displayed to us and we are purposely allowed to enter their minds. This helps us to better understand the characters because we know how they think and feel on different matters relevant to the plot of the novel.
In novels where interior monologue is used we get to know the characters a lot better. For example, in Margaret Laurence's 'The Stone Angel', the main character Hagar (who we love to hate), openly uses interior monologue to describe to us her whole life right up to the present day.
English: Interior of the Gatsby bar, inside the Re...
Abside, intérieur du temple de Hagar Qim
Monologue of LoveWhen she first takes us back in her past we go back to her childhood where we discover she was raised without a mother, although her Auntie Doll was hired to help with the housework, Hagar felt she had a responsibility to be the "homemaker". She had two brothers,
Matt and Dan, and her father owned the general store. We learn all this and much, much more about Hagar's childhood through interior monologue. Without interior monologue we would know nothing of Hagar's past, or any of the feelings or thoughts she has about people and events also we wouldn't know anything about her upbringing which led her to be the type of person she is in the present which is a crucial theme in the novel. Hagar sounds like...