Point of View

"Corelli's Mandolin" is written in several different voices representing several points of view. The main sections of the narrative that take place on Cephallonia are written in the third person with an omniscient narrator. The internal thoughts and motivations of all the characters are revealed in the writing. In some chapters only one character appears, giving these sections a distinct point of view of one character. The chapters that outline the adventures of the fisherman Mandras once he leaves the island are an example of this point of view.

Woven throughout the narrative are chapters that are presented as the written accounts of a single character, Carlo Guerica. These chapters are written in the first person, as if the character himself is writing. They are addressed overall to Captain Corelli. Other similar chapters represent personal accounts written in the first person, such as the account of...