In the movie Roshamon, point of view is the predominant technique
used to tell the story. What actually happens to the characters is
overshadowed by the way they see themselves during the story.
"There are four basic types of point of view: the first person,
the omniscient, the third person, and the objective. In first person,
the narrator tells his or her won story. They can either be an
objective or subjective observer. An objective narrator can be relied on to
relate the events accurately, but a subjective observer can't be
totally relied on to tell the truth."" (Giannetti, 401) In Roshamon, the
first person point of view is used but in the subjective sense.
We as viewers got to see how each character portrayed themselves
during the movie through their point of view. The point of view tells
more about the person telling the story then the actual story. What they
say reflects how they see themselves, or how they need to see
themselves. For example, the bandit needs to see himself as brave and fearless.
He cares more about his ego than his life. The bandit was so concerned
with the fact that someone accused him of falling off his horse that he
confessed to murdering the man in the woods. The bandit couldn't
bear to have anyone think of him as weak.
When the woman tells her version of the story, she portrays herself
as being the selfless woman who would rather die than have her husband
think poorly of her. She claimed to have tried to kill herself twice
When the medium tells the man's story through the priest, the man
has to preserve his self-image by lying to himself. He claimed his
wife was so evil and he should be pitied because he was married to her.
The man, in turn, kills himself just so he does not look weak because of
The woodcutter's story is very absurd. He covers up for himself
...