Story-Telling Techniques And Conventions

A Midsummer Tempest, iv.

In a stage play:

in the foreground, hero and heroine whisper, audibly to the audience;

in the background, unseen by the main characters but fully visible to the audience, other characters watch and converse inaudibly until one exits;

there is no such thing as a viewpoint character;

the audience has a God's eye view of the entire action and makes an informed judgment as to the content of the inaudible conversation.

In graphic fiction:

two characters with speech balloons occupy the foregrounds of several successive panels;

careful scrutiny of panel backgrounds might reveal other characters watching, conversing without speech balloons, exiting etc;

one of the main characters might narrate in captions but, even then, is not necessarily aware of any background activity.

In prose fiction:

a conversation is usually recounted from the point of view of one of its participants or possibly from the pov of a third party observer/eavesdropper;

the reader is informed only of what the viewpoint character perceives.

In Poul Anderson's A Midsummer Tempest:

the text alternates between the conventions of prose fiction and of drama, e.g., when Rupert and Jennifer talk by a fire, watched by Roundhead guards:

"He tried to shake the mood off." (p. 25) (Rupert's pov.)

"The Roundheads, who had been huddled in a ring, dispatched one of their number downstairs. The two by the fire did not notice." (p. 28) (Stage directions.)