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Until lately, my thought has been that point of view and perspective are the same. but doing grammar practice on the subjects, I find:

point of view requires such explicit indications as "I, she, he, and so on"
But
perspective only requires the view of someone being indicated in an article.

So for example:

If a question asks if the passage is narrated from the point of view of Henry Mulcahy, it can only be true if the word "I" is in the passage.

On the other hand, if the question were to ask if the passage is an introduction of one character(A) through the perspective of another character(B). You only have to see if passage presents (B) as (A) sees him, and if the narrator provides no independent or neutral information about (B). There is no need to look for any pronoun in order to determine the perspective.

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  • You need to make clear whether you're talking about these terms as generally used, or as a part of the standard "jargon" used when discussing literary works. "Point of view" has a specific meaning in literary jargon.
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Jul 17, 2015 at 0:26

1 Answer 1

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No, point of view doesn't require an explicit indication of the subject. I would say that point of view and perspective are synonymous.

For instance, these are fine (and mean the same thing):

(no explicit subject)
Looking at the situation from a different point of view, ...
Looking at the situation from a different perspective, ...

(explicit subject)
The novel is written from Ophelia's point of view, ...
The novel is written from Ophelia's perspective, ...

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