What distinguishes third-person limited narration from other perspectives?

Third-person limited narration is characterized by focusing on the internal thoughts and feelings of just one character, which allows readers to gain insight into that individual's subjective experiences while maintaining a degree of narrative distance from others. This means that while the narrator can describe events and actions occurring around the chosen character, access to the minds and emotions of other characters is restricted. This perspective creates an intimate connection between the reader and the focal character, allowing for a deep exploration of their motivations and struggles, while keeping the experiences of other characters somewhat mysterious and less accessible to the reader.

In contrast, other narrative perspectives, like third-person omniscient, grant the narrator the ability to share the thoughts and feelings of multiple characters, providing a more comprehensive understanding of the story's overall context. The notion of the narrator merely expressing factual information is more aligned with an objective or neutral narrative style, but third-person limited allows for emotional depth through a singular character lens. Lastly, the absence of a narrator's voice is more indicative of a dramatic or other narrative style that does not articulate thoughts or provide commentary, which is not the case in third-person limited narration. Thus, the defining feature of third-person limited narration is indeed the restriction of knowledge to the thoughts of one character.