Thursday, 14 October 2010

Applying narrative theory to 'The Shining'

Stanley Kubrick's 1980 psychological horror, 'The Shining', has shown parts of narrative theory from media theorists, Tzevtan Todorov, Vladimir Propp, Claude Levi-Strauss, and Bordwell & Thompson.
Tzvetan Todorov applied that the equilibrium at the start of a film is disrupted. Forces are in-balanced and take affect after a event. The Disequilibrium is then restored at the end of the film to a new equilibrium. In the case of our feature film 'The Shining', the equilibrium is disrupted when Jack Torrance(played by Jack Nicholson) slowly deteriorates as a normal stable human being. Making him follow the footsteps of a past murderer who axed both his kids and wife. In Jacks case his wife Wendy(played by Shelley Duvall) and beloved son Danny(played by Danny Lloyd). However Todorov's theory says that there is an end closure. Although we are left with Wendy and Danny escaping, we are still left confused to who let Jack out of the cupboard and how many years has he really been at this hotel? So we don't end with knowing the whole story.

Theorist Vladimir Propp examined 100's of folk tales to see if they had anything in common. He identified eight character roles and 31 narrative functions. The eight roles within folk tales included The Villian/s, A Hero, Donor(provides something or information important to the affect of the film), the Helper(aids the hero), the Princess(reward for the hero), Princesses father(person who rewards the hero), the Dispatcher(sends hero on his way) and finally the false Hero. In this film the characters do desire some of these roles, yet they seem to have more than one role. Jack Torrance starts appearing to be the hero seeking work at a deserted hotel during the winter. Although early actions from Jack show a slightly twisted mind, especially accepting that cannabalism is normal infront of his young boy Danny. As time goes on at the hotel, Jack's mind deteriorates turning get into the villain out to kill his family. This change could also state that he is the false hero. Dannys visions and Jacks new Psychotic ways makes Danny flee from his father and potentially becomes the hero of the film. However according to Propp, Danny could be seen to play 'the Princess' role as this could be the prize for Jack. Not as a reward but as a goal for Jack. Throughout the film,

1 comment:

  1. Zach this post is not complete, and you do not have a post about the return of the repressed. Please do these STRAIGHT AWAY!

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