Narrative Theory's

Tzvetan Todorov’s Narrative Theory

Todorov’s theory is that most story’s and plot lines follow the same 5 step pattern.  I’m going to be using The Incredibles as an example for each step.

Step 1 – Equilibrium

The first step and the first part of the typical storyline is the happy beginning where the scene, characters and the general scenario are happy and content, similar to the opening scenes in The Incredible where Mr. Incredible is catching a bank robber and “saving the world”

Step 2 – Disruption

This is the next part of the narrative where there is some sort of disruption which ruins the happy beginning, this would be when Mr. incredible saves someone jumping off a building, and then he sues the superheroes because he didn’t want to be saved.

Step 3 – Realization

This is normally during the middle of the story when  people realize what a disaster the problem was. This is when The superheroes have been gone for a while having been sued, and lots of crime and destruction start taking over, as well as Mr incredible finding out that he has been taken to the island away from the city so that Sydrome can attack the city with no one to stop him

Step 4 – Restored Order

Restored order is pretty self explanatory but its towards the end of the narrative where the characters return to repair the damage and get rid of the problem, this is when all of the Incredible return to the city in order to destroy the robot and save everyone

Step 5 – Equilibrium Again

The 5^th and last step is at the end of the storyline when the problem is resolved and everything can continue as it was before at the start, This is when The Incredibles have destroyed the robot and are accepted back as superheroes, and once all together in a family again they are back to saving the city.

Vladmir Propps Character Theory

Vladmir's theory was that most plots lines in story's follow 8 different character types, im going to be using Star Wars as an example of each character profile

The Villain

The name is very self explanatory but its the person who fights the hero and for my example its Darth Vader as he is obviously the most evil character in Star Wars and is the one that the main character fights

The Dispatcher

This is the character who makes the villains evil known, and sends the hero off on his quest.  This would be Obi Wan as he is the one who always guides Luke and tells him where to go and also warns him when danger is nearby.

The (Magical Helper)

This character doesn't necessarily have to be magic but it is usually the case in most Disney films for example, this is someone who helps the hero during their quest and in this case it would be Chewie. This is because Chewie always follows Luke and helps him from getting into danger.

The Princess or Prize

This is the person that the hero deserves throughout the story but is unable to marry because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. The heros journey is often ended when he marries the princess, therefor beating the villain and resulting in a "Happy Ever After" moment. As suggested by the name this would be Princess Leia as she is the princess and the person who the main character desires (despite the fact she is is later to to be his sister.)

The Father

This is another self explanatory one but its the person who gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero and marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp also noted that functionally, the princess and the father cannot be clearly distinguished. This would again, be Obi Wan as he is Luke guardian who often appears in ghost form to help Luke on his quest.

The Donor

The donor prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object, this would be Yoda as he is the person who fully trains luke to because a jedi, in turn rewarding him with the power of the force which allows him to proceed with his quest to battle the dark side.

The Hero or Victim/Seeker hero

This is the main character who reacts tp the donor and weds the princess which in Star Wars would be Luke Skywalker as he is the films main character on the quest whos desire it is to marry princess leia

False Hero

The false hero is the character who takes credit for the heroes actions and tries to marry the princess. In this example it is Han Solo as he often takes a lot of Luke's credit during their quest and also falls in love with the princess.

Roland Barthes Codes Theory

Barthes theory of codes was that speech and text in films and stories were not as straight forward as they seemed. He believed that text was like a ball of thread and it was up the the viewers to unravel the thread and find out what the text means. He stated that there was lots of different ways at looking at a narrative and each way of looking at it had a different meaning and experience. He split his theory into 5 different codes which were woven into any narrative

The Hermeneutic Code (HER)

This is the way the story avoids telling the truth and revealing everything straight away, this is to give the audience the illusion of a mystery and to keep them confused from the truth of whats really happening.

The Enigma/Proairetic Code (ACT)

This is the way a story builds up tension and suspense so the audience are thrilled or exciting to find out what happens next in the narrative

The Semantic Code (SEM)

The sematic code points to any element in a text that suggests an additional meaning by way of connotation that the story suggests

The Symbolic Code (SYM)

This is similair the the previous code but instead acts to a wider degree. It organising semantic meanings into wider and deeper meanings and is most usually done with the use of antithesis, this is when new meaning arises out of opposing and conflict ideas

The Cultural Code (REF)

This is when the story/narrative opens the viewers minds to look deeper into the meaning of the wider cultural knowledge, morality and idealogy

Analyzing Fairy Liquid Adverts

I think what distinguishes adverts from other kinds of TV programming is that, as it has so much information for a company or product to show in the space of around 30 seconds it has to choose what to show and what to not show very carefully. Where a television programme has usually 30 minutes to an hour of information and footage to show the audience, an advert much choose what they think would captivate the audience to listen to what they are selling and promoting. 

Lots of fairy liquid adverts in the 60s and 70s always show a mother and usually a daughter, there is a general theme of women being shown in the washing up adverts. This Fairy Liquid advert from 1992 is a good example of an ad that is very different from todays kind of television commercials. The short ad is quite sexist as it shows the stereotype of a typical wife being in the kitchen doing the cleaning and washing up assisted by the daughter. Its very unrealistic as it shows the fairy liquid cleaning product as something the woman cares for by saying "Its kind, caring and the bubbles make my hands feel nice and soft." which wouldn't be the case in a real life scenario, its just something to help clean up and wouldn't be something the woman enjoys or talks about. The un realistic over the top attitude towards the product makes the ad come of as not very entertaining and very fake. The narrative of the ad is that the young child is trying to sell another cleaning product to the mother who is washing up, the mum then says that she would never use anything other than fairy liquid as her hand wouldn't feel the same. Most commercials like this tend to use the same format of ridiculously overselling the product by making the people in the ad way to over exaggerative of the product


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mki1Zto7JZo&nohtml5=False

The second example is a much more up to date Fairy Liquid TV advert from 2015, showing a father and his son washing up in the kitchen. They have got rid of the usual women filled washing up ads that people are way to used to seeing and swapped it for father and son. The ad shows the young boy who wants to make a rocket out of the fairy liquid bottle but the dad has finished the bottle as he is washing up with it. It shows the boy crossing out the weeks on his calendar counting down the days till the dad empties the bottle for his to make it into a rocket. It hasn't changed much from the previous examples narrative of an over exaggerated child who wants to use the fairy liquid way more than a child would in real life. Its not as over the top as the 1992 advert but still following the same guidelines, the child comes of very annoying as its obvious that no child would do something as extreme as mark days on a calendar just to wait for a bottle to empty where he could just buy a rocket toy. There is no woman shown in this commercial so the man is shown as the lead in this ad which is the only thing that has changed in years of fairy liquid ads


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb7neUBxEhc&nohtml5=False