Narrative Theory

In class time we watched the iconic horror film "The Shining". It is useful to apply several different narrative structural theories to understand the ways in which horror films can be constructed. I will overview concepts from important theorists, including: Todorov, Propp, Levi-Strauss and Bordwell and Thompson.

Firstly is Todorov's idea of the structure of a narrative. Here he expresses the notion that narratives are told in linear format; the idea behind his theory is horizontal and names the stages of different of points of a story. His theory follows a pattern where in an initial instance there is a pre-existing equilibrium, as the story proceeds this is disrupted and creates a period of disequilibrium. During this time is a pathway to resolution, when the disruption is resolved a new equilibrium is created. There is a lot of evidence of this in "The Shining". The application of Todorov's model is invaluable and his stages of narrative development can be shown in the text very clearly:

The equilibrium we are first introduced to is Jack's happy and functional family; Jack (Main character -antagonist) has a positive outlook and has respectable goals he wishes to achieve. The disruption comes in the form of the hotel's effect on Jack as he becomes more and more aggressive towards his family and his goals of being a writer lead to seamless amounts of paper wording: "All work and no play makes Jack a dull a boy. The new state of disequlibrium shows Jack's mental deterioration, as the audience questions whether Jack is seeing ghosts from the past or hallucinating he becomes murderous. His family are aware of the changes and grow ever anxious. The pathway to resolution comes when Wendy (Jack's wife) tries to isolate Jack in a store cupboard and escape, but her efforts are thwarted and precedes to scenes of Danny (Son of Jack and Wendy) losing Jack in a wintery maze. A new equilibrium is birthed from these events in which Jack is no more and Wendy and Danny can continue in peace without the worry of Jack.

Next are Vladamir Propp's ideas of character roles and narrative functions. He examined hundreds of examples of folk tales and found common structures shared throughout. In his findings he identified eight character roles that can be applied to most narratives. It is possible for one role to be played by several characters, occasionally the roles are not integral to the story and are therefore redundant. The roles can be applied to "The Shining" as followed:

-Villian - Jack or the idea of the hotel itself as a villanous catalyst.

- Hero - Danny and Wendy are the heroes here, as well as victims, but ultimately defeat the "villian" that is Jack.

-Donor - (proves an object with some magic propery) - This could be Dick Halleran who is an agent of delivery for the vehicle in the latter portion of the film.

-The Helper - (the helper who aids the hero)Tony, or Danny's inner-voice, predicts and warns Danny of future events.

-The Princess - (the sought for person and reward or object for hero and villian) It could be argued Danny and Wendy fill this role, being Jack's warped murderous fixation.

-The Father - (who rewards the hero) this is what I referred to as a redundant role, it is not needed in the plot of the film.

-The Dispatcher - (who send the hero on his way) is obviously Jack, who instigates the whole procession of events by accepting the caretaker job.

-The False hero - is Jack, initially he appears to be a protagonist but eventually develops into the antagonist.

In addition to these character roles, Propp outlined several narrative function that are useful for application too. This is a process similar to Todorov.

-Preparation - Jack and family leave home with Jacks ultimate desires for a job and fame as a writer are to be fulfilled. He experiences several prohibitions and is told not to enter certain rooms of the hotel.

-Complication - Jack's murderous insanity causes disruption to the family unit. In Propp's terms, the hero is attacked and then plans actions against the villain.

-Struggle - A typical hero vs. villain situation ensues, which in this case, is Wendy vs. Jack and finally Danny vs. Jack.

-Transference - The heroes, Wendy and Danny, use a 'magical agent' to escape the scene. This agent being the vehicle left by Dick Halleran.

Propp's theories are useful for application because it gives insight into the way characters are structured and implies the links between how the roles link between one another in cohesion with narrative stages. E.g.: the roles of Hero and Villain are interspersed in the stage of 'Struggle' when there is a typical Hero vs. Villain style scene. However, despite the uses of this theory, character roles can appear ambiguous. For instance: Jack is initially seen as a hero but is then shown to be a villian, but this then begs the question; does this make Wendy and Danny heroes or victims? Furthermore, several of the narrative stages can be discared per story, in the case of 'The Shining' the stages of: Return and Recognition serve no purpose. The antagonist dies due to his own insanity and what happens to the family is left unknown.

Claude Levi-Strauss offered a different approach to narrative and examined the idea of vertical theme arrangements which could be considered binary oppositions. His focus was not structure, but the deep arrangement of themes and this is something that can be very useful in critique of "The Shining".

Good and Evil - initially Jack is an upbeat family man, but due to the evils of the hotel soon turns in a murderous psychopath.

Normal and strange - is explored between the normalities of both people and places. Again, Jack appears to be normal but develops strange characteristics. This can be said for the hotel itself aswell, we are led to believe that Jack is hallucinating characters from the past, but it becomes clear the hotel itself is strange as the rest of the family see the ghosts and bizarre happenings.

(Jack and Grady, Present meets Past)

Past and present - is presented in an interesting way. The present is shown evidently in the happenings of "now". But the differences between plot and story entwine as we see the past brought into the present. Long gone characters appear to be in Jack's twisted mind as he enters a traditional ballroom filled with formal guests. But it becomes clear that it is not his insanity, but the abnormality of the hotel itself as other characters see those from the past. The hotels past is the catalyst in Jack's insanity and could be said to be the direct past and present mix. He even meets Delbert Grady, the previous caretaker, and is instructed to "correct" his family, a metaphor for killing his family.

Looking at these vertical theme arrangements is useful and brings in aspects of ideological expecatations of a horror. We have our own ideologies of what is "normal" and "abnormal". For instance, the integration of the past in the present is clearly "abnormal". The binary oppositions not only act as themes, but integrate with one another to help map out the plot and story of the narrative.

Bordwell and Thompson defined narrative as "A chain of events in a cause-effect relationship, occurring in time and space". Which is definitely an accurate description for the events in "The Shining" . The links of cause and effect are very obvious and lends itself to Todorov's enigmatic/equlibrium based structure. Where the equilibrium of Jack and his happy family is disrupted by the hotel's impact on Jack's insanity, the pathway to resolution are the events leading to Jack's death and the new equlibrium is the liberation from Jack's insanity. This process speaks for itself, but there are a number of techniques used in the film to demonstrate ideas of conflicting time periods. Danny's inner-voice "Tony" is an essential character in terms of the idea of time. "Tony" warns Danny of the dangers about to happen, but leaves the audience asking whether he is reciting the past or forseeing the future, eitherway, this leaves the narrative with a blend of different tenses. Cause and effect is shown over a varied time bracket. This is again shown by the aforementioned ambiguity of Jakc either hallucinating or the hotel projecting the past. Either way, it is apparent towards the end that past events have cause the events in the "present".