Applying Narrative Theories to "The Shining"

Narrative theories study how the devices and conventions hold together and organise a story whether it be fact or fictional. Stories are extremely important to make us make sense of the world around us and how we live our lives. As children we listen to stories our parents tell us such as fairytales and myths. As we get older we start to read more advanced stories such as newspaper articles, biographies and history. I am going to compare the works of Tzvetan Todorov; Vladimir Propp; Claude Levi-Strass and Bordwell and Thompson to the narrative of 'The Shining' and see how well they fit/don't fit.

First of all Tzvetan Todorov. He believes that a movie has the style of, normality followed by a dilemma, we then see the main protagonist try and solve the problem/quest. After this we see the closure of the film, stereotypically it would be "happily ever after." When applied to "The Shining" we can see that normality is the family house and drive. The dilemma or problem would be Jack getting the job and everything going well. We see him "writing" for his job, later we find out that he has just been writing "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" over and over again, which in this case is are protagonist trying to solve the problem, on a type of quest to find a resolution. This would be Jack going mentally insane and trying to kill his wife and kid, also in the possess actually killing 'Haloran', The closure of the film is when Danny outruns Jack in the maze and as Jack has a broken foot he cannot continue in the cold conditions and freezes. With this theory there are no problems as such, the only element that comes close to a problem is the fact that the ending isn't a full stop and the fact that the picture really confuses most people. The usefulness of Todorov is that his theory helps understand the main principle in most narratives in that it has a event that disrupts the equilibrium, to the quest to the closure at the end.

Here is a graph that shows his theory in visual form and shows the following:
Equilibrium at the beginning is the continuous line.
This then clashes with another force causing a disequilibrium which is the elevated line.
The pathway to resolution is the squiggly line with a minus gradient.
The New equilibrium is the straight line at the end which is on the same level to that at the beginning.

Try clicking on the graph to see the theory clearer using 'Flickr'

Todorov's Graph
Originally uploaded by John Flinton




 

Vladimir Propp

The next theorist I will be looking at is Vladimir Propp. He is a Russian critic who examined 100's of folk tales and identified 8 main character roles that appeared most/all the time;

1. The Villain(s)

2. The Hero

3. The Donor (providance of some magical object)

4. The Helper who aids the hero

5. The Princess - reward for hero and object n villain's schemes

6. Her Father who rewards the hero

7. The dispatcher - who sends the hero on his/her way
8. The False Hero

The parts that do fit to "The Shining" narrative is how his 8 specific characters do fit into the story however they don't appear in the right order. Some characters from "The Shining" do fit into this template any Jack for example, is the villain but could also be seen as the false hero. In Propps theory, this is perfectly acceptable. The usefulness of this theory is how we can now understand a little bit more under the surface of "The Shining" and see how the characters are portrayed not as people but as objects. How the character relationships forward the movie and how in fact this narrative is more complex that what we thought to begin with.

Next is Claude Levi Strauss who looked at narrative structure in terms of binary opposition. Binary opposition is how the media text structure is revealed using opposite values. A common example of this would be GOOD/EVIL. We all know the difference between the two and can determine which is which. When applying this to "The Shining" we can come up with a few binary oppositions that fit well with the structure. A good example of this would be MAD/SANE. We can all acknowledge that sane is a "normal" person that do things accordingly to the law, are able to live their life to its full potential. Although some people may have disorders (eg. downs syndrome) we still consider those people normal and sane. Simerly we all know that mad is when something is not quite right with your brain and in "The Shining" we slowly see Jack, over a period of time, loose his mind and go from sane to mad.

Finally we have Bordwell and Thompson who have defined narrative as "A chain of events in a cause-effect relationship, occurring in time and space". They don't create a full narrative theory but they do put together precise information and some very interesting ideas. One of them is a narrative beginning with one situation, then cause-effect enable a series of changes to occur resulting in a new situation that has been influenced by the events which close the narrative. Time and space are also major assets to their theory for they define that it is where, when and how quickly they take place. As a result of this technical techniques are added to the narrative to manipulate our awareness of time and place; flashbacks, slow-motion, jumping between places and time and also replaying the action that has already happened, sometimes at a rapid pace. As humans our brain tries to connect objects and events, often to what is happening, so that we can make sense of the world around us. I think that this fits in well with the narrative of "The Shining" however the time and space aspect of the theory doesn’t work. We can see from the cause-effect angle that when Jack gets the job at the hotel everything is fine. As the plot thickens we see Grady talking to Jack and informs him that in actual fact he is the caretaker and tries to kill his wife and kid. Jack is so taken over by this that he tries to carry out this dreadful deed and after killing Halloran we see him chasing Danny into the maze and being outrun. The closing of the narrative is Jack freezing in the cold weather and Wendy and Danny driving off. This part of the theory, as I have already mentioned, fits the plot. Time and space however, does not.

Below is a non-offical trailer for The Shining and a spoof trailer that I think shows the movie from a different perspective.