Narrative Theory (The Shining)

In class we explored the ideas of four narrative theorists; Propp, Todorov, Levi-Strauss and Bordwell and Thompson. We then applied these theories to the 1980's horror - The Shining

Propp worked on Russian folk tales and created an idea of a set of character and narrative functions that he felt were universal and were incorporated into every films narrative structure. According to Propp, in every story there are 8 different roles played by characters - sometimes a character may fit into different roles because of the way the story is - In this case, The Shining has a very small cast so it turns out that, some roles are played by the same person. However, some roles are played by no one at all, and for that reason we can't apply this theory to The Shining as the relevance of it isn't strong at all. For example - the obvious roles such as 'The Villain' is obviously played by Jack, however other roles such as the false hero are a bit distorted and it is unclear who would fit into playing this role - if anyone at all. Propp also suggested a certain narrative structure that he said applied to every plot line. The narrative structure was broken up into 31 stages - 31 different things that would happen throughout the film in a particular order. However, when reading through this structure and trying to apply it to The Shining, I found that once I got passed number 6 - "The villain learns something about his victim" (which I related to Danny's shining being made clear), The whole structure began to lose structure to the film, and I could no longer link Propps structure to the film, especially in the order that Propp suggested. Even though the first 6 fitted well (For example - "1: A member of the family leaves home", linking to when Jack leaves the home to go for his interview), the rest of it is very distorted and doesn't link well at all, and for this reason, as well as the character roles I feel that Propps theory is not relative to The Shining in the slightest - although some people may argue differently.

Levi-Strauss worked on binary oppositions - basically the fact that when we know one thing, we know its opposite (example - hot and cold). His theory was that when something is not supposed to be scary, so often it turns out to be. This theory relates perfectly to The Shining, in so many ways. Firstly, we have one of our main characters, Danny. A young boy, so cute, stupid and innocent who would never cause anyone harm. Or so we think. He discovers an unknown and peculiar talent, the ability to 'Shine'. Not so cute, stupid and innocent anymore. Another thing that is quite terrifying in the film is the two twin girls who appear throughout the film to frighten off young Danny. Although they should be cute, identical twins with pigtails and checkered blue and white outfits, something isn't quite right about them - which links well to Levi-Strauss' theory, are they TOO cute they become scary??

Todorov proposed a theory that suggested all films began with an equilibrium which lead onto a disequilibrium and finally a new equilibrium. A disequilibrium would always be something that happens in the film that makes other things happen, and the outcome of this would be the new equilibrium. I think that this theory would apply to The Shining because we could count the equilibrium as the normality of Jack before they moved to the hotel, leaving the whole family normal and life being 'peachy'. The disequilibrium would then be the actual moving to the hotel and Jack going mental, and taking his anger out on the family and driving them out of the hotel. The new equilibrium would be the ending where we see Danny and Wendy leaving, and Jack dead. However, the very ending of the film may confuse this structure a bit when we see the picture of Jack in the 1920's, leaving us questioning if this is the new equilibrium, or if the film is ending on a disequilbrium? So, although this theory does apply to the film, it doesn't apply as well as other theory (Levi-Strauss' theory is most definitely more appropriate).

Bordwell and Thompson produced a theory that was based on the distortion of time and space that created a film. I think that this theory links so well and so clearly with The Shining. In regards to time, it is so distorted in this film, which is quite scary as you cant relate to it as well as possible. One reason for this is how it will always begin a day with just the day (example - "TUESDAY"), But there will be no date attached, or time, or anything, just the day, leaving us questioning, which Tuesday?. Also, as the film comes to a close, the times become closer and closer, even down to the hour (example -"4pm") which I think shows how close the film is coming to its end and allowing the tension to build. Another reason why time is so distorted is that, every time there is a long/wide shot of the hotel, it is always dark, dull and snowy (simply because of the weather), however this leaves us questioning the time of day, is it day? is it night? who knows. Space is also distorted greatly in the film. We know that they are staying in a hotel, and we know they are in a room/suite, but everything else is so confusing. For example - we quite often see Jack walking the halls, however each hallway is decorated differently and we can never relate to where the hallways are.
So, To conclude, Levi-Strauss' theory, I feel relates best to The Shining in many ways, as does Bordwell & Thompsons theory, however Todorov's theory doesn't relate as strongly as the others, and, in my opinion I feel that Propps theory makes basically no sense when applying it to The Shining.