Narrative essay

Narrative theories are used so they audience can understand the purpose for the story in a film or media product. The product I will be analysing to show is Batman, The Dark knight as narrative theories can be shown via the content in the film. 

The first narrative theory is a theory by Claude-Levi Strauss (1958) and his theory suggests that binary opposition and the idea that people or objects can go directly parallel and opposite each other fuels each character. Fro example, Batman is the protagonist in The Dark Knight and Joker is the antagonist. This means that their goals in the movie are different as Batman is trying to keep the public safe while the Joker is out to kill. 

The second narrative theory is by Pam Cook (1985) where traditional narratives have effects on he characters in films meaning when something happens or is about to happen it changes a characters actions. For example, the Joker in The Dark Knight has a woman that Batman loves in a position die and a man who is important for the city of Gotham in a position to die. This means Batman has to make a choice on which one to save as he cannot save both. This also effects the 2 characters in danger as one dies and the other later becomes an antagonist.

The third narrative theory is from Tzvetan Todoroz (1977) and his theory is the conventional structure meaning a character has an equilibrium, a disruption and then return to an equilibrium. This can be seen in The Dark Knight as Batman and the Joker seem to quite equal at the start as know one has an advantage over the other. This will be the equilibrium. The disruption is when the Joker makes a move to cause an issue for Batman and this can be seen on multiple occasions when The Joker makes batman make a choice on who to save. Also, it can be seen when the Joker plans to blow up to ships but Batman has a job to stop him. The equilibrium returns when the Joker is eventually stopped and then Batman returns back to Th Jokers level. 

Finally, the fourth narrative theory is from Roland Barthes and this theory is where every line in a story has a meaning so for example when The Joker says “Nobody panics when things go to plan” this means that when something doesn’t work as planned, people start to panic which causes chaos. This can also help and audience understand a characters purpose and what their goal is in the movie.