Narrative Theory in Relation to Halloween

Recently I have been researching and looking at the narratives of four Media Theorists. These people are: TzvetanTodorov, Vladimir Propp, Claude Levi-Strauss and Bordwell and Thompson. The theorists looked at narrative in different ways and how the plot of a film/story went. I will now relate the theories of each of the theorists to the film- Halloween.

Tzvetan Todorov

In relation to the film Halloween, I think that Todorov’s theory doesn’t really apply to the film. Going by Todorov’s theory the film would start with equilibrium with everything being fine and normal and then there would generally be a disruption/disequilibrium (event) which would then set off a series of events within the film. These would happen and then in the end there would be a new equilibrium and everything would come back to normal like at the start. In Halloween there isn’t an original equilibrium. Spectators are instantly put into the horror aspect of the film witnessing horrific events of Michael Myers spying on his sister and her boyfriend eventually killing her after they went upstairs to have sex as he sees this as being wrong. This event of course is right at the very start of the film and sets of a chain of events which lead to Michael being placed in a mental institution, escaping, killing more people etc. However after spectators see the first event of Michael killing his sister it shows the doctor- Sam Loonis as well as his assistant- Marion Chambers travelling to the local sanitarium to have Michael transferred to a maximum security prison. This is the point where he escapes and steals their car driving it away. Again this is another horror aspect and event which has occurred at the start of the film and isn’t an equilibrium. After this stage the film becomes a lot more original and normal where Laurie a 17 year old girl is walking to school. Cutting the long story short Myers is still out there, and this is the point where he sets a chain of events of killing people, one trying to be Laurie but he does not succeed. At the end of the film is the point where he tries and kills her. He does not succeed after various attempts and with Dr Loomis helping as back up shooting him, it knocks back his chances. He is shot and falls over the balcony of Laurie’s home. One minute he is lying on the floor and when looking again he is not there. He is still on the loose prepared to kill once again. The film ends after this point and there is not a new equilibrium with things not necessarily returning back to normal life for Laurie as she knows he’s still out there. This backs up my idea of how Todorov’s classic Hollywood narrative doesn’t apply to the film really in any way. 

Vladimir Propp

Propp was a theorist who tended to look at 8 different character roles and types which generally can be applied to all kinds of narrative. I will now go onto relate these character roles to the correct characters contained in the film- Halloween. All of the character roles which Propp looked at however will not apply to this movie and the movie will not have some of these types characters. 

• The Villain- Michael Myers (Killer)
• The hero- Dr Loomis
• The donor- No One
• The helper that aids the hero- Marion Chambers (when alive, Loomis not a hero)
• The princess. (The sought for person) reward for the hero and object of the villains schemes -Laurie (maybe)
• Her Father- who rewards the hero- No One
• The dispatcher, who sends the hero on his way- No One
• The false hero- No One Claude

Levi-Strauss

Levis Strauss looked at narrative in a way of binary oppositions. These are sets of opposite values which actually reveal the structure of media texts. They were not so interested in looking at the order in which the events were arranged in the plot and instead they looked for deeper arrangements of themes. After watching Halloween there are various binary oppositions in which are created by the narrative and genre of the movie. These are: 

Day/Night- The daytime in the movie is much more quiet than the night of course. The daytime tends to consist of Myers spying and looking upon his victims in the film and not commiting any kind of crime. The night time is completley different as he tends to commit these crimes killing his targets. These are commited at night with a darker setting to fit in well with the genre of the film which of course- Horror.

Good/Evil- Laurie, Dr Loomis, Marion Chambers and the children (good people, there to help)/ Michael Myers (Killer, the evil person).

Healthy/Unhealthy-Laurie, Dr Loomis, Marion Chambers and the children are all healthy/Michael Myers is unhealthy-mentally ill- he kills.

Normal/ Strange- Laurie, Dr Loomis, Marion Chambers and the Children are all normal people living a normal life/Michael Myers is strange, not right in the head. He is a mass murderer. 

Life/Death- Michael Myers aim is to keep his own life and kill others portraying death upon them. Marion Chambers, Michaels sister as well as Lynda and Bob are killed for example and Laurie stays alive luckily escaping Michaels attempt to kill her. 

Past/Present- In the past Michael killed his sister who was 16 at the time for having sex with her boyfriend. This point was a large change in his life which caused him in to become a psycho killer when older (present time in the film).

Male/Female- Mixture of gender in the film-Female- Laurie, Marion, Michaels sister and Lynda. Male- Michael (main focus) Dr Loomis, Marion's dad (sheriff). Female gender seems to be the main focus of death- Marion, Lynda and Michaels sister were all killed etc.

Happy/Unhappy- The majority of characters are happy to begin with- Marion, Laurie, Lynda & Bob together, Michaels sister with her boyfriend and then of course when being killed- they become unhappy. Surrounding people like Laurie who know Michael is on the loose also become unhappy of course because they are scared of him and what he is capable of.

Young/Old- Children are present inside of the film (Laurie & Marion's children) and then of course the older charrcters like Laurie, Marion and many more as explained previously. Michael was young when he committed murder and then when growing older become mentally ill and a psycho killer. 

Advantage/Disadvantage- Michael Myers tends to have the main advantage over all characters in the film. He escaped from the institution he was in and kills people. He's scary and threatening to people and having the experience in previously committing a crime like this he has the advantage to do the same again which he does to people. The normal people like Laurie and Marion and the other characters as explained have the disadvantage being victims. They are on the receiving end of Michaels attempting crimes.

Victim/Killer-(Laurie/Michael) The victims in the movie tend to be the healthy, normal people such as Laurie, Dr Loomis, Marion Chamber and more as previosuly explained. The killer is of course Michael Myers who is unhealthy and mentally ill.

Rural/Urban- There tends to be a mixture of rural and urban surroundings. When Dr Loomis and Marion Chambers go to try and transfer Michael from the mental institution it is in a rural environment. It is a country surrounding and can be maybe seen in the film as much quieter and less safe in many ways. Of couse Michael escpaes from the institution when they try and transfer him and steals their car. The urban surroundings are the more built up areas with houses where Marion and Laurie live. These are maybe seen by many in the film as a safer area and when here no one could get them.This of course was not the case as they could and did with Myers on the loose.

Sane/Insane- The sane characters as like explained are the healthy, normal individuals such as Marion Chambers, Laurie etc. You then have the insane which is of course Michael Myers as he kills and is not right in the head (mentally ill).
 

Innocent/Guilt- The normal, sane, characters are the innocent ones. They are normal people, living their normal life doing their everyday jobs. For example: Marion Chambers is Dr Loomis' assistant which is her job and she ends up getting killed in the end. Laurie is an inncoent school girl who is dragged into all this terror as she is friends with Marion. The guilty is of course Myers as he is the killer comminting the crimes because of his mental health.

Man/Monster- The man is generally classed as the sane, normal everyday person who are of course people Like Laurie, Marion Chambers and others. The monster is classed as the insane, mentally ill, large terrorising character which is Michael Myers.

Bordwell & Thompson

Bordwell and Thompson see narrative as ‘a chain of events in a cause and effect relationship, occurring in time and space’. For themselves, a narrative typically begins with one situation and then a  series of changes occur according to a pattern of cause and effect. Finally a new situation arises which brings the end of the narrative. I will now try and relate this specific theory to Halloween. Firstly at the start of the film there is a situation of Michael spying on his sister and her boyfriend expressing their love for each other in their living room. Like explained Michael appears to be angry by this situation where his sister and her lover eventually go upstairs to have sex and so therefore grabs a knife from the kitchen draw. A series of changes occur via cause and effect as Michaels anger has caused him to kill his sister which is the effect from this outcome. He is now potentially a killer from the cause and effect sequence. After this start of the film we see Michael escape from the mental institution which he appeared to be in. Him being here is a change to his lifestyle which has been caused from the cause and effect situation as well as his attitude and mental health where he is a murderer. The new ‘situations’ which brings the film to an end are the murders in which Michael tries and does commit. It does eventually bring the end of the narrative where at this point he is trying to commit another murder which is upon Laurie but does not succeed. 

Bordwell and Thompsons theory in a film in many ways was simple and true. It is easy to understand. When watching films, what happens on screen isn't always what has happened in the story and to viewers things have also happened off screen. This was there theory that things also happen off screen which are part of the story and these can have a large effect on the film in general. A good example was if to say that a member of a characters family in a movie has died. They may be talking about their death and there maybe a picture of them in the characters home which is shown on screen so it gives viwers an understanding of what has happened. However the viewer has not seen the character actually die in the movie. They would have only figured out what happened to the character who died from what would have been happening on screen in the movie at that present moment. Overall it is a brilliant theory which is very easy to understand and it is also very effective at the same time. It can play a very large part in a film and set up the story from the beginning.