Applying narrative theory to ‘The Shining’

‘The Shining’ was a very popular 1980’s horror film that raises debate. One argument is over narrative theory. There are 4 types of narrative theory and theorists.

The first is by Propp; his theory was based around functions of the characters within the film. Although there is some merit in his system of identifying stages of the narrative in relation to the shining such as the family’s original travel away from their home, there are difficulties when it comes to the functions, such as identification of the villain or antagonist in the film. The audience could be left with an array of candidates that could be considered the ‘bad guy’, such as Jack to even the hotel itself. A similar situation happens upon identifying a hero as Wendy may take on the main role or protagonist but doesn’t really fulfil the criteria of a hero. These issues raised shows that although some narrative elements can be applied to ‘The Shining’ there a some big flaws in functions, this theory does help in making the audience think about narrative structure, but doesn’t seem to provide answers for everything.

Todorov suggests a theory that seems to have more applicability to that of Propp’s. His theory was that at the start of all narratives there is a equilibrium that is disrupted and eventually resolved through the course of the story. In application to ‘The Shining’ it some fit somewhat well. For example, at the begining things seem fine as Jack has a new job for his family. However, soon things begin to go wrong and as Jack loses his sanity the equilibrium is disrupted which in turn leads to Wendy having to escape in order to find solution and go back to equilibrium. Although this narrative theory fits very well it seems, it could be argued that it’s simplistic ‘start, middle, end’ basis is undeveloped and vague, meaning it is easy to apply but doesn’t actually reveal too much.

   

A third theory is by Claude Levi-Strauss; it talks of binary opposites and looks at texts in a vertical sense, rather than a horizontal. The ways in which this can be applied to ‘The Shining’ is that film raises the issue of fear and horror derived from the family itself (i.e. Jack), this is a suggested binary opposite as the family is something that should normally provide security, not danger. This theory can be quite effective and is more specific to other theories mentioned.

Finally a theory by Bordwell and Thompson; this theory is about ‘cause and effect’. It can be applied in situations such as understanding that Jack’s family have followed him and his career about even though we don’t actually see it, that results in Danny talking to ‘Tony’ for comfort. This theory can be applied in some sense, but once again it doesn’t help a great deal in identifying issues and overall seems rather vague.

Although there are clear flaws in these theories, I still think it is good to view films such as ‘The Shining’ in this way as it raises a variety of viewpoints and could spark debate.