Extended Assessment: Narrative Analysis
The narrative structure of the movie Memento can be analysed by looking at different theories of narrative structure. not much of the structure of this movie is anything normal, it is a very complicated movie with a very unique plot but it still follows the Todorov's theory of the narrative can be applied to Memento although it is more complicated, because the movie is not in chronological order the order in which the stages come vary.
The start of the movie is actually where the disruption is although the audience doesn't learn that until right at the end of the movie. However this can be debated as the real disruption as Leonard killing his wife is more likely to be the real disruption. The attempt at repair was Teddy using Leonard's condition to his advantage to basically act as a vigilante and make Leonard kill criminals by making him believe its his wife killer. Although it is hard to identify all the stages of Todorov's theory in Memento due to the unique plot Christopher Nolan created, I definitely think that Memento still shows the five key stages of the theory just in a unique way.
Levi Strauss' theory of binary opposites applies to the movie Memento. One of the most common and obvious binary opposites that can be seen in most movies including Memento is good vs evil. The example of good vs evil in Memento is that at the start of the movie Teddy is presented as the evil and Leonard is good. However by the end of the movie we learn that neither of them are good and they are both as bad as each other since Leonard is found to of killed his wife and Teddy uses Leonard’s memory condition to manipulate him. This links into another binary opposite of morally right vs morally wrong. A lot of the characters in this movie take advantage of Leonard and his condition Teddy and Natalie are examples of these people. Natalie is an example of being morally wrong, she has no good intentions and uses Leonard for her own self gain, an example of this is the scene where Natalie personally talks to Leonard about his dead wife and drives him to assault her, she then waits for him to forget and protends it was someone else who assaulted her. A character that is shows an example of morally right is the receptionist, he only ever has good intentions and helps Leonard when he can. A very obvious binary opposite in Memento is memory vs real life. There are consistent flashbacks between real life and flashbacks of what has already happened, the line between real life and flashbacks is made quite clear since a grainy black and white filter is used over all the flashbacks.
The movie Memento has many characters that fall into Propp’s theory of characters being able to be broke down into one of at least seven different character types. The main character of the movie Leonard is presented as being the hero in this movie. Despite his severe illness and the fact he murdered his own wife he is the only character with any sense of morality and is therefore the hero. The character of Natallie is very interesting, once the audience meets her she is presented as being a the princess who needs saving from an violent drug dealer who is demanding money. However we later find out that she is using Leonard because of his illness to do her dirty work and get rid of people, at his point she is a villain. The character of Teddy is presented as being the false hero since he appears to be helping Leonard but is really using him, this presents him as a false hero. However we later discover he was being nice warning Leonard about Natalie and has also stuck with Leonard since his accident so in a way shouldn’t be the false hero. The dispatcher of the movie is not a very key character but is the receptionist at the hotel since he helps Leonard throughout the movie without getting any gain from it and helps point Leonard in the right direction. To conclude overall Momento is a very unique movie that doesn’t follow the norms of a movie however there are many elements of it that can be linked to different narrative theories. The movie contains almost all the character types in props theory, there are also many binary opposites which are a part of Levi Strauss’ theory like good vs evil and memory vs real life. We also see Toderov’s theory of the narrative however it is slightly changed and comes in a different order.
The start of the movie is actually where the disruption is although the audience doesn't learn that until right at the end of the movie. However this can be debated as the real disruption as Leonard killing his wife is more likely to be the real disruption. The attempt at repair was Teddy using Leonard's condition to his advantage to basically act as a vigilante and make Leonard kill criminals by making him believe its his wife killer. Although it is hard to identify all the stages of Todorov's theory in Memento due to the unique plot Christopher Nolan created, I definitely think that Memento still shows the five key stages of the theory just in a unique way.
Levi Strauss' theory of binary opposites applies to the movie Memento. One of the most common and obvious binary opposites that can be seen in most movies including Memento is good vs evil. The example of good vs evil in Memento is that at the start of the movie Teddy is presented as the evil and Leonard is good. However by the end of the movie we learn that neither of them are good and they are both as bad as each other since Leonard is found to of killed his wife and Teddy uses Leonard’s memory condition to manipulate him. This links into another binary opposite of morally right vs morally wrong. A lot of the characters in this movie take advantage of Leonard and his condition Teddy and Natalie are examples of these people. Natalie is an example of being morally wrong, she has no good intentions and uses Leonard for her own self gain, an example of this is the scene where Natalie personally talks to Leonard about his dead wife and drives him to assault her, she then waits for him to forget and protends it was someone else who assaulted her. A character that is shows an example of morally right is the receptionist, he only ever has good intentions and helps Leonard when he can. A very obvious binary opposite in Memento is memory vs real life. There are consistent flashbacks between real life and flashbacks of what has already happened, the line between real life and flashbacks is made quite clear since a grainy black and white filter is used over all the flashbacks.
The movie Memento has many characters that fall into Propp’s theory of characters being able to be broke down into one of at least seven different character types. The main character of the movie Leonard is presented as being the hero in this movie. Despite his severe illness and the fact he murdered his own wife he is the only character with any sense of morality and is therefore the hero. The character of Natallie is very interesting, once the audience meets her she is presented as being a the princess who needs saving from an violent drug dealer who is demanding money. However we later find out that she is using Leonard because of his illness to do her dirty work and get rid of people, at his point she is a villain. The character of Teddy is presented as being the false hero since he appears to be helping Leonard but is really using him, this presents him as a false hero. However we later discover he was being nice warning Leonard about Natalie and has also stuck with Leonard since his accident so in a way shouldn’t be the false hero. The dispatcher of the movie is not a very key character but is the receptionist at the hotel since he helps Leonard throughout the movie without getting any gain from it and helps point Leonard in the right direction. To conclude overall Momento is a very unique movie that doesn’t follow the norms of a movie however there are many elements of it that can be linked to different narrative theories. The movie contains almost all the character types in props theory, there are also many binary opposites which are a part of Levi Strauss’ theory like good vs evil and memory vs real life. We also see Toderov’s theory of the narrative however it is slightly changed and comes in a different order.
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