Analysis of the Character of Shrek and Lord Farquaad from movie Shrek

Analysis of the Character of Shrek and Lord Farquaad from movie Shrek

In this essay I will analyse the characters of Shrek and Lord Farquaad

and tell you about how the filmmakers use different presentational

devices to create an unusual fairy tale.

In traditional fairy tales the princess is normally a perfect, kind,

beautiful person. In a traditional fairy tale the princess is trapped

in the tallest tower of a castle guarded by a terrifying beast.

A handsome prince always rescues them, for instance in Snow White and

the seven dwarfs the prince who rescues her gives her the kiss of

life, which is supposed to make the story romantic. Ogres in

traditional fairy tales live in filthy swamplands; they have extremely

bad hygiene problems and are portrayed as angry, bloodthirsty beasts.

An example of this is Jack and the beanstalk, when the giant finds out

that Jack has stolen from him he chases him trying to kill him. As the

hero Jack escapes from the giant.

Language is an important device, and I am going to write about how

language can create the impression of good and evil in both

characters, and in films. The film Shrek opens with Shrek sat on the

toilet reading a fairy tale, he laughs and says what a load of

rubbish, and little did he know he was about to go on the exact same

adventure to rescue a princess. Then you see Shreks home and see him

cleaning his teeth, wash and get clothed, which suggest that Shrek is

not a normal ogre. This surprises the viewers because it suggests that

the ogre's character has been switched to be the good guy not the evil

one. The type of opening suggests that the ogre has a sense of humour

and lik...

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...airy tale creatures in. He makes the knights fight Shrek when he

comes to Duloc to ask for his swamp back civilly. He rejects the

princess when he finds out she turns into an ogre at night time and

then proclaims that he is king even though he needs to marry a

princess to achieve that.

The story of shrek uses presentational devices to reverse our

expectations, so that by the time the end of the film you can tell

that the roles of Shrek and Lord Farquaad have been swapped from a

traditional fairy tale because Shrek is the good guy when he should be

the evil one.

Lord Farquaad acts nothing like a lord because if he wanted to marry a

princess he should have had to rescue her himself like most lords

would in traditional fairy tales.

Perhaps the message of the story is that you can't judge a book by its

cover.