Narrative Report – Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Marnie’ 1964
Marnie 1964 is about a woman suffering repressed childhood trauma. As a child, she killed a man and has a difficult relationship with her mother. In adult life, Marnie cannot bare intimacy and commits larceny under false identities. Marnie is blackmailed into marriage and her husband attempts to resolve her behaviour. Marnie confronts repressed memories resulting in newfound self-awareness and possibility of love and stability.
I. Story and Plot
The above storyline is an explicit and chronological account of events within the film as a whole. In the case of plot, we need to think of plot as lines of action within the film, the order in which they are organised or sequenced, and who (both
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This action is oppositional and an important visual motif repeated three times throughout the film. Marnie appears happy in these scenes as opposed to unhappy in all others. This initial instance could lead the audience to expect that Marnie gets an adrenalin rush from stealing.
In the fifth scene, Marnie visits her mother. This scene establishes that Marnie and her mother have a difficult relationship and presents three other motifs. One, Marnie’s reaction to red against white (diegetic); red gladiola’s against white curtains. The second is red lighting during Marnie’s panicked states (non-diegetic). The third is the knocking sound (non-diegetic). One of the key parts of dialogue with Marnie’s mother is ‘decent’. This dialogue forms part of the resolution in the final scene.
The above five scenes are the film’s set up. The first three scenes present “…a series of actions that has already started”. This is termed in medias res “A Latin phrase meaning “in the middle of things”.p.85 The audience sees Marnie has committed
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This can also be described as the way story events are distributed within the film by the plot. This distribution results in narration. Range and depth of information are the most important considerations when distributing story events for narrative purposes. Bordwell & Thompson, 2004, p.87
Marnie 1964 is narratively complex. Overall, the audience has a greater range of knowledge any of the characters. This is called unrestricted or omniscient (“all knowing”) narration. This enables the audience to ‘…anticipate events the character cannot…’, hence creating suspense. Bordwell & Thompson, 2004, p.87-88.
Hitchcock has rendered this unrestricted narration by distributing non diegetic effects within the plot such as red lighting. Other functions are
The mystery lies in what the central character subconsciously knows but does not remember until the films close. In saying this, the audience is just as aware of Marnie’s affliction as the characters Marnie and Mark Rutland. This is an example of restricted narration.
However, the plot twists with the introduction of the character ‘Lily’. Lily functions as a provider of unknown knowledge to not only the audience but eventually to the character, Mark Rutland.
Range of
Even though some suspense doesn’t let the audience know anything, real suspense involves the audience being aware of everything that occurs. In the essay, it states, “The fact that the audience watches actors go blithely through an atmosphere that is loaded with evil makes for real suspense.” (6) This shows that whenever the audience watches the characters don't know anything that’s going on
Janie's Grandmother is the first bud on her tree. She raised Janie since she was a little girl. Her grandmother is in some respects a gardener pruning and shaping the future for her granddaughter. She tries to instill a strong belief in marriage. To her marriage is the only way that Janie will survive in life. What Nanny does not realize is that Janie has the potential to make her own path in the walk of life. This blinds nanny, because she is a victim of the horrible effects of slavery. She really tries to convey to Janie that she has her own voice but she forces her into a position where that voice is silenced and there for condemning all hopes of her Granddaughter become the woman that she is capable of being.
Mosby’s analysis allows the reader to understand one of the major themes of this story: inability to
First and perhaps most essential to any story is the plot. The plot is defined as,
In the beginning, for example, it can be noted that the producers who are talking about dealing with Ma Rainey, are getting ready for rehearsal. Wilson appears to showing us to sides of story of how they feel about recording Ma. In one way there is Sturdyvant
she uses descriptive details to establish a dark, foreboding image of the setting. For example, in
In the beginning, the narrator talks about her surroundings, and why she is in her current situation. Her state of mind is clear, as she describes what is going on prior to her being set in this room. As the narrator writes about her husband she alludes to the fact that she suffers from an illness that her husband, who happens to be a well known physician, does no...
In Shadow of a Doubt, Hitchcock utilizes and stretches the ambiguous line between comedy and suspense by utilizing smaller characters in the film to keep the story line moving, and to help break sequence or rhythm of what the audience had been perceiving at the time. Many of the minor characters were used as “fillers”, such as the waitress in the bar when Uncle Charlie and Charlie are sitting in the bar, and makes the comment “I would die for a ring like this”; or the quiet, gentle neighbor Herb who is fascinated with the process of homicide and murder. It brings to the audience an immediate comic relief, but similar to all of Hitchcock, leaves an unsettling feeling of fear and suspense with the viewer. Shadow of a Doubt is a film that hits very close to home for me, primarily because of the small town feel very similar to Orono that I have grown to know so well. There is a brutal irony that lurks through the film, especially during the time period that the film was made. The picturesque stereotype of small town life in the 40’s is brutally torn apart by Hitchcock wit and creative ingénue, putting the viewer in an uncomfortable mind stretch of reality.
The narrator describes the scene when she feels the weight of George jilting her and how she all most collapsed “there was the freshly polished floor with the green rug on it” (Porter 81). Green symbolizes inexperience. Granny has never felt pain like this until this day and becomes unsure on how to deal with it. Granny never faces her memories so she has inexperience with coping with them. The narrator explains her feelings more about being jilted “she put on the white veil and set out the white cake…” (Porter 79). White symbolizes innocence. Granny first wedding day represents the last time she had her innocence. The unfortunate circumstance that Granny faces turn her to into a feisty old women and this new attitude becomes a way for Granny to feel better about the past. The narrator remembers a time about John “John’s eyes very black when they should have been blue” (Porter 81). Black symbolizes death. John’s death brings back memory of hardship in Granny’s life and her not fully understanding why bad events keep happening in her life. The death, John hurts Granny so she keeps busy with her kids and housework to forget about
O'Connor crafts the story so that the plot does not actually begin until insight into the characters has been provided. The limited omniscience persona of the narrative voice alternates between Joy and her mother, Mrs. Hopewell. The exposition provides an understanding of how the characters have developed the personality traits they possess when the drama begins to take place, which is on a Friday evening during the Spring sometime during the mid-1950s. The exposition demonstrates how Joy develops the social and philosophical assumptions that deeply affect the way she sees herself and relates to others.
Marie, who is a product of an abusive family, is influenced by her past, as she perceives the relationship between Callie and her son, Bo. Saunders writes, describing Marie’s childhood experiences, “At least she’d [Marie] never locked on of them [her children] in a closet while entertaining a literal gravedigger in the parlor” (174). Marie’s mother did not embody the traditional traits of a maternal fig...
The Author begins the story by introducing the scene since it will have great significance in understanding the many symbolisms he will be using later. Some experts say that “Although there is a situation, there is no plot” (Henningfield, 2002).... ... middle of paper ... ...
...verything around us is made by our actions. Positive or negative they cause an effect that will ultimately lead to a different story base on how we interpret life. Narrative elements are used as a bridge by the directors in their film to create any master plot that is currently known. Any modification at any narrative element used by the director at important moments inside the story can help you portray a different master plot. This used of narrative elements can be best described as an ever changing process that takes place inside an individual’s head. Depending on the individual that may be exposed to those narrative elements can create different meanings. This new interpretation can be different for everyone. We have to be aware that one change in the surface scenery can lead to many ideal outcomes in our minds and that is the main power the audience has.
Lipsha asks Gerry to tell him whether or not he slayed the trooper; though Gerry reveals the truth, Lipsha says that he cannot tell the reader. This constituent of hyperrealism at the end of the novel shows how the reader, in purposefully interpreting and reacting to the events of the description, has also been a player in the story. Lipsha's genuine concern that the reader might reveal the truth makes the entire novel look even more realistic than it already has. Such wraps and ambiguities, after all, are necessary to everyday
A typical story is littered with details, explaining the history of the world the story takes place in, who the characters in the story are, all the while remaining correlated to the plot and subplots that drive the story forward. The story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson however does not follow these conditions, as the reader is left to interpret a majority of the story on their own as it progresses. Jackson is not the only writer to incorporate a style of selective exposition in their work; Raymond Carver is widely recognized for his rejection of explanation and the use of characters that do not always communicate with one another, both of which are elements which Jackson incorporates into her own story. Initially, a lack of exposition may seem detrimental to the story, but instead it plays to the “mysterious nature of story” according to Charles E. May in his essay ‘Do You See What I’m Saying?’: The Inadequacy of Explanation and the uses of Story in the Short Fiction of Raymond Carver. Therefore, by refusing to expound upon setting, characters, and plot allows the author to create mystery, and the reader to form their own interpretations of the story.