Narrative

Greek philosopher, Aristotle who created narratives having three stages:

• - A beginning.
• - A middle.
• - And an end.

Todorov used narratives in 5 stages:

•  Equilibrium- a state of normality.
•  Disruption of equilibrium- a character or an action causes an effect which disturbs the state of normality.
• The main protagonist recognises that the equilibrium has been disrupted.
• Restoration of equilibrium- the protagonist attempts to restore the equilibrium.
• New equilibrium- Equilibrium is restored, but transformations either good, bad or neutral have occurred from the original equilibrium.

Propp set his narrative to 8 exclusive types of characters:

• The hero 
• The villain .
• The donor (helps the hero)
• the dispatcher (sends hero on his way)
• The false hero (falsely playing role of hero)
• The helper 
• The princess 
• The princess's farther

 Levi-Strauss created narratives based on binary opposites.

• - Good and Evil.
• - Old and Young.
• - Black and White.
• - Masculine and Feminine.
• - Wealthy and Poor.
• - Heterosexual and Homosexual.

From the start we see binary opposites of the couple who are getting married. This is shown by the difference in the families separated by the isle. On one side we have the grooms family who are boring and dull, alternatively the wife's family is joyful and very excited about the wedding. We can also tell this from the clothing as well, the grooms family are wearing all black and the wife's family are wearing colourful clothing. The couple then move into their house and we get another binary opposite when painting the mail box we see the clumsiness of the husband as he leaves a hand print on the box while wife is precisely painting. When going out for a picnic the wife moves up the hill fast her husband is much slower suggesting more binary opposites. This opening scene uses Aristotle's narrative theories as we can see that the beginning of the scene there is love and a strong relationship. The middle is sadness which is shown through the loss of the child and another short happiness scene for the holiday that here husband has bought. Finally ending in the death of his wife which leaves the scene on sad note. We could also compare it to Todorov's narrative theory as there is an equilibrium that is show then disrupted. The husband realises tries to fix it then a new equilibrium is established after her wife's death.