Unit 22- Todorov's Narrative theory

Now i will be talking about Todorov's theory of how every film/story/plots have the same structure and pattern. This involves these five stages:

1. Equilibrium which is the start of the story/plot and everything is how it should be
2. Disruption which is when something happens, a problem, something that would disrupt the normal 
3. Realisation; this is the part where everyone realises what is going on and it is chaos 
4. Reparation is when the character(s) tries (or actually solves) to repair the problem
5. New equilibrium is the ending where the happiness is restored and everything is normal again

I'm going to be using the first Shrek movie. The trailer below should also show my reference to Todrovs theory.

1. This is the equilibrium where everything is normal. Shrek lived in a swamp and enjoyed scaring people and being the beast. This lets the audience understand how things were before anything happened. It also make the audience want to know what's going to happen next.
2. This is the disruption stage where the fairytale characters/ animals appeared because Lord Farquaad had dumped them there. In order for Shrek to have the swamp to himself again him and Lord Farquaad made a deal that if he rescued Fiona the princess he could have his swamp back. This is the stage where the audience can now empathise as we are actually going to be following Shrek to rescue Fiona. Its quite effective.
3. This is the realisation stage where Shrek realises that he is actually in love with Princess Fiona even though she was meant to get married to Lord Farquaad . He tried to ignore his feelings because the only reason he was there was to get his privacy back. Again this is engaging as this is also part of the journey, the audience will empathise for Shrek that he loves Fiona.
4. This is the reparation stage where they try to solve or repair the problem (realisation stage). Shrek and Donkey went to crash the wedding to get Fiona and also found out that Fiona was also and ogre. Shrek and Fiona had to fight to get away as the whole town opposed ogres.
5.  This is the ending of the play where happiness is restored as Shrek and Fiona were now together living in the swamp along with the fairytale characters and Donkey. This stage would be the end of the quest and the audience would obviously be happy because the happiness has been achieved.