BBC Fairytales Cinderella - Narrative

How does this film play with (or change) original narrative elements and how does this coincide with Narrative theories (Barthes, Todorov, Propp)?

The BBC have taken a classic Disney fairy-tale and have completely transformed it into a modern day, possibly realistic Cinderella. The original narrative element has been taken and turned on its head, delivering a story both similar to, and quite different to, the original story.

The plot synopsis for the original narrative is as follows; Cinderella lives happily with both of her parents until her mother dies. Cinderella's father remarries a wicked, evil woman who is a mother to two girls, that become Cinderella's ugly and cruel step sisters, Drizella and Anastasia. When the father passes away, the cold hearted step mother  turns Cinderella into a servant in her own home. Cinderella is unhappy and is wishing for a miracle.

In this same town is  a castle, where the King is adamant that his son (the prince) should find a suitable bride and marry her in order to have a certain number of grandchildren. The King invites every eligible single woman in the entire kingdom to a ball, where he expects his son to choose his future wife. Cinderella's wicked step mother is absoloute in her decision that Cinderella can not attend the ball which results is her step daughter giving up because her evil step sisters tear her dress apart on the evening of the party so that she has no suitable dress for it.

It is at this point when the Fairy Godmother enters with a pumpkin carriage and a dress, making it her mission to ensure Cinderella attends the royal ball, however she warns that at the stroke of midnight all magic will wear off. Cinderella attends the ball and catches the prince's eye, they meet and it is clear he has taking a liking to her, however it is about to strike 00.00 so Cinderella runs off leaving only a glass slipper behind. The prince takes this slipper and is determined to find the bride of his dreams, he searches the kingdom trying to find her whilst Cinderella's evil step mother has locked her away. Eventually, the prince finds Cinderella with the help of her animal friends and they get married and live 'Happily ever after'.

The BBC delivered a similar storyline in terms of type of event, but changed what the actual event was. In the beginning a cleaner named Cindy dreams of going on an anthropology trip to Borneo with a principle people refer to as Prince, when the opportunity arises her boss, Charlotte and her research students do everything they can to take the attention off Cindy and onto them so that they would get the place/job on this trip to be Prince's assistant, they go as far as trying to put Cindy down using phrases like 'people like you' and sabotaging her chance of an interview. Cindy is on the verge of giving up when Mona helps, guides and mentors her along the way to finally getting recognition from Prince in order to get the job. Unlike every other candidate, Cindy challenges princes theory and he admires that in her, over the course of the story he starts to fall in love with her and when he eventually realises that Cindy's theory was correct, he runs to find her. They both decide they do not want the money or publicity in going to Borneo and instead decide to stay together for their 'happy ever after'.

The narrative is kept to the original in terms of patterns in the storyline, e.g. an opportunity arises, there is a battle between jealous girls and the main character and in the end the genuine girl and prince fall in love and get their happy ending.

This film coincides with narrative theories in terms of Propp's character types. Below is a table of each character from the BBC version, the character they are matched with from the original and how I have applied Propps characters to them explaining why they may challenge his ideas (anything that doesn't challenge them, accords to them).

BBC Fairytales Cinderella Characters	The character they're matched with from the original cinderella	Propps characters the BBC characters work well with
Prince	The Prince- Both characters are knows as a form of prince either by name or royalty. They are rich, well known and end up in a relationship with the one they love.	Prince could be seen as the heroine and this is because he is Cindys prize after making scientific history. He could also be the false hero, as in the beginning through till the end he claims to be knowledgable in all areas of science and the hero of a discovery when in fact, oblivious to it, he is incorrect and has been told so by Cindy many times.
Cindy Mellor	Cinderella- Both characters are poor and helpless looking for a miracle to help them achieve their dream. As well as this they are held back by a powerful woman in their lives who does not wish them the best (Fairy Godmother and Boss)	Cindy is the Hero as she leads the narrative and seeks the quest to prove Prince wrong and show the world what she has to offer scientifically. She makes a scientific revelation proving that what everyone thinks is right, actually isn't - making her a hero.
Charlotte Brooks	Evil Step mother- Both characters are wicked and cruel, trying to disrupt and get in the way of Cinderella’s goals and wishes.	Charlotte is the evil headmaster who takes on multiple roles in terms of Propp. She is a villain because of how she tries to get in the hero’s way and sabotage what they are working towards. She can also be seen as the father character purely because she has authority over Cindy. This challenges Propp’s theory of characters due to one character taking on the role of two. Even though this challenges Propp, it does not challenge the actual story of cinderella as in the original the evil step mother would have been the Villain and Father according to propp characters too.
Mona Hammond	Fairy God Mother- Both characters help cinderella and mentor her so that she can succeed. They both also appear to be ‘miraculous’ or magical.	Mona takes on 3 roles, these being the Helper, Donor and Mentor. This is because she offers the hero support throughout, she helps her by providing her with an object (a dress and shoes to impress the prince) as well as teaching and guiding the hero by giving advice and sending them on their way. This also goes against propps idea that each character only had one role and it also differs from the original cinderella in terms of the fairy godmother also being the helper, because in the original all of Cinderellas animal friends would have taken on the helper role however in the modern BBC version cinderella had no friends, if anything else should have been given the title ‘helper’ it would have been the books she studied on.
Finola+Phoebe	Ugly Sisters- These characters all try to overshadow Cinderella even though they both know that Cinderella is intact more beautiful and intelligent than them, they are supported by the evil stepmother and do what they can to sabotage Cinderella’s chances of getting what she wants, as they are jealous.	These girls also take on the role of the villain, this is because, like the Boss, Cinderella is not in their best wishes, and even though they know she is capable, they shoot her down making her feel unworthy and therefore try to sabotage what she is working towards.

Moving onto Todorov's narrative theory, the new BBC cinderella coincides with the states of equilibrium. For example, at the start even though Cindy isn't the happiest in her job, she accepts it and the situation is balanced. After this an opportunity arises where Cindy could be a co researcher with Prince and the situation is thrown off balance into disequilibrium when she strives for it and because of this her boss sacks her, the story continues until eventually a new equilibrium is reached as Prince Hans sees Cindy's theory is in fact correct and instead of working together, they realise they love each other and live 'happily ever after' just like the ending in the original fairy-tale.

Barthes codes are also incorporated into the new version in many ways, below is a mind map I have produced containing examples of the each code within the BBC Fairytales version of Cinderella.

Overall you can see that the BBC have played with and changed some narrative elements in terms of character roles however it largely coincides with the majority of narrative theories.

Narrative theory - Roland Barthes

Among many things, Roland Barthes was a French literary theorist and he came up with his own theory of the 'Five Codes'. Barthes described text as having no beginning 'we can gain access to it by several enterances' meaning there are many different ways to analyse films and find meaning in them to work out the narrative. He said texts are either open or closed meaning you can find many meanings for the same text, or just one.

A narrative is either a spoken or written account of connecting events - meaning a story. Barthes narrowed down any action in texts into five categories which he called 'codes' of any narrative.

Hermenutic or Enigma Codes
The function of this code is to make the reader question the narrative or to delay an answer to a question the same way a cliff-hanger would. Specifically, enigma codes set puzzles in the story as well as solve them.
The idea behind this code is that the delay between the audience asking the question and the film revealing the answer will drive the audience to continue watching.

In the picture above, the enigma code is being used by setting us a puzzle, its showing us that a fire has been set and two men are running from it with one appearing to carry a can that could possibly be flammable. It makes the audience ask the questions 'did these two men start the fire?' 'why and how was the fire started?' and 'have these men just escaped from this fire?'

The purpose of this code is to keep the audience guessing, it is the way the story avoids revealing all truth straight away - or maybe even at all.

Semantic Codes
This is the way in which setting, characters and objects take on and portray different meanings. Its the way how an image is presented to us that will make us believe its a certain thing; place, creature, genre, etc.

For example, the film cover above uses semantic codes generically to show us that it is a horror film by...

1. The darkness in the picture suggesting the film will be dark, this is one of the generic conventions of a horror film as it sets an intense atmosphere as even in real life, anything will appear to be scarier in the dark.
2. The eye with no pupil, this shows abnormality and immediately shows us that this person may have no real sight of life and could be possessed.
3. The blood and shards of glass appearing to come out of the girls face, this tells us the film has a gory element where people will be hurt - something that usually occurs in a horror film.
4. The girl screaming also shows that she is unhappy and scared, this can be used to mirror how the audience may feel as they watch; tense and possibly frightened.

Symbolic Codes
These signify 'binary oppositions'. These are themes, settings, characters, emotions or any object or thing that are opposites for example a boy/girl or happy/sad.

In the example above symbolic codes are used to show good vs evil, both sides are playing chess which signifies a game or competition, one hand is light and has the sun light surrounding it with the players had appearing elegant and gentle and the other is dark has dark clouds/a storm surrounding it with a hand that look aggressive and violent as if it is going to attack the other. These are the opposites I mentioned above, it is an effect used to emphasise the difference between things - in this case, people or teams.

Action codes
These are signs to us that something is about to happen, for example a man putting on his seatbelt - we would know he was about to drive, or a student putting up their hand in class, we would know they were about to ask a question. In films, this is often used to build tension, for example a man loading his gun (the image below) would tell viewers that he was aiming to either defend himself, or kill someone.

Cultural codes
This code refers to anything that is founded on some kind of real information or law that cannot be challenged and is often use as a base for finding truth. This usually involves science and religion as the majority of people would class either one of these as the 'truth'. In fantasy stories magical truths may be involved such as 'after midnight magic wears off' such as in Cinderella, in the image below you will see the big tower clock in this film that signifies that Cinderella has to run off, or else the prince will see who she really is. There is a branch off the Cultural Code called 'The Gnomic Code'. This typically refers to sayings, cliché's and any other common meaningful word sets. It basically looks at wider cultural knowledge.

Narrative theories - Tzvetan Todorov

Todorov was a Literary theorist from Bulgaria. The model below displays his theory.

EQUILIBRIUM -> DISEQUILIBRIUM -> NEW EQUILIBRIUM

He suggested that the majority of narratives would start with a state of equilibrium, this means it would be balanced and harmonious, life would be normal and the protagonist is happy. Todorov then stated that after this state of equilibrium and normality there would be an unbalance, called 'disequilibrium'. The normality would be disrupted for some reason for example due to discovering a secret, new information or because a villain was unhappy with a certain situation. This disequilibrium then has to be fought in order to restore peace where a new equilibrium is reached.

This model can easily be applied to many films, however I have found that it isn't always the protagonist that is happy in the first equilibrium, it can be the majority of characters that are happy but isn't necessarily the main character.  I have also found that some films may continue this cycle twice, going through disequilibrium and a new equilibrium twice. I have written a few examples below.

 

'Frozen' (2013) -  The equilibrium here is Elsa living with this power that no one is aware of, everyone is happy with the exception of her because she is having to conceal who she is and what she is capable of due to the fear that she might hurt someone. This is normal for Elsa and its a balance. The disequilibrium begins when elsa accidentally reveals to everyone that she has powers, people begin to think she is a villain and so she runs away, builds her own castle and a new equilibrium is found when she decides to stay there as its the only place she can be free to be herself. There is then a new disequilibrium as Ana, her sister, decides to go on a mission to save her sister and to bring back summer to their kingdom. The final new equilibrium is reached when Ana manages to save her sister and her sister realises how to control her powers, everyone is happy and the story ends on a positive note. Here you see Todorov's theory becomes a cycle repeating twice

 

'Mean Girls' (2004) - In this film Todorov's model fits perfectly. The equilibrium is the girl, Cady, moving to america, going to school and settling down with some friends. The disequilibrium arrives when Cady becomes one of the 'Plastics', joining the wrong group of girls at school getting her into a lot of trouble. The new equilibrium appears when Cady finally gets her head down into work, makes up with the girls she fell out with and realises that theres more to life than being 'pretty' and 'plastic'. The film ends showing the group of girls split up now talking to new people and doing good things rather than the way it was back at the beginning of the film when they acted as a clique and caused hassle.

 

'The Parent Trap' (1998) - Yet again, this film fits very well with Todorov's model. There is an equilibrium at the start of the film where two girls are in a camp and are fairly happy in their lives, however unlike Todorov suggests, they are not completely happy. Both of the girls are missing one parent and the disequilibrium starts when they realise they are actually long lost sisters and decide to swap lives after the summer camp. A new temporary (the fact its temporary is also known to them as they know they will have to go back to their normal lives eventually) equilibrium comes around when the 'other twin' settles in with the 'other parent' and yet again another disequilibrium is arrived at when parents realised what has happened and when the father has a potential new spouse and the twins decide to try and get their distant parents back together. After a lot of drama, a final new equilibrium is reached, where the family are all joined together once more, the twins are no longer separated, and the parents are back in love.

The three examples above show that it is very common for films to show changes in equilibrium as this is what makes a storyline, however there are some films that end in a state between disequilibrium and a new equilibrium, such as 'the vow' where the wife hasn't yet recalled her memory however is starting to fall back in love with someone who was once her husband.

All of this shows that, especially as time has gone on, Todorov's theory is the backbone concept of most films, however this can be adjusted in many ways, such as ending the cycle in between stages (a cliff-hanger) or repeating the cycle twice. This just depends on the storyline and the affect producers want the film to achieve.

Narrative Theory - Vladimir Propp

Vladimir Propp was a Russian critic and in the 1920's analysed over 100 Russian fairy-tales. He believed it was possible to classify every character into a certain 'type' and their actions throughout the film into defined roles. His theory is useful as it is able to show similarities and connect completely different films together, however sometimes it doesn't work or isn't as easy as it seems to put any character from a film into one of his character types; it mostly works for fairy-tales.

Below are Propp's 8 character types and their roles which he describes as functions that are needed in order to make a storyline. With changing values in society (especially when it comes to fairytales) I believe Propp's character types are still relevant, however can be changed in ways such as one character taking on two roles or just one of the character types not existing as they may not be relevant.

Character Type	Role within narrative
The Hero	Leads narrative, usually seeks something such as a quest or try’s to solve a mystery
Villain	Gets in the hero’s way or try’s to disrupt the hero and sabotage the hero’s end goal.
Heroine	This is a prize or reward for the hero, usually in the form of a prince or princess that the hero has been fighting to save from the villain (snow white, sleeping beauty, cinderella). Can possess something the hero and villain are after.
Father	Doesn't necessarily have to be a father however is an authority figure usually of the heroine or hero.
Helper	The helper helps the hero by offering support, they would often act as a sidekick
Donor	The donor can help the hero by providing them with something whether that may be an object, advice, information or a special power that would help them complete their quest
Mentor	The mentor teaches and guides the hero and would send them on their way
False Hero	A character that falsely assumes the role of a hero

I will now take the example of a Disney film 'Frozen' and apply the characters in it to Propp's theory.

 

Ana = Hero. Propp implied that the hero would usually be male but this goes against some modern contemporary media texts where for example Ana is the hero in 'Frozen' as she sets off on a quest to find her sister, help her and bring back summer to Arendale.

 

Prince Hans = This character takes on two roles one being the Villain and the other being the False Hero. This is because he falsely assumes the role of a hero whilst he deceives the people of Arendale that his intentions are good and that he is the hero when in fact he is a villain that is trying to ruin Ana's quest of helping and finding her sister, by trying to kill her (Elsa).

 

Elsa = In this film Elsa acts as the Heroine. This is because should Ana succeed in her quest to find her, Elsa will be her reward. The hero has been fighting to try and safe her sister and the villain is also after her to try and kill her. Ana earns her reward as she sacrifices her own life for her sister's when Elsa unfreezes due to their love for each other. This is also a different take on Propp's typical character roles because it is one of the few films that teaches children that love can be strong in many ways; not only through a romantic relationship (which frozen reveals, can be deceiving), but through the love for a sister. In the beginning Elsa also acts as a father in terms of authority having authority over Ana as she asks for her blessing to marry Prince Hans due to the fact her parents are deceased. Elsa shows she is definitely not in favour of this marriage due to how unrealistic it is, therefore taking on the role of a parent/father too.

 

Christoph = Christoph helps the hero and acts as their sidekick both on the road to finding Elsa and when Ana accidentally gets struck by Elsa in the heart as he rushes her to the man who Ana thinks is her 'one true love' as that is the only thing that would cure her. He offers her support and is therefore the Helper.

 

Olaf = In this instance I believe Olaf is the Donor and Mentor as he donates his advice to Ana as she is about to give up and die by telling her that 'some people are worth melting for' reminding her that love is strong and she must fight for her sister, also by encouraging and helping her get out of the locked room and realise Christoph is her real true love whom she must kiss in order to heal (which leads onto her sacrificing the kiss and her life, for her sister).

 

Sfen = Sfen is Christoph's raindeer that takes Ana and Christoph to Elsa's palace therefore, even though he is known to be Christoph's sidekick, he can be considered Ana's (the hero's) helper or possibly even her donor, as without Sfen, Ana wouldn't have been able to reach Elsa.

As you can see, some characters take on two roles and two different characters can have the same role, therefore even though I do for the majority agree with Propp's theory I believe it needs to be updated to fit in with modern contemporary media texts or could just have some flexibility in saying that some of the rules can be changed depending on the story and it's characters.