Narrative in the Dark Knight

Narrative in the Dark Knight

Learning Intention

•To critically consider the different narrative

threads in the Dark Knight

Success Criteria

You will know you have been successful when:

•You can answer a Dark Knight narrative past paper question

Starter Task

Write down 5 examples of media

language

Recap

•Plot = what happens in a story

•Narrative = the way the story is told and the different ideas used to tell the story

•NARRATIVE AND PLOT ARE NOT THE SAME. IF YOU GET A NARRATIVE QUESTION IN THE EXAM, DO NOT JUST WRITE ABOUT THE STORY.

Theories of narrative

Over the years, people have come up with different theories of

narrative. This means they have different ideas about devices that

are used to tell the story.

Proppain Roles

•Propp believes that every story only ever contains 7 ‘types’ of character. No story contains more. Some stories might not contain all 7.

•Analysed over 100 fairy stories

•Can you think of any story that doesn’t have a good guy and a bad guy?

Task

•Consider the 7 character types.

•Create a grid in your jotter, similar to the example sheets and work out which character fulfils which role and why in the Dark Knight.

Propp and Dark Knight

•Hero = Batman •The hero often drives the action forward •He is both a ‘seeker’ who helps the victims of the villain and a ‘victim hero who is at the centre of the villains plans

Seeker and Victim hero

•When does he help the villains victims? •When is he the centre of the villains plans?

The Villain – The Joker

•The villain tries to cause disruption to general social order •Joker terrorise Gotham •Often deformed looking or obviously evil •Tries to disrupt the hero

The Princess – Rachel Dawes

• Rachel is the reward for the hero, she is the object of Batman’s desire

• Because of this, Rachel is often the target for the Joker

• Unlike a normal fairytale, she dies in the end.

• However, Rachel is represented as a strong women, a lawyer and in many ways the heroine herself.

Lucius Fox – The Donor

• Helps the hero to achieve his goal

• Provides him with all kinds of technology that enable him to beat the Joker

• These items are so modern and high tech that the also appear magical to the audience

The Helper – aids the hero

• Think Donkey in Shrek

• Or the fairy Godmother in a fairy tale

• Commissioner Gordon – in what ways does he help Batman?

• Does he fulfil any other roles?

• Are there any other helpers in the film?

The Dispatcher – sends the hero on their quest

•What quests does Gordon send Batman on?

•The dispatcher often alerts the hero to a problem or issue…when does this happen in TDK?

The False Hero – Harvey Dent

• Someone who we believe is going to the hero but for whatever reason is not

• Batman believes that Harvey is the real hero of Gotham and can clean up the streets

• Batman believe he can retire and leave Gotham in the hands of Dent

• But when Rachel dies, Dent loses his hero image

• He instead is led to insanity about Rachel’s death and takes on the role of a villain – two face

The Father role

• The role of the father is often in reference to the father of the princes, not the hero

• In fairytales, the father might reward the hero for saving the princes

• In this story, there is not a literal character who represents role of the father

• Rather the father is the successful completion of the mission to rid Gotham of crime

Task

•Complete the narrative grid you have been given

Learning Intention

•To develop our understanding of the narrative theory of binary opposition

Success Criteria

You will know you have been successful when:

•You can apply your understanding to the Dark Knight

Starter

•Try to write a definition of the word opposition

What is the opposite of….

• Good?

• Happy?

• Fat?

• Black?

• Dark?

• Left?

• Up?

• Positive?

• For?

Levi Strauss Claude Levi Strauss was a film and literature theorist who saw the world in terms of opposites

He believed that in films there are often oppositions which are playing against one another

One of the most common ideas in films is good v evil

Can you think of any films that use this?

Consider the Dark Knight

•Are there any examples of opposites in the Dark Knight that you can think of?

What about in this scene?

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDbINMm-d60

Opposites in the Dark Knight

•The joker is an advocate of chaos and disorder where as the citizens of Gotham want law and order

•The Joker and the Batman dress and behave in opposing ways

•What about their costuming tells you that one is good and one is evil?

Task

•Make a list of 5 scenes in which

binary opposition is used

Learning Intention

•To develop our understanding of Todorvo’s

narrative theory

Success Criteria

You will know you have been successful when:

•You can worked out each stage of Todorvo’s theory in relation to TDK

Starter Task

•Without looking at your notes, write down all 7

of Propp’s character roles

Todorvo’s theory

• Believes that all stories follow a basic 5 step structure

• Generally speaking this is…

• There is a normal order of things

• Disruption of normal order

• Realisation that disruption has occurred

• An attempt to fix the disruption

• Things will either go back to normal or a new order is created at the end

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDbINMm-d60https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDbINMm-d60

Equilibrum

For example

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVkpva7zDBQ

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kRDpmgDrU0

Task

•Consider the 5 stages

•In your jotter, attempt to detail what happens at each stage in the Dark Knight (we will go over this afterward so don’t worry if you are struggling with this)