Saturday, 23 June 2012

How does the synopsis of Alfred Hitchcock's Birds conform or subvert to Todorov's narrative theory of equilibrium?

Alfred Hitchcock's Birds does have a straightforward plot that seems to conform to Todorov's narrative theory of equilibrium. Firstly, there is a clear equilibrium at the beginning of the story, presenting protagonist Melanie Daniels as the successful character who is taking out her time to surprise her new friend Mitch by buying his sister a gift of love-birds. The equilibrium is presented at this point in the story. Secondly, once Melanie's character has driven to Bodega Bay and sneak her gift of love-birds to Mitch's house,
she is suddenly set upon be a seagull coming back across the bay and is bleeding from the head. Here a problem is presented, and the audience recognise and identify the disequilibrium. The problem of birds gradually escalates with the rise in bird attacks, at the local school, at Mitch's mother's friend's house, the cafe and  the last dramatic attack of birds at Mitch's house. Finally, with the protagonist Melanie fatally wounded by birds in the end, Mitch and his sister and Mother and Melanie drive off into the distance. Whilst on the one hand, one can argue that this final act conforms to Todorov's preposition of the new equilibrium being presented at the end of a narrative, i do not think that Todorov's theory is applied here completed as the main characters leave the town is Mitch's cars , slowly making their way through  i quote 'infinite flocks of birds', leaving the story with a general sense of uncertainty and no clear resolution that would have otherwise conformed to Todorov's narrative theory of equilibrium. This apparent cliffhanger in the story made by Hitchcock subverts Todorov's theory, instead leaving the atmosphere of the story in awe and uncertainty instead of the balance of a new equilibrium. Personally as a member of the viewing audience, i don't think that Birds conforms to Todorov's theory as if you'll notice there is constant uncertainty shown in the story from the beginning. It is noteworthy that at the beginning, Melanie comes out the bird shop noticing the large flock of birds in the sky, the end show similarly large flocks of birds into the sunrise whilst listening to reports of bird attacks in nearby towns. This shown a constant, if not blatant sense of uncertainty in the plot, making the story seem much more imbalanced than a typical equilibrium-disequilibrium and new equilibrum storyline explained by Todorov's theory.

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