Analyse the narrative structure of memento using the ideas
of prop, Todorov, Levi Strauss and any other theories you believe are relevant.
Give clear examples from the media.
Memento is a very long and complex story where the protagonist Leonard is seeking revenge for the murder of his wife while suffering from a short term memory loss condition. The media production is told through short pieces of the story in an inconsecutive series of events. Propp theories can be seen within the film production as Leonard is presented as the hero, John G is presented as the villain, Teddy can be seen as the helper/donor as to Leonard he is sourcing useful information therefore helping him to solve the murder. Finally, Leonards wife is presented as the princess and Natalie is the false hero of the narrative. The overall film doesn't strictly stick to Propp's ideas as at different times certain characters have different roles in the film. For example, at the beginning of the film, as someone who is watching, Teddy is presented as a villain as Leonard has written down not to trust him and we see that it says Teddy is John G. However through the short clips of story that we are shown, Teddy is only shown helping Leonard and he seems to be really interested in Leonards life so he is presented more as a helper/donor. Another way in which Memento opposes Propp's ideas is the character of Natalie. We see various moments of Natalie crying and trying to help Leonard which makes us as an audience sympathise with her and make her a likeable character, although as the film progresses we see more of the parts of memories for Leonard start to come together and it shows a completely contrasted character to Natalie where she is being abusive to him and saying she will use Leonard knowing that he will not remember any of those events. This immediately makes the audience dislike her, and her role within the film has aspects to being a villain as well as a false hero. Overall Propp's ideas are slightly in place in this film but it definitely opposes some of his ideas as most of the characters purposes either change or they have more than one.
Despite Propp having his ideas quite limited in Memento, I believe Todorov's theories are highly presented in the film. For example with the first stage of his theory being : 1. A state of equilibrium at the outset- so at the beginning of memento not everything is happy but it is calm, not much action has happened and there's lack of information for the audience to see, as all we see is a polaroid photo being shaken so a small amount of equilibrium is achieved . The second stage, 2: A disruption of the equilibrium by some action - there are many parts when the equilibrium would have been disrupted but a significant example would be when Leonard wakes up with a man in his wardrobe not knowing what had happened the day before which obviously made the equilibrium unstable as there was a tense atmosphere in this moment. The next additional stage in Todorov's theories is that there is an attempt to repair the distribution- So when Leonard called Teddy and then turned up to Natalie's house to find out who the man was this was an attempt at making the situation achieve equilibrium again. Finally, the last stage being that there is a reinstatement of equilibrium. The last few scenes don't necessarily answer a lot of questions and the there isn't really a proper ending as it is just implying that Leonard is going to keep trying to solve what happened as he stops at a tattoo shop to get a new tattoo. But this ending does still follow Todorov's theories as it ends with equilibrium.
Some aspects of Levi Strauss binary opposition can be seen in the film for example: good vs evil, Leonard is just trying to get revenge for the rape and murder of his wife whereas evil keeps getting in his way in small ways such as Natalie taking advantage of his condition then in big ways such as him not writing down important things that he needs to remember. Another use of binary opposition is Strong vs weak. Mostly everyone is stronger than Leonard due to his condition he is mentally weak so a lot of the other characters like Natalie and Teddy are automatically stronger than him. A final example is peace vs war, Teddy tells Leonard at the end that there is nothing more that he can do to make it any better whereas Leonard is still wanting war and revenge for the rape and murder of his wife. There isn't a lot of binary opposites in the film but some aspects of Levi Strauss Binary Opposition theory can be presented.
In conclusion, Todorov's Narrative is the most accurate and mostly presented in the film memento as the narrative is constantly falling in and out of equilibrium. The characters have some of the aspects of Propp's ideas as there is a clear hero of the story but the villain defiantly does alter and there could possibly be more than one villain in this case such as John G, Teddy, Natalie. Binary opposition is also quite a common theme and can be seen throughout as I said previously about good vs evil. Overall all if the media narratives above are commonly utilised in films in the past and future and they're important in storylines. As Memento is known for being a confusing and long film, the narrative structures help contribute to more understanding of the film.
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