ROLAND BARTHES ENIGMA THEORY

Because I have taken Media at GCSE I already felt I knew edits and camera angles quite well, my teacher, to keep me occupied and thinking, gave me the challenge of researching the Enigma Theory.

Roland Barthes described 5 codes which are in any narrative.

• The Hermeneutic code (The voice of truth) refers to any element of the story that is not fully explained and becomes a mystery for the audience.- The purpose of this is to keep the audience focused and guessing until the final scenes where all the loose ends are tied off and the truth is revealed. Causing closure for the audience. 
• The Proairetic code (The empirical voice) also builds tension, referring to any other action or event that indicates something is going to happen making the audience guess what will happen next.-This basically includes all the non verbal queues that give the audience insight into the characters thought and how they will react to certain decisions that move the story line on. An example of this would be when a character raises a weapon to another's head but then starts to lower it. The lowering of the weapon suggests the character has compassion and has recognized their irrational anger. 

Codes One and two are linked and work as a pair to develop the story's tension and keep the audience intrested. " Dependent on two sequential codes: the revelation of the truth and the coordination of the actions represented - The same constraint in the order of the melody as gradual order of the narrative sequence." To me this means that the two codes work in the same way as music does to create tension, it plays into the conscience and unconscious mind to create visual and audible emotion the same as the first two codes. 

     

•   The semantic code (The voice of the person) refers to connotation within the story that gives additional meaning over the basic denotative meaning of the word.- It is by the use of extended meanings that can be applied to the words or actions. This suggesting that there is a deeper meaning for every action and word that a character says and does. Maybe it is just to get to know a character better or finding out the antagonists plan. 
•  The Symbolic code (The voice of symbols) is very similar to the semantic code but acts at a wider level, organizing semantic meanings into a broader and deeper meaning.- This is typically done in the usage of antithesis where new meanings arise out of opposing ideas. 
•  The cultural code (The Voice of science) refers to anything that is founded on some kind of canonical works that cannot be challenged and is used to be a foundation for the truth.-this suggesting that there is some form of truth that is never questioned in a narrative and is taken as gospel. 

-We gain access into the narrative by several entrances (looking at it from a different view point changes the meaning and importance of certain actions).