Research Post: Todorov's Narrative Theory

Todorov's Narrative Theory of Equilibrium explains how a story goes through three main stages, equilibrium, disequilibrium, and new equilibrium. In the first stage, equilibrium, the audience is introduced to the new characters. The disequilibrium stage introduces a conflict that creates a challenge for the main character, and the new equilibrium phase either the character has resolved the conflict, or they have not.

This theory is important because it gives viewers an easy way to decipher how stories change and grab audiences' attention. By following this format, it allows storywriters to create a story that has meaningful character development and emotional investment. This challenge forces the character to change, making the character confront the conflict and eventually leading to a conclusion, which can be positive or negative. By utilizing this theory, it ensures that the audience enjoys a well-developed character.

                                                    Graphic visualizing the theory.




This theory is also very useful for our project, because it helps design the emotional development for our main character, a high school bully, and gives us guidelines and how to write the story. We first start in the equilibrium stage, with him being confident at school, bullying other students. This makes him feel powerful, and better then everyone. This changes however in the disequilibrium phase, where he soon realizes what he's doing is wrong, and no students actually care about what he says, creating an emotional conflict. Finally, in the new equilibrium, we reveal his abusive parents, showing the reason why he acts like this.

By following Todorv's theory, we can ensure our story successfully develops our character's emotions, and gives details about his internal conflict and reason for it.