What is the Theme of Shrek: Semiotic Analysis

In this essay, I will rhetorically analyze DreamWorks's animation Shrek 2001 to show how it does not follow fairy tale clichés and will try to answer the question of what is the theme of Shrek. Through the use of semiotics and classical telling of a fairy tale, Shrek debunks the dominant ideology of a handsome prince saving the desperate damsel in distress. Folk tales are culture-specific since they tell a story true for a specific society at a particular time of the past. These fairy tale stories are motivated and affected by the political and social changes that happened in various parts of the world. One thing that stands out is that most fairy tales have a similar plot and structure with each other. Most of the heroines are set to wait for a ‘Prince charming: to come and save them, these heroines are magnificently beautiful princesses while their heroes are extraordinarily charming princes who live in massive castles and places of unimaginable beauty. However, in Shrek, the protagonist differs a lot from that contemporary style, plot and character of fairy tales since both heroes are ogres.

Shrek setting, style and characters have resisted gender stereotypes that demand women to be beautiful and ladylike for them to live like a princess and men to be wealthy and charming princes. Shrek is an enormous disgusting green ogre who falls for a beautiful princess. Later the beautiful princess turns to a nasty, ugly ogre. Basically, the traditional fairytale with the beautiful princess getting saved by the prince and falling in love is what happens in the movie but with a twist. The traditional fairytale keeps the criteria that portray ‘brave knights' who save the queen to become wealthy handsome princes. Fiona, the princess, is shocked to see an ogre instead of a ‘brave knight' when she says “This is all wrong; you weren’t supposed to be an ogre”. An ogre is conventionally scary and horrifying. However, Shrek is a nice guy who gets along with the princess later on in the plot. The usual beautiful princess later turns into an ogre too different from the normal fairly tells that end with they lived happily ever after. In other fairy tales, women and princess are normally weak characters who wait upon stronger men to save them. In Shrek, Princess Fiona is a very strong-willed and fierce lady together with her lady dragon. She fights off an army of men in the forest with was big dismay to them as they could not expect it. Her dragon had also killed a lot of knights who came to seek her. It also fought fiercely with Lord Farquaad's guards at the wedding.

Feudalism is a social system which prevailed in medieval Europe. It involved a class system with levels that corresponded to people’s wealth and authority. The hierarchy of the system begins with the royalty class of kings, queens, princes and princesses at the top. Then the nobility class lords, ladies and earls followed the royals. The kings and queens gave them land in return they would offer military service to the royalty. There were also the vassals who were tenants of nobles. At the bottom, some peasants were obligated to live on their lord's land while they give loyalty, labour and a share of their produce to their masters. In return, they got a place to live and work and military protection from attacks. Feudalism lacked class mobility as it was harder for anyone to move up or down the class ladder. The setting and background of the Shrek movie 2001 are based on feudalism. In the play, peasants’ characters are being evicted from their land by Lord Farquaad. The peasants have no right and no way to protest for such an action in this kind of a system. As a result, they crash into an ogre’s home ‘Shrek” who lives in solitude in a swamp inside the forest.

The fairy tale of Shrek has addressed solitude and loneliness using different styles and plots of tale-telling. True to the collective thinking of people that you are a failure if you are alone, Shrek lived alone in a swamp. This might not always be the truth, and sometimes voluntary isolation results from people's desire to be in charge of their lives. Shrek is an ogre who resides in a far away swamp out in the middle of a forest. He is contented with his life and loves the solitude of his home. Unfortunately, Shrek's precious solitude is drastically interrupted by an invasion of a group of irritating fairytale characters. Solitude can help one to focus his energy to his projects, be in charge of his own life and improve himself holistically as seen in Shrek. The ogre is desperate to save his amazing home of solitude. Hence he makes a deal with Lord Farquaad in exchange of returning the fairytale characters to their home, Shrek vows to rescue Princess Fiona. Solitude is good for introspection, but closing yourself out can be detrimental to one's social conquest. It is observed when Shrek lacks the necessary courage to express and define his feelings to Princess Fiona. Consequently, Lord Farquaad takes Fiona with him to his castle while Shrek returns to the swamp worried and lonely. The swamp henceforth becomes a self-imposed prison where the solitude that makes Shrek happy before is now making him miserable.

Speech acts are prevalent in all folk tales' conversation. They represent the complicated case of speech acts to find out what a character intends to say. The phenomena of speech acts in Shrek are different and exciting to discuss. Four types of speech, namely expressive, commissives, representatives and directives, are used in the moves Shrek. Unlike other fairy tales that use well-spoken etiquette language, Shrek explores the possibility of different colloquial language. The donkey, who is a friend of Shrek uses a lot of comical expressions while describing other characters and instances in the movie. Dark humour is also vastly used in the movie when Shrek and the donkey are explaining the physical looks of Lord Farquaad to Princess Fiona. Shrek also threatens the guard of putting their heads on a pike and cutting open their spleens to drink their fluids. The music used in the movie is also modern and explains more of the situation at hand. It sets the stage for the movie and keep us entertained. Satire is widespread in the Shrek movie. This helps a lot in building the character of the protagonists, antagonists and other characters in the movie. It also identifies to the American culture, which tends using different language in their context of speech. Shrek has a touch of the modern American culture, unlike most folk tales which are in the setting of medieval Europe.

Figurative styles of language like similes and metaphors have also been sighted in the movie. Shrek uses onions to illustrate the character of ogres. The donkey, however, does not comprehend what Shrek was trying to tell him. He meant that ogres have layers while the donkey focused on how onions stink and make one cry. These interpretations help one to grasp their supportive context of the significant analogies. It is evident that ogres are ugly and frightening, given how soldiers fear the sight of Shrek as he intimidates them. Shrek is also seen as a heartless monster when he drags Princess Fiona by the shoulder against her will. His tendency to not liking company also portrays him as very cold and inconsiderate. However, Shrek has an alter ego of himself, another layer of the onion. He is seen as caring, compassionate and selfless when he volunteers to help other fairy tales’ characters regain their land which had been stolen from them by Lord Farquaad. In another instance, Shrek's soft spot is found when he falls for Princess Fiona. The once coldhearted ogre who did not like the company of anyone now longed for the company of a lady he loved. He even acquired new friends later in the movie when the donkey and the dragon join hands to help him fight Lord Farquaad's guards. Princess Fiona's two layers as an ugly ogre and a lovely princess are evident in the movie. Metaphors and Similes have been used to show the different forms and character where they can behave in a specific way and later change to entirely different behaviour.

It can be said that Shrek is a film that debunks most of the traditional conventions of folk tale genres with its parodic and critical approach, although it follows a number of them on its terms. The story is adapted and changed with many elements added in the plot. The movie comes as a unique plot keeping the language of a fairytale intact. The movie Shrek breaks the norms of contemporary fairy tales by reversing the role of the hero and the villain. Several types of cognitive schemata are used to describe the different perceptions of different characters better. When watching the movie, not a minute goes without a laugh line or a happy invention of some kind. The lack of manipulative sentimentality in the movie allows for more severe issues to be genuinely touching and meaningful. Shrek's main message is that beauty comes from within, and we should not judge people based on their appearances. Shrek 2001 is one of the most fabulous fairy tale creations of our time as Shrek is also one of the most significant social icons of the time.

References

• How can Shrek help us understand solitude? (2019, February 7). Retrieved from Exploring your mind: https://exploringyourmind.com/shrek-help-understand-solitude/
• Lindsay, D. (2013). Feudalism and Fairy Tales. In R. Newcott, Shrek the musical (pp. 10-11). New York: Alliance Theatre at the Woodruff.
• P, K. (2004). The intertextual use of the fairy tale in postmodern fiction. Retrieved from Sheffield Haram University: http://shura.shu.ac.uk/20378/1/10701024.pdf
• Voss, M. (2017, October 14). Ogres, Onions, and Their Lack of Layers. Retrieved from The Prolongation of Work : https://sites.williams.edu/f18-engl117-01/uncategorized/ogres-onions-and-their-lack-of-layers/