Appendix 3.1: Analytic methods - б films from 1954
The characteristics of each group will be outlined, then an
example from each group will be used to demonstrate how the
classification works in practice.
Group 1 characters are central to the film; they are named,
they develop or change in some way during the course of the
narrative, they are affected by the narrative resolution, and
there is audience access to the character's point of view vis
a vis her diegetic experience.
Group 2 characters are major though not central; they are
named, they are developed during the narrative but do not
essentially change as a consequence of narrative events, they
are affected by the narrative resolution and there is some
audience access to their point of view.
Group 3 characters are minor; they may or may not be named,
they are presented rather than developed and do not change as
a consequence of narrative events, they may motivate the
narrative but they are not affected by its resolution, and
there is no audience access to their diegetic experience
constructed in the film - the audience is never invited to
share their point of view.
Group 4 comprises not so much characters as 'figures': these
are representations of either the category 'women' conceived
in general terms - simply as not-men - or of particular groups
of women identifiable within this general category. These
figures are rarely named, do not participate in narrative
events beyond their simple presence and are not affected by
the narrative resolution. There is, clearly, no audience
access to their point of view.
All the films contain female characters in Groups 3 and 4, and
in either Group 1 or Group 2, only Hobson's Choice having
characters in both Group 1 (Maggie, played by Brenda da
Banzie) and Group 2 (Vicky and Alice, her sisters).
Group 1: Helen (June Allyson) in The Glenn Miller Story.
Helen is a central character. The film documents her marriage
to and life with Glenn Miller (James Stewart), and not only do
we first hear of her during the opening scene, but also the
final image is of her. At the opening she is young, single,
living with her parents and going out with Ed whom, it is
implied, she will marry chiefly because of his dependability
in conventional terms.
I want a man like Ed who's got a factory or something
solid. Certainly not a wandering nomad like Glenn Miller.
Despite this assertion she marries Glenn Miller fairly early
in the narrative and proceeds to devote herself to him, her
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