Fish TankBarthes codeEnigmas

This presentationn will look at how

Barthes’ code is used in the film

Fish Tank.

Enigma codes: this refers to plot elements that will raise questions.

Action codes: this refers to actions - plot events which will lead to other actions.

I will used Barthes's code of narrative to analyse the opening to two British

Realism film openings. Roland Barthes suggested that a text is like a tangled ball

of threads, with each thread comes a different meaning - pull one thread and you

get one point of view, pull a different thread and the meaning of the text changes

altogether. "Narrative codes "are the names Barthes gave to these threads in

which we pull.

This particular scene leaves the audience asking a variety of questions such as "Why is she breathing so heavily?", "What has happened to her to make her be like this?". According to Barthes this would be an example of an enigma code as the viewers are questioning what is happening in the scene.

Fish Tank - Barthes code - enigmas

This scene also sparks questions in viewers minds, such as: "Who is Keeley?", "What has the main character done to be apologizing to Keeley for?" We also wonder why she is so angry and panicked. This is also an example of enigma codes.

This scene shows an example of an action code as we see the protagonist throw a stone at someone’s window. This leaves us thinking the homeowner will come out of their house and be angry, as the audience would think this is a suitable action to follow the previous one.

A little further on in this scene, the protagonist swears at the homeowner and shouts abuse at him. The audience expects the man to react by shouting back and becoming even more irritated. This is another example of an action code.