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Quality Street - Narrative

Media Studies: Eduqas GCSE, topic 2.4.2

Intertextuality and Narrative

Intertextuality helps to create meaning within the advert. Narrative is constructed in the advert.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality

  • Intertextuality helps to create meaning within the advert.
  • The regency period is referred to within the advert through the use of the portrait of Miss Sweetly and Major Quality.
  • The costumes and hairstyles of the character pay homage to the Regency period, and offers nostalgia for the audience by helping to remind them of better days.
The Regency period

The Regency period

  • The Regency period was between 1811 and 1837 when England was under the rule of the Prince Regent and was defined by elegance.
  • This time period shared many characteristics with the 1950’s in terms of the developments made in technology, the population boom and appreciation of architecture and fashion being considered more highly.
The characters

The characters

  • The characters of Miss Sweetly and Major Quality have become synonymous with the Quality Street brand.
Narrative

Narrative

  • Within the advert Propp's theory of narrative can be applied.
  • The man who is centred and surrounded by the women, appears to be shown as the protagonist and the hero.
  • The advert can perpetuate a patriarchal narrative, reflecting the idea that society is unequal and men are at top of it making the decisions. This echoes the way society functioned during the 1950’s.
Multiple narratives

Multiple narratives

  • The women on the other hand surround the man as if he is a saviour, making them damsels in distress who need saving.
  • The positioning of the characters helps to create different narratives:
    • Either the women are choosing a chocolate.
    • Or the man is choosing a woman.
Costumes

Costumes

  • The women are dressed in different colours with different hairstyles, mirroring the different choices that are available in the chocolate box.
  • The man's costume has connotations of formality and wealth.

Test yourself on Quality Street - Narrative

  • Which historical period is referred to within the Quality Street advert through the use of the portrait of Miss Sweetly and Major Quality?

Practise this topic for free