Character Analysis of Shrek and Lord Farquaad

Character Analysis of Shrek and Lord Farquaad

In traditional fairytales, ogres are man-eating beasts. The prince

usually rescues the princess; they marry and live happily ever after.

How do the makers of 'Shrek' use presentational devices to reverse

this tradition, to reveal the ogre as good, and the prince as evil?

In this essay, I am going to analyse the characters of Shrek and Lord

Farquaad, and write about how filmmakers use different presentational

devices to create an unusual fairytale.

In conforming fairytales there are Princes such as prince charming,

but they are the only kind of prince you are normally going to find,

whereas the ogres and giants are a mixed breed, there is the ogre who

attempts to eat the three Billy goats gruff, or the giant form Jack

and the Beanstalk. In that fairytale the giant chases Jack all the way

around his castle threatening to eat him. Shrek tries plea for a

peaceful end to a fight and only scares the villagers off, instead of

attempting to harm them. Lord Farquaad is different from other

characters in his position such as Princes, Farquaad attempts to draw

a queen so he can become King, and have his own Kingdom. The prince

from Snow White, is attracted to Snow White for real, instead of for

his own gain, and from this he saves her live.

The film opens with a modern song, with Shrek criticizing and having a

laugh at the expense of normal fairytales, and then carries on with

the fun by Shrek wiping his backside with an average fairytale story.

The viewers are shocked by the use of this in a children's movie, an

opening like this suggests that this is a modern children's movie, and

creates...

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... met the princess and he is pictured by the sunset. Ha and Fiona

walk through the forest on a sunny day, the lighting here gives an

overview of a happy romantic day, even though it doesn't seem real.

There are birds chirping and the princess singing, all showing

contentment. At the end of the film a brilliant light is used to show

the goodness and make a real magical fairytale ending.

All in all this film uses traditional fairytale characters brought to

you using presentational devices which change the effect of these

characters full circle. At first these presentational devices show you

them as traditional characters howling, being good for the normally

good characters and evil for Shrek. But this has a reversal of trend,

Shrek ends up as the good guy and Lord Farquaad comes out of the film

nearly as evil as Hitler.