MERLIN

Building upon all of the information you have acquired regarding Merlin and how to appropriately construct your textual analysis essay

The clip of Merlin portrays a clear binary opposite as theorist Levi Strauss stated of the class throughout many different ways. The use of camera angles, mise-en-scene, sound, and editing have been conflicting in showing this throughout the clip.

The character Merlin has been presented in a lower class towards the surrounding characters as we are first introduced to him through low key lighting coming out of a small room. We are unsure why he would be in such a grand, historic castle from the way he is dressed which is dark, ragged, scuffling looking colours and ropes which portrays him as a servant boy, we see this again as he wonders around the room snooping, which has characteristics of a noisy, lower class boy. We know that he is not meant to be snooping in the room as the music picks up to a high paces, anxiety telling us something bad is going to happen. As we expected Merlin gets told off for being in the room as the lady is of a high authorities wearing royal purple dress telling Merlin “You shouldn’t be here.” and as he leaves he walks down the castles stairs where an establishing high angle shot of him is shown to make him look weak and lost in such a large place.

Setting has also played a contrasting role as the camera follows Merlin from behind to the little village as we are automatically on his side, and feel safe through the hectic clatter, chattering, cheerful and animal noise of the market place.  This is where we are introduce to the opposing character of Arthur who represents a much higher class and well respected status as already a mid-shot is used to show us that he is surrounded by an army of knights, also he is dressed heavily in armour, looking powerful and strong. We can also tell that he is of a higher, more snobbish class as the camera uses an a shallow focus on Arthur, which then turns into an over the shoulder shot; highlighting that the higher class is always picking on the lower and starting arguments. Here is where there is no clear difference in class as Merlin challenges this stereotype.

The use of dialogue is important as it gives us an idea to their personality and how each are portrayed. As Arthur has already started to pick out Merlin, he at first seems to be in power as whatever he says; his knights will laugh along with reinforcing the power, whereas merlin stands alone. This is show through a series of shot reverse shot between the conversations of the two opposing characters. Instead of obeying Arthur and letting him say what he wants, as he is arrogant, Merlin actually steps in with a response which is seen to be sarcastic and brave. “I knew you were an arse but I didn’t know you were a royal one to.” Cleverly Merlin is using his humour to mock the higher class, as he then continues to do so, making them look bad rather than him. “I’m sorry, how long have you been training to be a prat, your royal highness.” We now begin to take even more liking to Merlin as he is breaking away from the conventions of what a lower class servant should be like, and actually comes across as a brave and confident character through the use of dialogue as we would not expect this just from his appearance.  Apposing to this we are expected to find props with a British heritage of the medieval era as the mise-en-scene gives us clues about the situation of society then.

The non-diegetic music of a typically medieval tune, that is heavily based with violins and fast tempos starts to play as Arthur passes scrawny looking merlin with a morning star weapon, a series of low angle shots on merlin and high angle shot son Arthur alternate to show that Arthur now has the power because of his equipment.  We see the struggle for Merlin being a servant and not familiar with this peculiar weapon and scuffles to use it. To match Merlin’s emotions a sequence of fast, short cuts are used where the camera juggles slightly to show the panic state of Merlin’s mind, we are looking at this scene from his point, wanting him to win because of this.  The setting changes slightly as they were taken from a high key lighting of the natural sunlight of the market place, (where merlin fought to fight) to a low key lightening place of a barn which contrast with his ability as he can now use his special magical gift to help him. By doing this it puts a twist onto what we would usually expect however shows that there is more to merlin than meets the eye, which is what Arthur picks up on later. At this point we see more extreme and close up as the camera uses a matched action shot from the extreme of merlin’s eye, to the object he is moving, matched with Arthur tumbling into it and falling over. It shows that even with a lower class of Merlin’s sort, he can use his speciality to actually stand up for himself and allows him to prove he is worthy even of a higher class knight.

However modesty gets the better of him as just as we think Merlin has won, Arthur returns from below, and in sync with the drum based music the tension builds up in time with Arthur hitting merlin to the ground with a broom , then mocking his class by sweeping him away, with a servants tool. The music now stops all together and we are taken to an establishing shot of a dark room where the old man Gaius, is telling Merlin off in a strong tone, which is typical for a servants to be shouted at. The setup of the mise-en-scene shows the dark gloomy and small place, in which is a clear division to what the richer people would be used to. A set of extreme close ups are used focusing on Merlin’s face to show his true emotions and how he actually feels, we begin to see his voice break as he is shown to be weak and has a low self-esteem about himself.

There is a clear division between the way in which class and status is presented in this clip through the use of binary opposites, however they have changed certain characteristics around to differ from the solid stereotypes, however the poorer never win in the end.