Social realism and representation

I am going to analyze characters from 'Eastenders' and how their storylines they have been in have created their impact on the soap opera's audience. Through understanding this, I aim to develop an understanding of how characters fit their storylines so that we can make our own characters and their storylines understandable to our audience.

Character: Pauline Fowler

Storylines:

*Worked in a laundrette with Dot
*Married to Aurthur
*Brother Pete- Fruit and Vegtable stall
*Pregnant with Martin
*Michelle (daughter) Mark (son)
*Mother

Representation:

*Working class mother. Strong, willed, tough and protective
*Strong sense of family
*Young audiences relate to older characters through trust
*Character traits are projected to other characters but also to audience. She is the 'rock', holding other characters together.


Character: Dot Cotton

Storylines:

*OAP religious chain smoker
*Euthanasia storyline- helping to kill Ethel Skinner

Representation:

*Good/bad side to character. Has flaws which the audience can relate to. She is gullible. The audience sympathize with her
*Nick Cotton manipulates her
*Two sides to her character- family orientated
*She makes hard decisions that we could all be faced with.


Character: Phil Mitchell

Storylines:

*Two sides to him- Struggled initially with the loss of contact with two children, Ben and Louise
*Enjoys a position of power in the square- power over Billy Mitchell.

Representation:

*Brutish hardman- links to pub/garage. Alcoholic- unsettled, unfaithful. Relationships- Kathy, Lisa, Stella


Peggy accuses Billy at Christmas

The family are celebrating Christmas when Peggy accuses Billy of stealing money.

*Exposions often occur during family occasions.
*Audience is always one step ahead.
*Drama is heightened by juxtaposing a scene of calm with a scene of chaos.


From this in depth research of characters and their roles and effect on the whole soap, I have realised just how much time is needed when creating storylines for characters. This knowledge will be useful when we are creating storylines for our characters because we will be able to judge whether the storylines suit the characters well.