Character Vs. Emotion: How Music and Sound define Space in the films Little Miss Sunshine, 50 Shades of Grey, Twilight and Secretary

Abstract

In this essay we first distinguish narrative elements that express Character from those representing Emotions, illustrating this distinction by contrasting the Emotional music of Lego Friends with the Character music of the film Little Miss Sunshine. This allows us to define what we call the Characterological manifold which helps us recognize when narrative space becomes a tunnel of rich Character expression as opposed to expressing emotions or plot. We then apply this method to three different tryst spaces–spaces where a romantic couple first broaches their intimate issues–in the movies 50 Shades of Grey, Twilight and Secretary, showing how it distinguishes each in turn as a DisPassionate space, a Dramatic space and a Dantean space. This comparative analysis then reveals how the music of 50 Shades expresses only emotions, while that of the film Secretary shows how music can change the nature of a narrative space by expressing character and not simply emotion.