The Cycle of Oliver Quick’s New Equilibrium in Saltburn: A Todorov’s Narratology

Abstract

This research aims to study the narrative of Oliver Quick in the movie Saltburn (2023) utilizing the theory of Structuralism, focusing on its narratology. Class inequality and the illusion of social mobility shaped Oliver Quick’s, a middle-class man, narratives into deception to seize Catton’s fortune, including their mansion in Saltburn, and examined how Oliver Quick’s achieve his new luxurious life. To understand this study further, there is one research question arise from this research, that is, how does the narrative build around Oliver Quick help him to reach his goal? The theory of narratology by Todorov (1971) where a narrative being constructs into five stage of repeated cycle and how they functions will be utilized for this research, as it is suited for the researcher to analyze closely and it focuses on the narrative deeply. Qualitative textual analysis will be used to analyze the film’s narrative and characters in order to find the data. As a result, this research studies Oliver’s narrative through narratology theory showing how the narrative was utilized to build a new equilibrium cycle.