Soap Opera Report
The main soap operas that I have focused on are Eastenders and Hollyoaks. These shows are perfect examples of how soap operas can construct reality as they both, as well as other popular soap operas such as Coronation Street and Emmerdale, contain lots of different themes that relate to the audience’s lives therefore making it seem more realistic and therefore constructing our ideas of these themes in the real world by the way that they are portrayed. Some of the many themes and issues that are tackled in soap operas nowadays according to Colin Stewart would be love, conflict, secrets & confidences, sickness & injury, skeletons in the cupboard, and plans going wrong.
These themes are used as story lines in many soap operas frequently, as the mainly working-class target audience can relate to these issues as they have happened, or are happening in people’s lives as we speak making the soap opera seem extremely realistic and naturalistic which ultimately equals to higher ratings. As I mentioned earlier, I researched further into the recent story lines and plots of both Hollyoaks and Eastenders to see if these two current soap operas reflect this use of realism in regards to such taboo themes. As I had guessed, even though both shows have a completely separate target audience from one another, they both reflect the use of realism in the above themes.
If you look at Eastenders, a recent theme that reflects soap operas use of realism would be one that is very current to the show which is conflict. An example of this would be the conflict between Janine and Stacey in which Stacey has a baby with Janine’s husband and Stacey still loves him but he wasn’t interested in the baby and Janine just wanted him to herself. This reflects the theme of conflict as in a very recent episode, Janine and Stacey both had a fight in which Stacey grabbed Janine by her hair and threw her in the bush all because of the fact that Janine knows her husband doesn’t want to know his daughter, which is also Stacey’s daughter. This is just one story line from the soap opera, but already this plot does not only reflect the theme of conflict, but also the theme of love as it is like a very complicated love triangle between them.
If you now look at Hollyoaks, a recent theme that they use in order to make it seem more realistic would be secrets and confidences. An example of this would be how a boy from the show visits his friend’s house from school and stays for dinner. As he walks into their kitchen his dad walks in a says, “I’m home” and sees his son. He looks shocked and asks what he’s doing there only to find out that his dad is also the father of his friend and is married to his friends mum. This is a perfect example of the secrets and confidences theme within a soap opera. This is because his father has been keeping this huge secret from him for years and not only has he found out, but he found out in such a strange and surreal way, finding out dramatically by his dad walking in as he stands in his friends kitchen, which reflects how soap operas construct reality as the way these themes are presented make the specific theme itself seem more dramatic and surprising were as in a normal situation you’d find out in a more simple way. This therefore constructs how the audience reacts and feels about these themes and how they would react to them if it happened to them based on how the people in the soap opera reacted.
If you look at the codes and conventions of soap operas, they have many in order to make the show familiar to the audience and use these in order to associate the conventions with the soap so it is instantly recognisable. An example of this would be the typical setting of Eastenders. Everybody knows that if you hear “The Queen Vic” then that is automatically associated with Eastenders. Another setting that is associated with Eastenders is Walford. Everybody knows this to be the small little town of Eastenders so it is immediately associated, and also the title sequence in which the sound and the clip zooming out of the Eastend is one of the most associated things with Eastenders. They also have the use of archetypal characters in which characters from the soap influence the show and future characters of the show. A perfect example of this would be Peggy Mitchell. She is know for being the Queen of the Vic and the queen of Walford, therefore definitely leaving a lasting and influencing impressions for characters to come. If we link back the use of codes to the themes in soap operas, you get recurring themes that come up in these soap operas such as in Eastenders, you constantly have some sort of conflict going on in the Queen Vic in which Peggy says her infamous line, “Get outta my Pub!"
All soap operas such as Eastenders use mise-en-scene in he show in order to get something across to the audience. An example of this would be the use of colour, setting and facial expression in a soap opera. If you look at the photo on the right of Peggy Mitchell, she is wearing bright red clothing, standing behind the Queen Vic and with a no-nonsense look on her face. All these aspects of mise-en-scene work together in order to get across the message that Peggy Mitchell is not to be messed with. This can be told by the red of her clothing as it symbolises the anger and fire she has inside her if you mess with her, but also the passion she has for the Queen Vic behind her. She uses facial expressions to show people that she’s not to be messed with, and finally the use of setting by having the Queen Vic in the background to show how she is the Queen in that town and nobody is going to change that.If you look at the theories of realism and link this to Eastenders, you will notice that Eastenders is the prime example of of social realism. This is because it refects many real life issues that are current to today's society. These are all the themes that are portrayed in soap operas of which I mentioned above. The makers of Eastenders are very aware that they reflect social realism and that that is what makes the soap opera so poular, but do not like to describe themselves as 'Issue based', in which the only intention of it is to takle taboo issues. They refer to themsleves as reflecting 'documentary realism', as the dramatic and conflictial situations in the soap opera lead to the tackling of these issues making it seem more naturally occuring rather than just tackling issues for the sake of tackling them.
By Harry Luke Mulvany
