Narrative

Propp's theory can be applied to ugly betty, it is made clear to the audience that Wilhelmina is the vilian as she is shown to be manipulating and is also shown to be shunned via the camera angles and shots used. However despite the dark side to her the audience are also see the softer side to her as she is shown to have a daughter. Wilhelmina has a poor relationship with her daughter, so to emphasise on the relationship she has the producers have used high angle shots and has blured the images on the back to show that she is isolated and only and has no-one to care about her. This allows the audience to sympathise with her and allows them place themselves in her shoes (uses and grattification theory).

Although it is easy to predict the vilian of the series the programme makers have made the hero discrete and unpredictable. To the audiecne we can identify two protogonists, the first one to us is Daniel, although he is shown to have made a number of different mistakes he is shown to be a good character. On the other hand Betty is also seen as a protognist as she overcomes all the obstacles that are thrown in her way and the businesses way, we also seem to sympathise with her more than the other characters.

Ugly Betty also follows Todorov's narrative structure theory. Each episode begins with a recap of the previous episode, in which it states the small problem that occured along with its resoulution. The major problems that occured are normally left unresolved to be later revealed in the next episode. It tends to finish with a cliffhanger creating a sense of suspense and engima, which the producers will know that this will encourage their anticipated targeted audience to participate in viewing their next broadcasted episode.