In the early 20th Century Ferdinand de Saussure developed the linguistic theory of semiotics, the study of signs within language and the implications of these signs. This involved the analysis of words within texts but after development could be applied to all kinds of art, even paintings and music. The meanings and signs were discovered by studying why a word had been chosen over another, which in turn developed the idea of binary oppositions, for example it is ‘cold’ because it is ‘not hot’. The signs within a text are differential, and it is important to study the relationship between the signs that are being given, and therefore in performance the audience are being sent many messages from what they perceive and this produces very complex layers of meanings as different signs connect with one another. Even seeing how the words are put together, particularly in old texts where the order is different to now, studying the sentences and which words are put with one another give a deeper meaning to the piece.

Saussure introduced the idea of there being a signifier and signified to produce a sign. For example, the word ‘tree’ would be a signifier, and then in the receiver’s mind they would produce their idea of a tree and this would be the signified, which when both are put together produce the sign of an actual tree. There are many interesting parts to this idea, for example the arbitrary state of these signs, ‘in that there is no intrinsic link between signifier and signified’ (Culler, 20) as there is no clear reason why a tree is called a tree. Most words can be classed with this arbitrary argument (except onomatopoeia and words that are formed from two others, such as ‘typewriter’) and as a result what is further revealed is that because these words have no clear reason for use, everyone has their own interpretation. As a result different words mean different things to different people, and therefore one person may take a certain sign from an aspect of a piece, whereas another person’s interpretation could produce a completely separate sign from the same aspect. As there are so many cultures and no two people have the exact same experiences, each view of a piece will be very different. This does not make one reader’s interpretation more important, but in fact all signs picked up by all readers of the piece have to be taken into account, making it more complex than even just one person analysing it.

Texts are made more complicated by the fact that they are diachronic, as they mean different things depending on when they are being read. For example, an ancient Greek play would have different meanings to it if seen by an ancient Greek in comparison to a contemporary audience. These contrasts in cultures add even more signs to a piece, as it is the differences between the views that show that one audience is missing a significant part of the meaning, and what this lack of meaning will mean as a result. Consequently it is important to acknowledge what would have been taken from the piece in its original time and place for cultural context.

Theologists such as Charles Peirce produced another branch off these original ideas based on the idea of the arbitrary state, by analysing how arbitrary a signifier would be in relation to the sign. What he produced was three tiers – symbols (such as a word) which were very arbitrary, indexes would be something more closely connected, (such as a musical note on paper) and icons were the least arbitrary, for example a photo or an actor playing a character. Even though this branched off from Saussure’s semiology ideas, what was important to take from it was that even if a signifier was an icon and was very close to the sign, still ‘a sign stands for something which is not present… thus reinforcing the absence and metaphysical hollowness that haunt all signification’. (Fortier, 22) In light of this, the whole of reality is questioned as if everyone’s interpretation of a situation is different, and no sign is more valid than another, what truly is reality, when nobody has the same view? This is what semiotics takes on as it is used, as every little thing is an interpretation to somebody, and therefore it is hard to see where to stop analysing, leading to ‘unlimited semiosis’, (22) as either everything must have a meaning or nothing has. In light of this a performance can be analysed as soon as an audience enters the theatre space, if not earlier. Peirce’s ideas, though connected, did branch off significantly from Saussure’s original work, so for this essay Peirce’s work is acknowledged but Saussure’s work will be put into use more.

Home

From semiology, Roland Barthes saw the significance of interpretation and chose to take this further in his own studies as he developed what is now known as structuralism. In his ideas, he emphasised the ‘Death of the Author’: ‘it is language which speaks, not the author; to write is, through a prerequisite impersonality… to reach that point where only language acts, ‘performs’, and not ‘me’.’ (Barthes, Image, 143) In this light, the author’s only function is to produce the text but the reader’s interpretation is that which brings the detail to the piece, activating ‘jouissance, an orgasmic joy in the unbridled dissemination of meaning’. (Fortier, 24) Similar to semiotics, the use of contrasting cultures can produce ‘resistant reading’ in structuralism, for if a piece has been produced in the style of one culture’s codes, reading it using the codes of a different culture means that the text can be read against itself. Codes were very important to Barthes, seen as cultural definitions, for example to the Western world a cow is often seen just as an animal that produces milk and beef, but to a Hindu culture cows are sacred, so even something as simple as this has hugely contrasting meanings to different cultures, and so codes are put into place to help with this analysis.

In his work S/Z, Barthes produced five important Narrative Codes, which were: proairetic, which indicated actions; hermeneutic, providing suspense in questions within the text; cultural, using social norms to define information about characters, referencing outside the text to knowledge that should be common to certain cultures; semic or connotative, which detail characters through theme, connected to the final code, symbolic, which goes further than this to binary pairings and larger themes to create a more detailed image for the reader. (Barry, 51)

It is clear that semiotics and structuralism overlap and connect with each other greatly and so can be used together in analysing a piece of text, artwork or similar. In their development it seems as if they fed off each other, each building on the same ideas and creating similar ideas. However the main difference appears to be that semiotics are very focused, studying in detail cultural inferences, whereas structuralism is much broader and looks more at the overall effects of the play. By understanding these systems and theories of how all aspects of a text are codes and symbols for the reader to interpret, they can then be used on a play, such as the medieval play ‘Everyman’. Written in the late 15th Century, it is generally thought that this play’s origin is the Dutch play Elckerlijc, written about the same time (Patterson, 142). Interestingly in the idea of the Death of the Author, the author is unknown for this piece. As a result any personal influences are immediately ruled out and simply the reader’s interpretation can be focused on.

In this play, Everyman is preparing to die after a visit from Death, and so asks different allegorical figures to join him on his journey to his final resting place. All of these figures