Story Analysis: Eyes Wide Shut
I’m studying selected stories to further my writing technique.
First, we choose a story that we like. One that stands out for some reason.
In this article, I’m focusing on the movie Eyes Wide Shut, directed by Stanley Kubrick and based on the novella Traumnovelle (Dream Story) by Arthus Schnitzler.
Next, we analyze it to understand why we like it.
This publication focuses primarily on technique, not expression. You can read my publication’s introduction here to understand better why I break storytelling into expression and technique and why I focus on technique.
A study of expression would mean covering things like theme, artist intent, and what the author is trying to say. But that’s not what we’ll be studying here.
We study techniques because by understanding them as story mechanisms, we can employ them intelligently to solve story problems and reveal creative opportunities.
By studying technique, we gain practical know-how to craft great fiction.
Initial Reaction to Eyes Wide Shut
When I first saw Eyes Wide Shut, I was a Kubrick fan. So I was very excited, and while the movie did deliver much of what I expected, overall, I wasn’t very impressed.
I didn’t dislike it. It was borderline.
What threw me was the masquerade ball wherein Tom Cruise’s character, Dr. Bill Harford, sneaks in to find rich people conducting sex cult rituals followed by rapturous orgies.
It seemed so random.
Wait, what? A bunch of rich people in robes in a castle in the woods having crazy orgies, and it’s all a big secret? What’s the relevance? Why a sex-cult orgy? Does Kubrick just want to show ass and titties? I don’t get it.
The idea that maybe Kubrick was telling us that these things are real had entered my mind, but it felt too far-fetched to accept.
Over time, the movie did stay with me. It had this eerie truth-is-stranger-than-fiction air to it.
When I came across an article stating that leaving people a bit confused about the masquerade ball is considered intentional, I decided to give it another watch.
I’ve chosen Eyes Wide Shut, not because it’s one of my favorite movies, but because there are interesting and valuable techniques being employed.
More specifically, the techniques that compensate for the story’s shortcomings and hold things together are what I find so fascinating.
The rest of this article has a few different sections. If you’re not interested in one, I suggest skipping to the ones that interest you most.
A solid grasp of the story gives us something to work with. There are different ways to break stories down. My preferred structure, and the method I’ll be using here, is The Five-Part Story Structure.
1. Introduction to the Status Quo
2. First Quarter — The Bridge: Establishing Narrative Drive
3. Second Quarter — The Complication: Bad to worse
4. Third Quarter — The Crucible: Worse to Hopeless
5. Fourth Quarter — The Final Confrontation: Win/Lose/Both
Next, we discuss what makes this story work and what special techniques we can draw from it.
- Narrative Drive
- Designing Principle
- Crucial Techniques
Finally, a Wrap Up recaps this article and poses some questions to you, the reader.
Introduction to the Status Quo
Purpose: Explain setting; introduce lead characters
Overview:
- Dream-like, sweet life
- Safe and secure
- Everyday sort of problem mounting
- Temptation keeps knocking
Summary:
Dr. Bill and his wife Alice are getting ready to go to a ritzy party. They’ve been invited by Victor Ziegler, one of Bill’s wealthy patients.
Bill and Alice are a beautiful and successful young married couple. The cinematography, lighting, chandeliers, and walls of lights give the party an intoxicating dream-like quality.
The couple seems united, but temptation is everywhere in this decadent new world they’ve stepped into.
While we meet a few notable characters later, all the key players are at the party: Bill, Alice, Ziegler, the piano player and old college buddy Nick Nightingale, and the prostitute Mandy Curran.
Tension:
Expositions tend to be boring. Nevertheless, Kubrick maintains tension several ways. A naked Nicole Kidman, early front and center, is one of them.
But let’s stick to the story and technique.
We see Bill and Alice entering a world that they know little about. We have a sneaking suspicion that things are not as they seem. The people around them have hidden motives.
However, in my view, the tension is created mainly through the story’s designing principle, which I will explore more later.
Simply put, the viewer, along with Bill and Alice, has entered into a dream. But none of us know we’re dreaming yet. Instead, we feel that something’s amiss.
First Quarter — The Bridge: Establish Narrative Drive
Purpose: First quarter; first disaster; hero commits to story
Overview:
- Confession of betrayal by someone dear and trusted
- Hero goes down the rabbit hole (in pursuit of temptation)
- Finds a connection in a person to get into somewhere he’s not supposed to be
- Warned repeatedly to turn back
Summary:
The party works like the proverbial golden apple. It plants the seeds of discord through temptation.
Bill and Alice return home, which seems boring by comparison. First, they smoke pot, then Alice drops a truth bomb on Bill.
Her revelation, a guilty confession that she’s kept buried, has to do with her fantasizing about another man during a critical time in the relationship.
This is the first disaster, and it leaves Bill psychologically reeling. The status quo is disrupted; he cannot return to his old life.
With Alice’s newfound infidelity, Bill’s guard against temptation is down. So he sets off down the rabbit hole. Eventually, he finds Nick Nightingale, who tells him about the masquerade ball.
Bill does what it takes to get into the ball, where he finds himself in a dangerous place that he doesn’t belong in.
Tension:
Alice’s theatrical confession is a disaster, which creates tension.
We see something of Bill’s reaction, but mostly he’s speechless.
Primarily, the author holds tension by showing Bill descend into more tempting, seedy, and dangerous situations. We want to see how low he’ll go.
Street bullies, hookers, and pimps are part of the sex and death show.
However, throughout this, we still have the same lingering feeling. Something is amiss. Why does everyone that Bill comes into contact with seem to know something that he doesn’t? Everyone seems to be playing a part in a play that Bill doesn’t know he’s in.
We are still asleep with Bill and Alice, and we still don’t know it.
Second Quarter — The Complication: Bad to Worse
Purpose: Second quarter; second disaster (the worst possible thing that could happen); hero changes mode of operation (has to commit to the scary thing)
Overview:
- Bill gets caught
- A past connection — Mandy saves him. Bill warned to forget everything and move on
- First connection — Nightingale in trouble, maybe dead
- Bill goes looking for Nightingale
- Bill gets stopped and is again warned to give up and turn back
- Bill doesn’t give up, keeps digging
- Third warning to turn back is more threatening and shows leverage
Summary:
The worst possible thing at the ball happens, Bill and Nightingale get caught. However, Bill is saved by a woman later revealed to be Mandy, the prostitute we met at the first party.
Bill’s changed mode of operation seems to be a more responsible one. He’s not done chasing temptation, but he’s not leaving Nightingale behind.
His new mode of operation is to become more proactive instead of reactive. He’s consciously standing up to the powers that be, and he’s not leaving Nightingale behind.
Bill keeps digging until he’s followed in his neighborhood by someone threatening. Nothing has gone well, and now the problem is getting much worse.
Tension:
The cornucopia of sex and depravity in the house helps build the tension in a couple of ways.
First, both temptation and danger are increased. These two things play well off each other, as giving in to temptation always means making himself more vulnerable to danger.
The other way it raises tension is because now we’re seeing more dream-like and nightmarish images. The dream state that the viewer and Bill are in has intensified. We’re not just scared for Bill’s well-being. Like him, we’re questioning this bizarre new reality.
The tension builds to a high point when Bill is caught and is released when he’s set free.
To re-establish tension, we see Bill take on his new modus operandi. He’s standing up to the powers that be, and we see things get worse and scarier by him being repeatedly warned by the wealthy and powerful.
Even though he’s no longer in the depths of temptation, he’s now in a much more precarious position.
Third Quarter — The Crucible: Worse to Hopeless
Purpose: Third-quarter; third disaster (doing the scary thing has not gone well, things are precarious and culminate to hopeless); forces hero to commit to ending
Overview:
- Finds out savior died
- Investigates
- Another connection (big one) intervenes and reveals a few things
— Admits he is part of the baddies
— Admits he was the one who was responsible for the first connection getting captured/killed
— Admits he had him followed/watched
— Final confession: everything staged (savior was fake, threats fake) just meant to scare him and get him not to talk - Big question: was the savior murdered or not? Staged or not?
- Main Char decides to believe the lie because he can’t do anything about it anyway
Summary:
Standing up to the powers that be, which is the scary thing, has not gone well. Sneaking into the masquerade ball has gotten himself, Nightingale, and Mandy all in trouble. Nothing he’s done so far has helped them.
After a second visit to Domino’s place, Bill meets the roommate, who presents herself as another temptation. There’s a conversation about HIV, which brings all the fun in chasing temptation to an end.
Bill is no longer interested in sex. He’s focused entirely on helping Mandy and Nightingale.
He finds out Mandy is dead and that Nightingale is gone.
Before Bill can act further, he’s called to a meeting with Ziegler, and this is the scene that can be called the Crucible.
Ziegler gives Bill his final warning. He provides a story that can be accepted as the truth or a lie by Bill and the audience.
Mandy is dead, Nightingale is beyond help, and Bill’s desire for infidelity has vanished. It appears hopeless for Bill to proceed as he has.
Tension:
We can feel things coming to a head. Bill is getting to the bottom of things.
Most of all, we want to see how the story will end, and it all leads to the scene between Ziegler and Bill, the climax.
We’ve been stuck in a dream with Bill this whole time and are desperate, like him, to finally make sense of everything.
Ziegler offers a couple of stories, and like Bill, we get to choose which we want to believe.
We also have the issue of the lost mask as a lingering and final piece of the puzzle.
Fourth Quarter — The Final Confrontation: Win, Lose, or Both
Purpose: Fourth quarter; final confrontation; hero wins/loses/both
Overview:
- Returns to a dear and trusted situation and confesses his betrayal
- Equilibrium restored
Summary:
Bill goes home to see the mask on his pillow next to Alice.
He breaks down in front of her and reveals everything.
The final confrontation is between Alice and Bill while Christmas shopping with their daughter.
Bill can’t take the tension any longer and asks Alice what she wants to do. They choose to stay together. A sort of tit-for-tat in infidelity has put things back on an even keel.
Overall, Bill wins as the hero because equilibrium has been restored. There is a new, more honest, and stronger status quo.
Tension:
In the fifth and last part, the dream spell is finally broken.
The mask sitting on the bed in the pale morning light, the release of emotional pressure through Bill’s crying, and Alice waking up bring Bill, Alice, and the viewer back to reality.
We’re awake, but we have the showdown to address. Are Bill and Alice going to stay in love together? This is the question that maintains tension.
Alice decides to forgive Bill, and they stay together. The original problem (first disaster) is solved, the story ends.
Narrative Drive
Narrative drive can be described as how well the story moves. How “gripping” is the tale? Do you feel like you have to slog through it? Or do you feel as if you’re on an emotional roller coaster?
All great stories have a strong narrative drive. Great stories don’t drag. They keep you excited the entire time.
So, how and when do you create narrative drive?
Narrative drive should be created in the first quarter. “The Bridge” refers to a metaphorical bridge that the hero crosses from the world he knows into the wild, his journey, his story.
What creates a strong narrative drive or not is simple. It’s created by the hero’s desire to solve his problem.
The hero should be completely committed, obsessed, and desperate to achieve his desire. If it’s not all-consuming, it’s boring. We don’t care about heroes who “kind of” want something.
To better define narrative drive in Eyes Wide Shut, we can state BIll’s ultimate desire.
Bill’s Desperate Desire:
To regain a lost sense of self needed to reunite with his wife.
Does Bill’s Desire to Reunite with His Wife Create Narrative Drive?
While it may seem that his desire has to do with infidelity and promiscuity, we can break Bill’s desires down a few ways.
In one sense, he is trying to get laid. Specifically, to cheat on his wife to make himself feel better and level the playing field.
In another sense, he is grasping for some sense of reality. He’s stuck in a dream and is trying to awake.
Overall, everything Bill does is part of an effort to return to a happy and loving marriage.
However, its narrative drive is where Eyes Wide Shut falls short.
Bill doesn’t know what he’s looking for. For that reason, the desire is not clear to the reader. For much of the story, he’s wandering.
There seem to be conflicting desires as well. Is he trying to expose the maskers at the ball? Is he trying to save Mandy and Nick? Is he trying to cheat on his wife for revenge? Is he trying to stay with her?
The story may accurately reflect life in that we are often left lost and reeling after experiencing a traumatic event. However, that doesn’t mean the story will be interesting because it’s believable.
Eyes Wide Shut Works As a Story Because of Its Designing Principle: The Unwitting Dreamer
We’re not connected with Bill’s desires as much as we could be. The narrative drive in this story is lacking for a few reasons.
However, the designing principle, which I’ve dubbed “the unwitting dreamer,” compensates for the lost tension by keeping the viewer stuck within a dream-like spell until the scene with the mask on the pillow. Alice is rousing, and Bill cries as if woken from a terrible nightmare.
The narrative drive, Bill’s desire, has some interesting story traits. We will get into those more in the section about crucial techniques.
Designing Principle
The designing principle, like narrative drive, is a term coined by John Truby in his book The Anatomy of Story.
It refers to a prevailing structure that is integral to the story. The designing principle is the key to making a story unique. To better understand, we can look at some examples.
In The Godfather the designing principle is to use the fairy-tale strategy of showing how the youngest of three sons becomes king.
In the movie Tootsie the designing principle is to force a male chauvinist to live as a woman.
In Eyes Wide Shut the designing principle is to simulate the experience of being in a dream that you don’t know is a dream for both the characters and the audience.
The story achieves this visually through the dream-like scenes and cinematography and through the story itself. For instance, the first disaster happens to Bill (entry point) while he’s physically on the bed. When he sees the mask on the bed (exit point), it symbolizes a crossing over from the secret world of dreaming into the real world. This is the moment when both Bill and the audience wake up. However, while the audience and Bill wake simultaneously, the audience has a different entry point.
Our entry point into “the dream” is when Alice is standing naked in the first scene. While it may seem a distracting scene for some, it is at this point that we first feel something is amiss.
Crucial Techniques
Here we’ll identify and discuss some techniques found in Eyes Wide Shut.
The Unwitting Dreamer: How to Create An Additional Layer of Tension
The designing principle of the unwitting dreamer compensates for Bill’s lack of a single clear and focused desire.
We, like Bill, are eager to wake up from this heady haunting story to reflect and make sense of it.
Earlier I mentioned specific entry and exit points placed within the story.
Creating entry and exit points keeps the reader and the characters in a specific frame of mind.
For example, if I show the main character falls asleep in his bed, and the next scene is that he’s awake in a fantastic world, he is trapped there until he awakes in his bed again.
In Eyes Wide Shut we don’t start with a scene of falling asleep because we, the viewer, are already asleep when it happens.
How does the story do this?
The answer is through subtlety. Subtlety in the form of peculiar behavior by surrounding characters. Subtlety in the dream-like visualizations such as the hanging wall of lights at the first party. Subtlety through repetition, such as the constant warnings for Bill to give up and turn back. There is also warm lighting versus cold blue daylight that signifies states between waking and sleeping.
Narrative Drive: Desire to Avoid a Problem
While we cannot relate to Bill’s desire viscerally, we can see his lack of direction as legitimate.
Bill’s problem is realistic. And so is his response to run away from it.
His goal is not clear because what he’s doing is avoiding dealing with the issue head-on.
Sometimes, we have to step away from a problem and come back to it to solve it.
However, creating a problem that the hero is terrified of confronting doesn’t mean that the narrative drive lacks.
For example, the hero may be running from a villain chasing him. The goal is clear, to escape and get to safety. Eventually, the hero will have to face the villain, but for the time being, we see that the hero has a clear goal. To maintain narrative drive, the main character must have a clear goal in every single scene.
Creating a desire to avoid a problem can be easier than creating an all-consuming legitimate desire for your character.
Sometimes, “what do you want in life?” is a more challenging question to answer than “what don’t you want in life?”
When giving your character an all-consuming desire to create narrative drive, ask yourself what your character wants to avoid at all cost.
Writing an Ending that’s Talked About: Who’s the Bad Guy?
Creating a narrative with a clear ending, a wrap-up, is widely considered to be something to avoid.
You don’t want to deliver a conclusive ending. You want to keep things open-ended, to some degree, so that your story becomes a story. Meaning the reader comes away pondering it and talking about it to other people.
In most love stories, the significant other opposite the main character can be seen as the villain (in a sense). The final confrontation is always between these two.
In Eyes Wide Shut, we can see that this is true in terms of the final confrontation and the inciting incident (first disaster).
However, we have the character, Ziegler. Throughout the story, he seems to be the man pulling the strings against Bill.
But Ziegler starts as a friendly acquaintance of Bill’s, and he ends this way as well.
Is Ziegler evil? Possibly. It depends upon what the reader decides to believe about him.
Did he save Bill from significant harm, or was he the cause of so much wrong-doing?
Getting to the technique in question, we have Alice, the ally and adversary wife. So do we have this paradox with Ziegler. So do we have that with every other character that Bill comes into contact with.
No one in this story is black and white in terms of ally or adversary, except maybe Bill himself.
Not only does this make your characters more real, but it makes them more memorable. Just like with real people, we are constantly questioning and wondering about the nature of their motives and intentions.
Ambiguously good and bad actions conducted by every lead character will not only deliver an ending that’s fun to conjecture on, but it gives the entire story an air of intrigue.
Wrap Up
I chose Eyes Wide Shut, not because it’s my favorite movie, but because it stayed in my memory despite my opinion of it.
That said, when I watched it this second time with an attitude of wanting to dissect and understand it, I found it much more enjoyable than when I first watched it with eyes wide shut (I couldn’t help myself).
What did you think about Eyes Wide Shut as a story? What did you like or dislike about it? What story techniques do you see employed?
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