Semiotics – Roland Barthes (Blog Post 6)

 Media Language Theory One: Semiotics/Barthes

Film Scene from Punch-Drunk Love, November 1, 2002

Identifying Parts of Semiotics: sign, signifier, signified, denotative meaning, connotative meaning, code

Sign- The desk in the corner of a large empty room

Signifier- Large empty space

Signified- isolation, loneliness

Denotative meaning- Only having one desk in the corner with a large empty space.

Connotative meaning- The man feels alone in his workplace, feeling isolated because there is no one around.

Code- Hermeneutic code- Why is the man the only one in such a large space?

Three Sentence Paragraph

The purpose of this media clip is to show how isolated the man is from the world, and in this media clip, it shows the man is shown in a large room in a corner with one desk alone, signifying that he is alone. The connotative meaning evokes a sense that he feels alone in his workplace, being so isolated: The choice of setting the desk in the corner makes the man seem small, serving as a Hermeneutic code, as it makes us question why he is the only one in such a large space. Through the arrangement of signs, we can see that the point of this clip is to show how alone the man truly is.