Shrek -- How is he steadfast and not change?

analysis
#1

Can someone please tell me how Shrek is not a Change/Start character?

Because I don’t see him as steadfast stop.

There is nothing wrong with the world, there is something wrong with Shrek.

His growth is to get his head out of his ass and start letting people in (Fiona, Donkey, and the other fairytale creatures) by letting them into his swamp.

Yes, Fiona is the one to go through the physical transformation but it’s superficial (Shrek woulda loved her either way). But without risking her rejection (the thing he feared most) they couldn’t be together.

I think the analysis is wrong. BIG OL HEAPING GRING “Fight me!, Prove me wrong.” Just kidding, but really why?

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What is the acid test between a change character and a steadfast character?
#2

Haven’t seen this one in a long time, but isn’t his problem that all the other characters have been sent to live in his swamp?

#3

Depends on how you “identify” his problem. It’s the trigger for his problem. It highlights his aloneness, something he wants to maintain (at the beginning) but changes and realizes he’s very alone and having someone(s) would be better.

#4

Well, he was not the one to get kissed and turn into a prince, being the atypical fairytale leading man character. Could it be that was what his story really was about?

#5

Huh? Elaborate please?

#6

Without seeing the analysis, but trying to remember the movie:

Shrek doesn’t really change by the end of the movie.

From the start, he maintains that he should be allowed to be seen as more than “just an ogre”. This seems to be his real drive. I’ll admit that there are numerous instances where Shrek seems driven from wanting to be left alone, but Shrek’s claims of this happen any time people refuse to view him as anything more than a monster. Shrek still wants people to see him as more than ogre at the end of the move, but now someone does.

On the other hand, Fiona is insistent that she is a princess who must await her true love, and moreover, is convinced that her true love will be human. I think she even goes so far as to refuse Shrek’s help at the beginning of the movie, initially, because he can’t possibly be her true love. He’s an ogre. However, by the end of the movie, Fiona has not only become open to, but embraces, the idea that true love doesn’t care what form one takes, which is completely counter to her initial attitude.

  • Thus, though Shrek grows, he hasn’t really changed from his initial outlook.
  • Fiona, on the hand, has definitely changed from that initial outlook.
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#7

From my recollection of the story you’d be right! But I don’t remember it all that well.

I’m sure if you watch the analysis video you’d get a good explanation for the change resolve:
http://dramatica.com/video/users-group/shrek

I just checked it out myself. Start at about 8:40. I was originally thinking he must be a Change character like you said (going from being a loner to letting others in). But Chris’s explanations definitely convinced me – he remains Steadfast on loving being an ogre.

#8

My interpretation of Shrek’s character is that he doesn’t want to be alone; that’s just an incarnation of his desire to be accepted. The reason why he wants to be alone is because he believes nobody else will accept him. Take the scene where Shrek overhears a snippet of Princess Fiona’s conversation with Donkey. She says, “Who could ever love such a hideous beast?” or something of that nature. Then, take the climax, where she is finally locked into her ogre form. She says, “Why am I not beautiful?” and Shrek replies, “But you are beautiful.” Shrek’s desire is for others to stop hunting him and accept him, whereas Fiona’s desire is to remove her monstrous curse. In the end, Fiona changes by accepting her ogre form, implicitly accepting Shrek’s ogre form as well. Shrek never changes that fundamental resolve to be treated with dignity, and he succeeds once he proves that ogres can be a dashing Prince Charming as well.

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