Lost "I killed a murderer. I did us all a favor"

There are both positive and negative minded researches regarding the influence of morality on television on society. The meaning of moral values is influenced by emotion, but emotion is rarely used as an argument in researches about the effects of television. In addition, there are few researches regarding the relationship between emotion and morality. This thesis investigates the influence of this relationship, therefore the research is relevant to both society and science. This research paper investigates the narrative construction of characters in the television drama Lost. Moral values and emotions of the characters are the starting point from where the fourteen leading characters are analysed. Therefore, the central research question of this thesis is: How are moral values and displayed emotions used in Lost’s first season to narratively construct the characters? To perform this research, two additional questions have to be answered. The first question refers to the moral values: What moral themes are used and which characters play a part in it? The second question refers to the emotions of the characters: Which emotions do the characters display with the moral themes? This thesis started from a cultural studies perspective, in which the encoding part of the television drama was analysed. The manifest meaning which lies in the text is central in this study. Because the characters in Lost are narratively constructed, the manifest meaning was extracted from the narrative. The data used for the analysis consisted of the 25 episodes of the first season of Lost. The starting point were the transcripts, to which the emotional behaviour of the characters was added. Next, a combination of a narrative and a dramaturgical analysis, both forms of qualitative content analysis, were applied to the data. Based on the findings of the narrative and dramaturgical analysis, multiple results are found. First, it appears that the moral values in Lost are specifically linked to the different characters. In this way, moral values are personified. Second, it is evident that the displayed emotions are mostly negative, both in the flashbacks and on the island. Anger and fear are the most frequently displayed emotions. Although there are similarities between the characters, there are also three tools used to differentiate the narratieve construction of the characters: narrative layering, prime events and character positioning. The narrative layering is based upon chronology. Events in the plot aren’t always positioned chronologically, which makes it hard to understand the story. Therefore, causality between the events is difficult to find. The second tool is the use of prime events. These events take place in the flashbacks and they indicate the start of a moral value. Because the prime events explain moral values and emotions, they are used as a motivation for later events. However, the absence of prime events with a character makes the actions of the character not always understandable. The final tool that is used to differentiate the narrative construction of the characters is the character positioning. During their actions in the events, the characters can choose for themselves, someone else can decide for them or it’s a matter of (mis)fortune. Because of the difference in influence in the events, moral values and emotions on the island can be explained. Therefore, the narrative construction of the characters is also influenced by the positioning of the character. In the first season of Lost three different tools are used to differentiate the narrative construction of the characters. The narrative constructions are complex, which results in the fact that not all of the moral values and emotions of the characters are explained clearly. In addition, the explanation of the events on the island by the use of flashbacks makes that there are nog ‘good’ or ‘bad’ characters. This keeps the text very open. Emotion and moral values appear to be strongly connected in Lost. This relationship is important for the interpretation of moral values on television. The influence of emotion is therefore relevant to further scientific research on the influence of television on society. Moreover, this research paper reveals three tools with which characters in a television drama are narratively constructed. These tools to encode a text offer new insights for science.