Memento and Narrative Closure: Does the Film Satisfy?
This paper examines whether Christopher Nolan's film Memento achieves meaningful narrative closure despite its unconventional structure. Drawing on H. Porter Abbott's theory of narrative agon and closure from The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative, the paper argues that while Memento satisfies intellectually through its clever reverse chronology, it ultimately fails to deliver emotional or psychological closure. The central protagonist Lenny's amnesia prevents any genuine psychological epiphany, and the false nature of his quest — he himself killed his wife — forecloses the redemptive character transformation that Abbott identifies as essential to true narrative resolution. The paper contrasts Memento with the Biblical story of Solomon and the comparison film Rashomon to support this argument.
- Introduction: Memento's Open-Ended Structure: Nolan's film resists conventional narrative closure
- Abbott's Theory of Narrative Agon and Closure: Abbott defines agon as narrative conflict requiring resolution
- The Solomon Parable as a Model of True Closure: Biblical story illustrates character transformation as true closure
- Lenny's Psychological Incapacity and Narrative Failure: Lenny's amnesia prevents epiphany or emotional resolution
- Memory, Meaning, and the Limits of Cerebral Filmmaking: Memento lacks psychological resonance despite structural cleverness
✍️ How to write this paper — guide, tools & examples ▾
What makes this paper effective
- It applies a specific theoretical framework — Abbott's concept of narrative agon and closure — directly and consistently to the film, grounding the argument in cited academic source material rather than pure opinion.
- The use of the Solomon parable as a contrasting example is concise and well chosen; it illuminates what genuine closure requires (character transformation) before demonstrating why Memento falls short.
- The paper maintains a clear, evaluative thesis throughout: Memento satisfies intellectually but fails emotionally, and every paragraph returns to reinforce this distinction.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates comparative analysis as an argumentative strategy. By setting up the Solomon story as a positive model of narrative closure — where a character moves from one archetype to another — the author creates a precise standard against which Memento can be measured and found lacking. This technique avoids vague claims about the film feeling "unsatisfying" and instead grounds the critique in a theoretically defined benchmark.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens by establishing the problem: Memento feels open-ended and structurally unconventional. It then introduces Abbott's theoretical framework, applies it first to a biblical parable to define true closure, and finally returns to Memento to show where and why it fails that standard. The conclusion broadens the critique by briefly invoking Rashomon as a counterexample of psychologically functional unconventional filmmaking, giving the argument comparative depth before closing.
Introduction: Memento's Open-Ended Structure
On first glance, it is difficult to apply the adjective "satisfying" — at the level of expectations or of narrative questions — to Christopher Nolan's film Memento. The picture feels open-ended as cinema. It is structurally in violation of the supposed commandments of filmmaking. At the beginning, the viewer is introduced to Teddy and Lenny, the latter of whom has no short-term memory and lives on a quest to avenge his murdered wife. At the end of the film he is still on that quest — but only after killing Teddy, who has revealed the uncomfortable truth that it was actually Lenny himself who killed his wife in anger after she acted out of frustration with his mental incapacity.
The film evolves in a lurching back-and-forth fashion, mainly through flashbacks, but anchored by scenes of Teddy and Lenny first depicted at the film's opening. Finally the two confront each other at the film's end in a dialogue version of a showdown that concludes with Teddy's death. But how can such a narrative become "closed," a viewer might ask, when the main character is still engaged in a futile quest for his dead wife's killer? Lenny gives himself a continuing narrative reason to justify his existence, even where no real reason exists. The viewer knows more than the main character; but unlike in traditional film, Lenny — because of his mental illness and the false nature of his quest — can attain no psychological epiphany of closure, and the viewer's expectation that the quest will end is thwarted.
Abbott's Theory of Narrative Agon and Closure
"Agon," or conflict, is at the heart of most narratives, according to the literary theorist H. Porter Abbott. For instance, the agon in the tale of Solomon and the two women contesting over the same baby is the question of which woman — both of whom are prostitutes — is the true mother. Famously, in the Biblical era before genetic testing, the woman who refuses to allow the child to be split in half is deemed the true mother by the great Hebrew king and judge Solomon.
The Solomon Parable as a Model of True Closure
However, the resolution of the tale is not merely the answer to the question of who is the mother. According to Abbott's theory, what matters is the transformation that occurs when the prostitute, faced with Solomon's offer to divide the child in two, says, "Let her have the whole baby." In other words, the prostitute exchanges one narrative archetype and character designation for another, and only then does the narrative truly resolve the expectation of closure. The narrative of questions is satisfied in that the mystery is solved; but more importantly, at the level of expectation, the narrative is satisfied through the new psychological understanding achieved — by the woman herself, by Solomon, and by society. The whore is reborn as the mother. (Abbott, Chapter 12)
The real drama or contest, then, is not which of these faceless and nameless women is the mother of the nameless infant, but one woman's ability to redeem herself through an act of selfless love. This framework of narrative structure and character transformation provides a precise standard against which other stories can be measured.
Works Cited
Abbott, H. Porter. The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative. Chapters 11 and 12.
Memento. Directed by Christopher Nolan, 2000.
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.