Barthe's Enigma Code

Linguist Roland Barthes described Five Codes which are woven into any narrative.

The Hermeneutic Code:

The Hermeneutic Code refers to any element of the story that is not fully explained and hence becomes a mystery to the reader. The purpose of the author in this is typically to keep the audience guessing, until the final scene.

The Proairetic Code:

Similar to the Hermenutic Code, the Proairetic Code also builds tension, referring to any other action or event that indicates something else is going to happen, and which hence gets the reader guessing as to what will happen next. The Hermeneutic and Proairetic Codes work as a pair to develop the story's tensions and keep the reader interested.

The Semantic Code:

This code refers to connotation within the story that gives additional meaning over the basic denotative meaning of the word.

The Symbolic Code:

Similar to The Semantic Code it is about what it symbolises. However, what makes this code unique is that it goes into far more detail. This is used quite a lot in narrative to hint to the audience but to let them infer the answer rather than giving the answer.

The Cultural Code:

Usually involving science or religion, the Cultural code looks at the audiences wider cultural knowledge, ideology and morality.


We have decided to use the Hermeneutic Code, as it fits the feedback we was given from our questionnaire best. Also, we have decided to not fully explain all what is going on and hence it will remain a mystery. In our opening, we show our main character walking down a dark, eerie alleyway, but we do not show what happened, as we what to keep the audience guessing until the final scene.


Below I have attached The Signs, as it follows Barthe's Enigma Code: