(Post 3) Vladimir Propp

Vladimir Propp

Vladimir Propp was a soviet folklorist and folk lore analyst and he also concluded that all the characters could be resolved into 7 broad character functions in the 100 tales he analysed.   

1. The villain — an evil character that creates struggles for the hero.
2. The dispatcher — any character who illustrates the need for the hero's quest and sends the hero off. This often overlaps with the princess's father.
3. The helper — a typically magical entity that comes to help the hero in their quest.
4. The princess or prize, and often her father — the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her as a consequence of some evil or injustice, perhaps the work of the villain. The hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, which constitutes the villain's defeat.
5. The donor — a character that prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object, sometimes after testing them.
6. The hero — the character who reacts to the dispatcher and donor characters, thwarts the villain, resolves any lacking or wrong-hoods and weds the princess.
7. The false hero — a Miles Gloriosus figure who takes credit for the hero's actions or tries to marry the princess.

These roles could sometimes be distributed among various characters, as the hero kills the villain dragon, and the dragon's sisters take on the villainous role of chasing him. Conversely, one character could engage in acts as more than one role, as a father could send his son on the quest and give him a sword, acting as both dispatcher and donor.
e.g In the short film, "The Fly" the main character can be presumed as the hero, and the fly the villain.