Propp

Narrative Theory: the way in which a story is  told in both fictional and non-fictional media texts

Vladimir Propp was a Russian critic and literary theorist. He analaysed over 100 Russian fairytales in the 1920s.

He said every film has 7 types of characters and proposed it was possible to classify the characters and their actions into clearly defined roles.

The 7 character types are:

  • Hero
  • Princess
  • False Hero
  • Villain
  • Helper
  • Donor
  • Father figure

The Lion King is a film produced by one of the 7 major conglomerates in the film industry Disney. One scene in the film shows the antagonist Scar and Mufasa, the protagonist Simba’s father. We see them together when Mufasa is hanging off a cliff and asks for his brother Scar’s help. This scene reinforces Propp’s theory as the character of Scar is seen as the villain due to his actions of plotting gainst his nephew and wanting to take the throne which he believes he deserves. The chracter of Mufasa reinforces two types of characters in Propp’s theory – these being the father figure and the false hero. Mufasa is seen as the father figure as he is the father of Simba the protagonist and offers him advice and wisdom throughout the film. He is seen as the false hero as Simba looks up to him and believes that he will save him from anything due to him being the King of the Pridelands.

In our film, we have used 4 of these character types as we have a hero, a princess, a villain and a helper. The protagonist Jessica is also the princess as though she is the hero of the trailer, through camera shots and editing, she is also portrayed as the damsel in distress and seen as vulnerable by the audience. The audience are curious to what is going to happen to her in the film. The villian James is also the helper. He tries to help Jessica to see who murdered her brother (who was his best friend) when in reality it turns out to be him. However we decided not to reveal that James is the villian as we did not want give too much away in the trailer as the audience would feel the plot has been ruined and would not bother to go and see the film.