Narrative Structure Theory Task - Vladimir Propp's 8 Character Types

Vladimir Propp's 8 Character Types

What if I told you that all your favorite characters can be categorised under just eight character types and definitions, well mostly...

The following are your eight character types:

Meet the "HERO":
Our protagonist. Due to wed the princess, reacts to the donor, to defeat the villain.

Meet the "VILLAIN":
Our antagonist. Will fight the hero, he/she usually fights for the other 'team','side', 'power' or 'cause'.

















Meet the "FALSE HERO":
Takes credit for heroes actions or tries to marry the princess figure.

Meet the "DONOR":
Prepares the hero or gives the hero some (magical) object.*Cough*Batmobile/Tank*Cough*.

Meet the "DISPATCHER":
Makes the villain known and sends the hero to defeat him.

Meet the "PRINCESS":

the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. The hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess. Sometimes it doesn't always end this way but you get the point.

Meet the "HELPER":

Helps the hero on the quest to defeat the villain.

Meet the "PRINCESS' FATHER":

Gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, and marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father cannot be clearly distinguished.

As demonstrated above these eight character types can be applied to movies, no matter the setting or how abstract some of the 'Characters' may be; Maybe using Gotham as the father figure was a bit of a stretch :P.

These character types can also be applied to gangster films however I think the idea is flawed by people and especially modern characters are a lot more real and complex, everyone has their motives for different reasons and will do different things to resolve their problems. Take 'The Godfather' for example its not particularly easy to define a character as the villain or hero, not everyone's motives are exactly morally pleasing. Much like Todorov's theory Propp's eight character types are very good as broad, vague categories but can't always be applied.