Everyone loves a good story. Whether it’s a shaggy dog story over a campfire, a joke at a dinner party, a poem, a song, or a memoir, and … we all have a story to tell. This has been happening for centuries. Many Indigenous cultures especially have a strong oral tradition. But what makes a good story? We all know it must have a beginning, a middle and an end, but there must also be a hero, a villain, a goal and a struggle. In fact, don’t these elements make up all stories?
Way back in 1928, a Russian scholar named Vladimir Propp studied 1000 Russian folk tales and discovered that they were all based on 31 narrative themes or ‘narratemes’, and they all had a set of eight broad character types.
Let’s look at two famous stories to see if Propp’s structure and characters can be applied in a more modern setting. The stories are Star Wars and Shrek.
I won’t go into the 31 narratemes in detail, but this is generally what happens: the hero leaves home to go on a quest to solve a problem or find something, meets some helpers and a couple of villains on the way, gains a skill to help him, resolves the problem, confronts the villain and wins the princess. Yes ladies, most of the time we are just the reward (however, watch Frozen for an unexpected slant on love…).
Anyway, here are Propp’s eight broad character types:
- Hero
- Helper
- Villain
- False hero
- Donor
- Dispatcher
- Princess
- Princess’s father
Not all stories contain all of these character types, so let’s have a look at Shrek and Star Wars to see how they compare:
Hero
In Shrek
Shrek needs to solve the crime behind why the fairytale creatures are illegally camping outside his swamp.
In Star Wars
Luke Skywalker’s mission is to save Princess Leia, discover his true parentage and save the empire.
Villain
Princess
Helper
Donor
False hero
Oh those Russians.
