Tztevan Todorov presents the idea that movies can be broken down into:
- Equilibrium
- Disruption
- New equilibrium
Vladimir Propp
His work (based around an analysis of fairy tales) suggests that stories use STOCK CHARACTERS to structure stories. That is not to say that all characters are the same, but rather to suggest that all stories draw on familiar characters performing similar functions to provide familiar narrative structures.
- Hero – a person who is admired for their courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities / the person who we (as the audience) root for.
- Helper – helps the hero with his or her quest
- Princess – the rewards of the hero’s quest and usually the reason they have a quest
- Villain – fights or pursues the hero and must be defeated if the hero s to accomplish their quest
- Victim – the victim ( usually end up dying)
- Dispatcher – send the hero on his or her quest
- Father
- False Hero – plays mainly a villainous role usurping the true hero’s position in the cores of the story.
spheres of action: As Turner makes clear ‘these are not separate characters, since one character can occupy a number of roles or ‘spheres of action’ as Propp calls them and one role may be played by a number of different characters’