Stories use STOCK CHARACTERS to structure stories
Suggests that all stories draw on familiar characters performing similar functions to provide familiar narrative structures.
The way in which CHARACTERS FUNCTION TO PROVIDE NARRATIVE STRUCTURE:
- Hero
- Helper
- Princess
- Villain
- Victim
- Dispatcher
- Father
- False Hero
‘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’
Stock character’s roles can be organised into
- PREPARATION
- COMPLICATION
- TRANSFERENCE
- STRUGGLE
- RETURN
- RECOGNITION