Analysis using Propp Theory

Vladimir Propp Theory

Vladimir Propp was a Russian critic who created a theory based on the structure of stories. With this theory of narrative, he examined 100's of folk tales to look for similarities. His book was published in 1928 and it contained an analysis of elements in these stories that had connections. He came up with 8 different character roles in these stories and these were:

• The Villain(s)- The person who will go all out to defeat the hero.
• The Hero- The person(s) that progress and go on a journey.
• The donor- prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.
• The helper- helps the hero with the quest and journey that they are going on.
• The princess/princess- the person the hero may end up with and the reward for the hero and the person who the villain schemes against.
• Her father- rewards the hero.
• The dispatcher- sets the hero on his/her way to carry on in completing their goal.
• The false hero- Takes the credit for all of the hard work of the hero to impress other characters.

The Little Mermaid

Synopsis

A beautiful mermaid, Ariel, is fascinated by the human world- much to the dismay of her father King Triton, ruler of the Mer-people. Ariel spies handsome Prince Eric and falls hopelessly in love. Sebastian, a crab, is sent by Trilton to keep an eye on Ariel, but he cannot stop her from saving Eric’s life during a storm at sea. Ursala, the sea witch, plots to grant Ariel’s wish to be a human and marry her Prince, but only as part of a larger scheme to gain control of Trilton’s undersea kingdom. In the end, Eric and Ariel, transformed into a human, is given Trilton’s blessing to marry Prince Eric.

The Villain- Ursala

The Hero- Ariel

The donor- Ursala

The helper- Flounder

The Prince- Eric

The Father- (in this case Ariel's father) King Trilton

The Dispatcher- Sebastian

The False Hero-

Vladimir Propp also came up with 31 functions that are in most fairytales and there are four main ones from this list that are used in the film 'The Little Mermaid' and these are:

• Villain attempts to deceive hero with trickery- this is shown in the film when Ursala gives Ariel the potion to give her legs although this is really a trick to get her voice.
• Hero leaves home- this is in the part when Ariel gets legs and starts to live life on land as a human and leaves Mer-land.
• Hero gets magical object to help with quest- even though the potion is a trick, the magical object helps her to meet the Prince and fall in love which was her overall quest.
• Hero given new appearance/ transfiguration- this is when Ariel gets her legs and changes from a mermaid to a human.

Critique of Propp's Theory

The main criticism of Propp's theory and one thing that I think is weak about it is the fact that not everything is taken into account and how some things can change the functions and character types within a narrative. These things include: the tone of the story, the mood of the characters and story as a whole and the characterisation as the character labels have been described but the actual personalities of these characters have not. Also, this theory is fairly old so many people have the opinion that this theory of narrative is dated as many fairytales have been transformed now and with these, the theory of functions and character types to not fit in with them.