Vladimir Propp

Vladimir was Soviet formalist scholar who analysed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements.

Here are the stock characters of Propps theory;

The villain — struggles against the hero.

The dispatcher — character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.

The (magical) helper — helps the hero in their quest.

The princess or prize — 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, thereby beating the villain.

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

The donor — prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.

The hero or victim/seeker hero — reacts to the donor, weds the princess.

False hero — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.

Propp's theory can me applied to modern day films, for example Mean Girls;

Hero-Cady

Villain-The plastics

The Helpers- Lizzy and Damien
The Father- Family and People and School

In the first part of the film Cady would be the part of the hero she is introduced immediately and is the protagonist of the film. We also meet her and her family who have left Africa and cady is about to start her first day at a high school.

Cady is then told not to be friends with the plastics by Damien and Lizzy- Helpers.

They invite Cady to have lunch with them in order to meet her which shows that the interdiction is violated.

We are then introduced to ‘The plastics’ that would play the villain according to the theory.

The plastics then find out that Cady has moved here from Africa and that she likes Aaron in her maths class this would relate to-  The villain has now found out information that she is vulnerable and easily influenced and likes Regina’s ex.

The Plastics have now made the Cady, the hero part of there group in this way Cady turns quite evil which highlights a flaw in Propp’s theory because she has now turned into one of the villains for part of the film. However the fact she has been tricked and is now turning into one of them.

The Hero is also tricked because Regina tells Cady she can’t go with Aaron because its against the girl rules and then Regina gets back with Aaron knowing Cady likes him

Cady plots to get Regina back my doing horrible things to her and is helped by Damien and Lizzy

The hero is tested this is like when Cady is tested by Regina where she flaunts her boyfriend that Cady wants but Cady has to stay strong in order for her counteraction to work.

After Cady sets up all these plans to make Regina unpopular she soon finds out and this is where the hero and villain are now in direct combat.

Regina hates Cady and visa versa.

The hero is then branded Cady is the new plastic however this is not a good thing and does not fit with a hero's description.

The villain who is Regina is defeated and nobody likes her anymore this fits with.

So now Regina wants to get her own back so decided to hand in the burn book which is full of horrible things about people and give it into the headteacher.

Regina the says that's she is the burn book when in fact that was set and pretends shes very upset by what has been done which is the false hero claiming success of true hero.

Cady is exposed as being mean and everyone turns against so she has to not lie anymore and get her friends back and to be liked

This is resolved by true hero when she goes to the prom in order to do her speech and not take the crown but share it with everyone.

Everyone likes her again.

Everything then changes Cady becomes like a normal girl the plastics break up and everyone has joined new groups and have a new appearance.

Although not every part fits, considering this was made a long time ago alot of functions fit with a modern film Mean Girls. I think the main thing that does not work is the thought that the hero must go on a physical journey and leave home because this could be perceived differently in new films. For example Cady did not leave home but she changed and went through a mental journey in Mean Girls

 

By researching Propp's theory it will help me to decide whether I would like to use it in my music video. It also will help my apply this to my music video if I chose to use it. In my music video I am thinking of creating a performance/story therefore I will make sure I use the stock characters to create my story.