Propp's Character Roles and Narrative Functions Task

1. Soap Opera Genre –
Propp’s Character Roles
Propp’s Narrative Functions
Name: Jack J Connell
Candidate Number: 1103
Center Name: St. Andrew’s Catholic School
Center Number: 64135
OCR Media Studies – A2 Level
Unit G324: Advanced Portfolio

2. Propp’s Character Roles
Trailer 1 – Eastenders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upBV74yw7vg
The ‘villain’ In the ‘Eastenders’ trailer there is a scene in which a male antagonist
(villain) confronts one of the male protagonists “No ones going to want to have
anything to do with you.” This resulted in a brief struggle where the ‘villain’ was
knocked to the ground resulting in a feeling of justice.
The ‘false hero’ The young male character ‘Bobby’ is made out to be innocent at the
beginning of the trailer and then the audience are made aware that he is part of the
issue when ‘Jane’ answers “Bobby” after being asked by ‘Phil’ who she was protecting.
The ‘hero’ The hero could be seen as ‘Danny’, one of the male protagonists as the
trouble seems to stay clear of him throughout the trailer and he shows support for
some of the characters experiencing issues in the trailer.

3. Propp’s Narrative Functions
Struggle: In the ‘EastEnders’ trailer there is an example of
on of Propp's narrative functions which is the struggle
between the hero and the villain in the form of a physical
bout. This is sparked by the villain who gives the dialogue
“No ones going to want to have anything to do with you”.
The ‘hero’ then knocks the villain down in the brief event
giving the audience a sense that there has been justice.
Trailer 1 – Eastenders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upBV74yw7vg
Punishment: ‘Jane’ could in some sense be seen as the ‘villain’ in this
‘Eastenders’ trailer as she is hiding who committed the murder. She gets a form
of punishment as ‘Phil’ who could be seen as a ‘hero’ character as she is
captured and held forcefully as ‘Phil’ attempts to get answers. This greatly adds
drama to the trailer and is one of Propp’s narrative functions. This conforms to
‘men act women appear’ as the male is dominant and made out to be in control.
Reconnaissance: ‘Phil’ seeks information from ‘Jane’. He
forcefully grabs her and makes her give him what he wants.
The verbal code of diegetic dialogue “who are you
protecting?” is delivered in an angry manner to which Jane
gives in and responds with “Bobby”. This is the cliffhanger at
the end of the trailer.

4. Propp’s Character Roles
Trailer 2 – Coronation Street: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w51KhdDSeto
The ‘villain’ In this ‘Coronation Street’ trailer the young adult male antagonist that is
in on the murder could be seen as the villain as he doesn’t appear to be phased by any
of the issues like some of the other characters are.
The ‘princess’ One character in the trailer appears to fit in with the ‘princess’
character role. She seems to be quite high up in the hierarchy as there are two scenes
in which she seems to have dominance over male characters.

5. Propp’s Narrative Functions
Trailer 2 – Coronation Street: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w51KhdDSeto
Trickery: The ‘villain’ attempts to persuade one of the female characters that’s is also in on the murder to
stop feeling worried and guilty. He does this by delivering the line “all you’ve got to do is just act like nothing
happened” in a smug way like it’s a joke which deceives the female character.
Struggle: There is a scene in which a small fight breaks out between two female characters, it is not clear
who has the upper hand in this event but it adds great drama to the trailer. Dialogue is exchanged between
the two such as “if anyone’s a cheap tart it’s you!”. The characters briefly engage in conflict.
Reconnaissance: At the end of the trailer one of the female characters
demands information from the two characters that are in on the murder that
has taken place. The diegetic, forceful dialogue “I wanna know where he is” is
anchored by the non-verbal code of a frustrated and serious facial expression
which results in the other two characters looking guilty. The audience do not
know if she was successful in gaining the information as this is where the
trailer is left at a cliffhanger.