This document discusses various concepts in narrative theory including: - Vladimir Propp's analysis of common character archetypes in folktales like The Hero, Villain, Princess/Prize, etc. - Todorov's idea that narratives follow a three-part structure of Equilibrium, Disequilibrium, and New Equilibrium. - Claude Levi-Strauss's concept of binary opposition that stories are driven by conflict between opposing sides. - Additional concepts covered include open vs. closed vs. single-strand vs. multi-strand structures, and linear vs. non-linear narratives. Examples are provided for each concept from folktales and films.

1. Narrative Theory

2. Vladimir Propp
• He wanted to understand how stories are told
so he looked at hundreds of stories to see
what they all had in common. He realized
there was pretty much 31 plots to all the
stories he looked at. Also realized there was
only 8 characters within these stories.

3. The Hero
The leading character who we root for throughout the film or book. They normally
have a quest or goal to go and retrieve a prize or a princess, and they normally
have some kind of super human power, like courage or an ability to do back flips.
In my storybook there aren’t really any hero’s, you could say that the three blind
mice are the hero’s but they have no quest, they just go into a famers house and
get their tales chopped off.
In the film Submarine the hero is Oliver Tate, even though he isn’t a real hero he is
what the main storyline is focusing around and his mistimed adventure between
trying to get the girl and saving his mum from giving a hand job a ‘Ninja’.

4. The Villain
The villain battles with the hero throughout the film or book. Normally a bad guy who cheats,
lies and are normally very cowardly, just to show how brae the hero is. They may also try and
stop the hero from achieving the goal or the quest.
In my storybook the villain would be the farmers wife who chops the mice's tale’s off with a
butchers knife. This isn’t to stop the mice from doing a quest, just stops them from coming
into her house again, I’m sure they aren’t the first, and I doubt they will be the last.
The villain in Submarine could be a few people, one of the villains is the mystic who is the
main focus within most of the movie, he goes by the mystic or the ninja, who would appear
to be trying to break Oliver’s mum and dad up throughout the movie, or at least you think he
is trying to break them up, with his disco van, fantastic talks about light and dates to the
firework display.

5. The Princess/Prize
• She is the object that the hero is after, either coming to save them or as
part of a quest to track them down and bring them home to marry. The
princess or the prize will bring very little to the storyline as in terms of
talking, they are normally in the background and will have bit parts all the
way through the film.
• In the case of Submarine, Jordanna is the prize that Oliver is after, he
wants to make her his girlfriend, but because she is so rebellious he is
scared to ask her out, plus he is very awkward.

6. The Donor
• The donor is someone who gives the hero something to help them
complete the quest that they are on. This could either be a weapon or a
piece of information that could help them complete the quest. This
character could also be combined with the helper within the book
because he too helps out with the quest that the hero is on.
• Oliver’s dad is probably the person who fits into this section the most, he
is the person who teaches Oliver how to talk to women and the music he
should listen too. Right at the start of the film he tells him about when he
ripped off his vest and got an animalistic response from the women he
was trying to impress, then gives him a mix tape of happy songs and sad
songs for when it all goes south.

7. The Helper
• This is the person who would support the hero throughout the movie, not
always in the foreground but would arrive exactly when he is needed, kind
of like a wizard. They normally aren’t the smartest tool in the box but they
are normally very friendly and kind. Most of the time they are lack
courage, a little bit of brains, and drive to carry on, always wanting to turn
around. This is just to highlight the hero’s courage, will and determination.
• In Submarine Oliver’s friend Chips is a terrible human being with terrible
morals about women, but somehow he helps Oliver pluck up enough
courage to ask out Jordanna.

8. The Princess’ Father
• He is the one who gives the task to the hero, he sends the hero on the
quest to retrieve his daughter from a person they don’t like, or a place
that they don’t want them. He might also be in competition with the hero
for the princess’ affection which might be siding more towards the hero
and he may be getting jealous. They are difficult character to define in
modern day story telling.
• In Submarine the princess’ father is Jordanna’s father who seems to be
having a mental break down, he is struggling to come to terms with the
fact that his wife is dyeing and during Oliver’s first visit he has a bout of
rage and has a strop when one of the lights blow during tea, and then
decides to get really drunk.

9. The False Hero
• He is the guy that some might mistake for being the real hero within the
story, he will come along and steal the hero’s thunder and try and steal
the girl away from him. He is normally very charming and might even win
the affection and approval of the princess’s father, which will only make it
harder for the actual hero to do so.
• There isn’t really a false hero within my story book, the three blind mice
aren’t really hero’s either, so doing this has actually made this evaluation
even harder. One example could be Prince Charming out of Shrek, he is
trying to become a famous actor but is sent on a quest to rescue the
princess only to find that she has already been rescued by Shrek and
instead the big bad wolf is now sleeping in the bed. Princess Fiona's dad
asks Prince Charming to try and marry Fiona and this is where we see the
whole good guy, bad guy routine played out, he’s nice to the princess’s dad
but horrible to Shrek when the princess’s dad is not around.

10. The Dispatcher
• A character right at the start of a film who sends the hero on a mission,
sometimes for their own benefit or sometimes to try and get rid of them
on an ill-fated quest. The dispatcher could be either a family member so
say the princess’s parents, so giving the hero something to aim for,
something to complete before he can gain the hand of the princess’s. The
dispatcher could also be combined with another character, like the false
hero who would come along on the quest to try and sabotage the hero so
he fails, thus leaving the false hero to swoop in and steal the thunder.
• One example of this would be Lord Farquaad out of Shrek, he sends Shrek
off to rescue the princess after he win the wrestling competition to prove
that he is the toughest of them all. But what Shrek doesn’t know is, the
lord is doing this out of pure selfishness because he thinks he will be killed
by the dragon, thus being able to take over the swamp.

11. Narrative Structure Components
• Todorov was a Russian writer who thought that all narratives followed the
same, simple paths. He believed that there are 3 to 5 step versions of this
idea.
• Equilibrium: This is right at the start of the story, everything is normal, kids
are playing in the streets, people are going shopping and mowing the
lawns, generally everything is very sunny and happy.
• Disequilibrium: This is where something major happens to the characters
within the story, something catastrophic happens. This could be
something as simple as missing a plane so they can’t get home for
Christmas or an alien invasion. It is something that interrupts the normal
flow of life and makes everything different to how it was before.
• New Equilibrium: This is when things go back to being calm and slightly
normal, maybe going back to people going to school and mowing the lawn
even though there might have been thousands of deaths around them,
but they still go back to a slight normality.

12. Narrative Structure Components
• Equilibrium: This is at the start of my story where you see the three blind
mice standing in a forest and you also see them running around the forest
all happy and carefree. Nobody ever questions the fact that they are
running around all care free even though they are blind, it seems to make
perfect sense.
• Disequilibrium: This is the point in the story when the mice happen upon
a farmhouse and they decide to go inside and cause the farmers wife
some hassle. The farmers wife doesn’t take too kindly to this and she ends
up chopping off their tales with a carving knife, and the mice run away
with no tails.
• New Equilibrium: The mice, with no tails and very upset end up running
back into the forest and into the distance, tailless and scared they melt
back into the forest and back into their normal habitat, knowing that they
shouldn’t go into a farmers house again.

13. Binary Opposition
• Claude Levi Strauss was a French theorist who came up with the binary
opposition.
• The idea was that can only be a story when two opposing sides come
together and fight against each other.
• And the conflict between these two sides are what drives the story on.
Good vs. Evil
Men vs. Women
Police vs. Criminals
Young vs. Old
Humans vs. Aliens
Humans vs. Animals

14. Types of Structure
• Open: These types of stories just go on and on and never really come to an
end, you see this a lot in soap operas and comic books. They have different
sub-plots within them, but they can run for years and years just adding new
storylines as they go along.
• Closed: These are generally used within films, the storyline with reach a
conclusion normally within 90 minutes and at the end of that time period you
will have a conclusion to the story.
• Single Strand: A single strand narrative is when a story just has one storyline,
these are normally used in children's storybooks so they don’t get overloaded
with different plots. It helps being able to focus on just one storyline.
• Multi-strand: This is just the opposite of a single strand storyline, a multi-
strand is when you have different storylines within a story, once again these
might be used in soaps because these programs feature lots of storylines
involving many different characters.
• In my book there is only one storyline so you could say that it is a single strand
story book, this is mainly because it is a folk tale so there was never any doubt
it would only be a single strand story. But this is also because I didn’t want to
confuse the children that I am aiming it for.

15. Types of Structure
• Linear: Linear narratives start from the beginning and run all the way though
to the end of the story. This is probably the most used method for stories,
used by journalists, authors and films alike. It’s also a very simple method to
use because you are just telling a story in the order that events are happening.
• Non-Linear: Non-linear narratives are stories that don’t go from A to B
directly, they will use flash backs to show what has happened before or maybe
something bad that has happened to the character. Examples of this are Pulp
Fiction and too and extent Fight Club.
• Realist: Realist narratives are a reflection on ‘real life’. They show events that
could affect anyone who is watching them. Realist narratives want to show
real every day events happening to other people, it’s more for the shock factor
of thinking that this could happen to you.
• Anti-Realistic: This is the opposite to realistic narrative. They involve
characters, events and locations that you wouldn’t find in day to day life and
events that are very unlikely to happen to normal people who are watching
them. Such genres would include sci-fi and fantasy.