Vladimir Propp was a Russian scholar who developed a theory of character types in narratives. He proposed that there are seven main character types that appear in stories: the hero, the villain, the donor, the princess, the helper, the princess' father, and the false hero. Each character type performs a specific narrative function, such as the hero embarking on a quest or the villain opposing the hero. However, critics argue that Propp's theory does not apply to all stories, as some narratives feature different or more complex character configurations than his proposed types.

1. Propp and character
types
By: Joshua

2. Vladimir propp
Vladimir Propp was born on 17 April 1895 in Saint Petersburg to a German family. He attendedSaint
Petersburg university (1913–1918), majoring in Russian and German. When he graduated he taught
Russian and German at a secondary school, after this he then became a college teacher for German.
He developed the theory that there are seven character types and there is one character that falls
into each type in every movie.
The different character types he theorized was: The hero, The villain, The donor, The princess, The
helper, The princess’ father and the false hero

3. The character types and examples
The hero - Leads the narrative, is usually looking for something - a quest, or trying solve something - a mystery. Does not have to
be male. E.g. Spiderman
The villain - Has a conflict with the hero and tries to stop them from succeeding. E.g. Darth Vader
The donor - Gives the hero something - a clue, a talisman, a special power - which helps them complete their quest. E.g
Dumbledore
The princess - Is usually a prize or reward for the hero. If the hero id female, there can be a price but this is unusual. E.g.
Rapunzel
The helper - Helps the hero, often acts as a sidekick. E.g. Robin
The princess’ father - An authority figure who offers a reward to the hero for completing their quest. E.g Tony Stark in
homecoming
The false hero - Takes credit for the hero’s action or tries to marry the princess. E.g. Syndrome from incredibles
Another character that is not common but is mentioned in his theory is the dispatcher. The dispatcher send the hero on his
quest. It can be a family member such as the mother or father

4. More on the characters
● These character roles could sometimes be distributed among various characters.
● Conversely one character could engage in acts as more than one role. As an example a father could
send his son on the quest and give him a sword acting as both the dispatcher and the donor

5. Criticisms of the theory
● This theory can not be applied to every movie as not all characters are present. For example in
Lobster. Multiple characters that Vladimir Propp has included in his theory are not present.
● Another criticism of this theory is how it suggest that characters must be ‘good’ or ‘bad’/ ‘heroes’ or
‘villains’. Movies now are not as simple as they do not always introduce characters at the start of a
film.