narrative structure theory

1. Task 9 – Narrative structure
Vladimir Propp analyzed and identified the narrative elements of
Russian folk tales. After he looked one hundred tales he came to
the conclusion that they were made up of 31 plot elements, which
he named functions. He also figured out 8 character types. These
are: the villain, the helper, the princess of prize, her father, the
donor, the hero, the false hero, and the dispatcher.
Character types
The hero is normally the main character and leads the narrative.
The story generally follows the hero as they go on a quest or
trying to solve or achieve something. The audience normally wants
this person to succeed as the story goes along. In my story,
Goldilocks and the Three Bears, it isn’t clear who the hero
character is. Goldilocks can be seen as the hero because she is the
main character who we follow along in the narrative, however her
actions in the story don’t make her seem heroic. She enters the
three bears’ house without permission, eats their bowls of
porridge, breaks a chair, and sleeps in their beds. Even though she
does these bad things, we want her to get out of the house without
being caught by the bears, and succeed by the end of the story. On
the other hand, the three bears can be seen as the hero’s. Even
though they are in the story less than Goldilocks, they come home
after Goldilocks has slept in the beds, and catch her in the act and
scare her away. The characters of the three bears’ don’t do much in
the story, but they end up catching the person who has broken
into their house and done no good, which can be seen as heroic.
The villain is the character that is shown as morally bad, and they
struggle against the character of the hero. The audience are usually
against the villain as this character may try to prevent the hero
from achieving their goal. Even with the possibility of Goldilocks
being the hero, she could also be the villain in the story. She breaks
into the bears’ house, eats the porridge they were leaving out to
cool, sits in each of their chairs and breaks one of them to pieces,

2. and tests out each of their beds. Her actions are seen as immoral,
so she would be the villain in my story.
Another character type is the princess/prize. The princess may
take two forms; firstly he/she may be the object to be pursued by
the hero, possibly after finding out where the villain has taken
him/her. Secondly, she may be the prize or reward after
completing a mission. They often gain his/her affections or hand
in marriage. The princess/prize character is absent in Goldilocks
and the Three Bears, but an example would be Princess Fiona
from Shrek. Lord Farquaad wants to keep the princess, so he locks
her in a castle tower guarded by a dragon. Shrek sets out to rescue
Princess Fiona, and in the end, he beats the villain and wins her
affection and hand in marriage.
The Donor is the character that gives the hero a gift, such as a
weapon, a clue, or special power, which allows them to complete
their quest. This role may be combined with that of a helper. This
role could possibly be taken by the three bears as don’t take any
action to prevent intruders entering their home as they go on their
walk. Even though they don't intend to, they leave their home
open to Goldilocks, who eats the porridge they left out to cool,
and rests on their chairs and beds. The bears provide her with
these things.
The character of the Helper supports the hero, and appears at
critical moments to help the hero throughout the whole story. The
limitations of the helper often help to highlight the hero’s defining
characteristics such as intelligence, courage, determination, etc.
There isn’t a role of the helper in Goldilocks and the Three Bears,
however an example would be the character of Donkey from
Shrek. Donkey is Shrek’s best friend and sidekick, and is by his
side as he strives to complete his quests.
The Princess’ Father character is a key figure for the Hero to
persuade or prove something to, because the Father is usually
always protective of his daughter. The Father may come into
competition with the Hero. Propp noted that this may be a

3. difficult character to define in modern story telling as the princess
and father can not be clearly distinguished. There is no Princess’
Father in Goldilocks, but a character that can fit in this role is The
King from Shrek. He is against Shrek being with his daughter
Fiona, and he had secretly made a promise to the Fairy
Godmother that her son Prince Charming would marry Fiona. He
even assigns for Shrek to be assassinated. In the end, the king
apologises to Shrek and accepts him into the family.
The False Hero is the character that appears to act heroically and
may be mistaken for the real hero, even though they’re not. They
will try to steal the Hero’s thunder and try to win the princess
instead. The false hero may gain respect of the princess’s father,
leading to more trouble for the hero to gain the hand of the
princess. An example of this character would be Prince Charming
from Shrek. He plays a villainous role, and wants to marry Princess
Fiona so he can become king. He also has the approval of Fiona’s
father as he makes a promise for him to be married to his
daughter.
The Dispatcher sends the hero on the mission. This could be a
family member such as a mother or father, and can also be the
Princess’s Father, who gives the hero quests to be completed
before he can win the affections of the Princess. This role is
absent in Goldilocks, but a character who can be a dispatcher is
Lord Farquaad from Shrek. He wants to marry Princess Fiona but
first she must be rescued from the tower guarded by the dragon.
Since he was unwilling to do the rescue himself, he sends Shrek on
a quest to rescue her after he defeats the knights in a tournament.
Narrative structure components
A Russian structuralist, Todorov, thought that all narratives
followed the same simple path. There are 3 and 5 step versions of
this idea. In the shorter 3 step version, equilibrium is where the
story starts, it is where everything in the lives of the characters is
in balance. Relating this to my story Goldilocks and the Three
Bears, the equilibrium is where the three bears are ready to start
the day by having their bowls of porridge, and they leave the

4. house to go on a walk through the forest while waiting for it to
cool down.
Disequilibrium is where an event happens which disrupts the lives
of the characters. No matter what the event, the story now
revolves around the characters reacting to the event and
attempting to get back to equilibrium. Disequilibrium in my story,
is where Goldilocks enters the house of the bears, and tries
porridge in each of the bowls. After being dissatisfied with the
first 2 bowls she tries, she is pleased with Baby bear’s bowl of
porridge and eats it all. Then she moves to the living room, and
sits down in each of their chairs. After deciding she is comfortable
in Baby bear’s chair, it breaks into pieces after sitting in it for a
while. Next, she goes upstairs to the bedroom, and lies down in
each of their beds, then falls asleep in Baby bear’s bed. This leads
to her being caught by the bears upon their return. This is the
main event that happens in Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
New Equilibrium is the end of the story where things return to
normal, or a new version of normal. We expect things will
continue on as they are at the end of the story. Linking this to my
story, new equilibrium takes place when Goldilocks is caught out
and scared away by the bears, and runs back through the forest
never to return. The audience expects that things will now return
to normal.
Binary Opposition
Claude Levi Strauss, a French theorist, came up with the idea of
binary opposition. This is the idea that there can only be a story
when two opposing sides come together, as the story is driven by
the conflict between the two sides. For example, good vs. evil,
police vs. criminals, and young vs. old. In my story, the two
opposing characters would be Goldilocks and the bears, and they
would be bad vs good. Goldilocks goes into their house while the
bears are away and does bad things that wouldn’t be approved of,
so she plays the bad role. The three bears don’t do anything wrong
in the story, they just come home to find Goldilocks in their
house. They take the roles of the good characters.

5. Types of structure
Open - Open narratives are continuous and run on and on, and
don’t reach a conclusion. Soap operas and comic books are good
examples of open narratives as the stories continue from episode
to episode. Coronation Street is a soap opera that started in 1960
and is still running to present day, and the stories keep continuing.
Closed - these types of narratives reach a conclusion with a media
text. Most films have a closed narrative where the story starts and
ends within the 90 minutes or so that the film lasts. Goldilocks and
the Three Bears has a closed structure because it reaches an end. It
ends with the bears returning home to find Goldilocks in one of
their beds upstairs, and then she gets scared and runs back into the
forest, and from this point where it is said that Goldilocks never
returns, the audience knows that the story has reached its closing
point.
Single strand - This type of narrative has just one storyline.
Children’s books often have a single strand narrative as they
struggle to read a story that contains more than that. As well as
having a closed narrative, Goldilocks is also a single strand
narrative as it only has a single storyline. The storyline is simply
involves Goldilocks entering the three bears’ home, eating their
porridge, breaking one of their chairs and sleeping in their beds,
where she is caught. There is nothing else happening, so this is the
only storyline that is followed.
Multi-strand - This is a type of narrative that has many different
storylines. An example of a multi-strand narrative is a soap opera,
such as Eastenders. This contains lots of characters so it will
feature many storylines about them.
Linear - Linear narratives start at the beginning and go straight
through the story till it reaches the end, and all the events happen
in order. It is a simple but popular method of story telling. Many
books an films use a linear narrative. My chosen story for my
children's book, Goldilocks, follows a linear structure because each
step of the story follows the next. The story starts from the
beginning where the bears leave the house, and then Goldilocks
enters. It follows on from this, till Goldilocks gets caught when the

6. bears return and she runs back through the forest, where the story
finishes.
Non-linear - These types of narratives don’t go through the story
in order. They may use flash backs and flash forwards to jump
around in time. My children's story doesn’t follow this type of
structure, but an example of a film that does is ‘Reservoir Dogs’.
This has a very non-linear storyline as it jumps from flashback to
flashback as it shows each character’s background story.
Realist - Realist narratives are a reflection of ‘real life’ and involve
believable and realistic events that could happen to almost anyone.
Realist narratives are interested in the day to day reality of peoples
lives. Goldilocks and the Three Bears could possibly have a realist
narrative because the events that happen are things that could
happen to people in real life. Some people do break into peoples
houses much like Goldilocks entered the three bears’ house
without permission. However it is also unrealistic because the
three bears can talk and act like ordinary humans.
Anti-realist - This is the opposite of realist narratives, and they
involve events which are very unlikely to happen and locations and
characters that you wouldn’t normally see in real life. Genres of
anti-realist structures include sci-fi and fantasy. My story does
include some realistic events, but it is also very much anti-realist
because it involves anthropomorphism as the bears can talk and
are given human attributes, such as wearing clothes and doing
normal human daily activities.