Narrative Theory and Propp’s Character Types

Narrative Theory

Apply both Propp’s Character Types and Todorov’s Narrative Steps to a film of your choice. Some ideas might be:

·         Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

·         Shaun of the Dead

·         Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

·         Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

·         Aladdin

Film Title: Shaun of the dead.....................................................................

Narrative Steps	Write a few sentences about what happens at each stage of the film:
Equilibrium	The equilibrium of Shaun of the dead starts off at a not so happy start, where he realises that everything in his life is going wrong, and has no direction.
Disruption	The disruption is when there is an overnight zombie apocalypse, lots of people die, and get turned into zombies.
Realisation	The realisation is when Shaun knows that there is a zombie apocalypse, and he has to save everybody, in a comical way.
Restoring Order	Restoring the order is when they destroy all the zombies, and try to escape.
New Equilibrium	The new equilibrium is when the zombies are all destroyed apart from a few, Shaun, the main character, gets the girl, and although his friend is a zombie he still plays and they get on.

Propp’s Character Types

Character types	Character in the film	What the character does in the film
The villain	The zombies	The zombies eat the “unchanged humans”.
The dispatcher	Shaun	He is the only person who realises first what is happening and sets off his mission.
The helper	Ed	Ed is Shauns friend, he is the helper because he encourages Shaun to save the day, and motivate him.
The princess	Liz	The hero wants her, she plays a damsel in distress, and in the end they hook up.
The donor
The hero	Shaun	He kills the zombies and saves the day, he also get the girl at the end.
The false hero	David	He fancies Liz