Vladimir Propp by Saqib Younis

Vladimir Propp is one of many media theorist. He was born on April 17^th 1895 in ST. Petersburg. His Morphology of the Folktale was published in Russian in 1928. Although it represented a breakthrough in both folkloristic and morphology and influenced Claude Lévi-Strauss and Roland Barthes, it was generally unnoticed in the West until it was translated in 1958. His character types are used in media education and can be applied to almost any story be it in literature, theatre, film, television series, games, etc. He also concluded that all the characters could be resolved into 7 broad character functions in the 100 tales he analysed. The Villain is one which he realised would always struggle against the hero. 

Star Wars Revenge Of The Sith

Another character type is the dispatcher who is someone who sends the hero on his journey. The helper is another character that Propp analysed; the helper has a role in which he aids the hero on his quest or journey. It basically does what he or she is named after.  The princess or prize and her father the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. The hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating the villain. Like in Man of steel in which Clarke Kent aka Superman has to save Earth in which the love of his life louis lane in living on and as he saves Earth he saves her.

Man Of Steel

The donor prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object. For example in Harry Potter Hagrid is the one who provide Harry with the news that he is a wizard and this begins his journey to Hogwarts. The most obvious character type is the Hero who ends up saving the day and typically marrying the princess. The last of the seven charters types is the false hero who is a character who takes the glory of the hero and tries to marry the princess but tends to be defeated for example I Shrek 2 when prince charming tries to marry Princess Fiona claiming he is Shrek.