Narative: Folktale and Vladimir Propp

Our next lecture was about narative, and how (particularly in folk/fairytales) the actions which take place within them are often identical to other tales, however the 'personages' vary. This basically means that characters or objects perform their functions within a fairytale, while in another fairytale the exact same functions are being perfomed but by different characters. Vladimir Propp, in his book 'Morphology of folk tale', uses a few examples:

1. A tsar gives an eagle to a hero. The eagle carries the hero away to another
kingdom.
2. An old man gives Sucenko a horse. The horse carries Sucenko away to
another kingom.
3. A sorcerer gives Ivan a little boat. The boat takes Ivan to another kingdom.
4. A princess gives Ivan a ring. Young men appearing from out of the ring
carry
Ivan away into another kingdom…

These examples show how different personages perform the same functions in differnt stories. Propp then begins to explain how can list these characters in terms of their 'spheres of influence':

The villain (Baddy for the hero to find/kill)
The donor (Gives the hero what he/she needs to acomplish this quest)
The helper (Aids the hero throughout the journey)
The princess, and her father (Or other characters which represent the same idea)
The dispatcher (The character who tells the hero where to go and what to do)
The hero (Seeker-hero who volentarily fights, or victim-hero who is thrown into fight)
The false hero (Character or object who appears to be good, but betrays the hero)


Our task to complete following this lecture, was to find a game with fairytale elements, and make a list of which characters can fill which roles based on the list above.

I chose one particular mission, Hobbe Cave, from the game Fable.

The villain: Fairy/Whisp
The donor: Granny (gives the 'hexagon key')
The helper: Trapped Bandit
The princess, and her father: Grandson James, Grandmother Granny
The dispatcher: Granny
The hero (seeker-hero): Hero/Pie Master, etc.
The false hero: Granny

In this example, and with many stories, some of the characters play multiple roles.
This story feels very much like a fairytale, as the description given by Propp fits perfectly.