Morphology and Structural Narrative Theory

Fundamental Narrative Prototypes and Folklore

• Myths, folktales, and fairy tales represent the prototypes of all narrative structures according to Scholes ($1974$).

• Children are introduced to narratives very early in life, as stories serve as essential tools for learning and memorizing information.

• Psychologists study these narratives because they offer children life lessons, preparing them for adulthood and the physical or emotional upheavals they will inevitably face.

• In The Uses of Enchantment ($1991$), Bruno Bettelheim utilized the theories of Sigmund Freud to demonstrate how familiar folk narratives like Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel explore dark and often sexual themes.

• Historians and cultural theorists investigate folk tales for their insights into the politics of societies, specifically regarding the demonization of social groups (e.g., wicked stepmothers) or the impact of poverty and mortality on family relations ($Cinderella$, $Jack\,and\,the\,Beanstalk$, $Snow\,White$).

• Literary historians and folklorists trace the various versions of popular tales to understand how retellings reflect contemporary anxieties. For instance, Jack Zipes’s ($1993$) study of Little Red Riding Hood shows how the tale has been used to warn young women about the dangers of sexuality.

Structuralism and Narrative Grammar

• Narrative theorists focus on the underlying structures or "grammar" of tales that repeat across cultures and time periods.

• Cultural variations on the $Cinderella$ story appear in diverse settings, from global folklore to contemporary reality TV and "chick flicks," where a protagonist from a poor background attends a major social event (like a high school prom) and wins over a "prince."

• Contemporary advertising draws on the $Ugly\,Duckling$ motif, where beauty products promise a transformation into a "beautiful swan."

• Theorists aim for the fundamental elements of narrative, reducing complex stories to basic shared units.

• Umberto Eco, in his essay "Strategies of Lying" ($1985$), used a structural analysis of Little Red Riding Hood to examine the $1973$ televised speech of US President Richard Nixon. Nixon attempted to bridge his image from a press-created villain to a hero who, through imprudence and misfortune, rises again to defend the American way of life.

Vladimir Propp’s Morphology of the Folk Tale

• The Russian formalist Vladimir Propp was a pioneer in identifying the underlying structures of narrative.

• In Morphology of the Folk Tale (published in Russian in $1928$), Propp focused on the form rather than the content of stories.

• He adopted a scientific approach, looking at a corpus of Russian folk tales—estimated by some to be $100$ and by others to be closer to $200$—to abstract a single structure identifiable in all such tales.

• Propp provided a template that breaks narrative down into $31$ functions, which are the fundamental components of the main action occurring in a fixed sequence.

The $31$ Functions of Narrative according to Propp

John Fiske ($1987$) summarized Propp’s $31$ functions into $6$ main sequences or stages:

Sequence I: Preparation

1. A member of the family leaves home.

2. A prohibition or rule is imposed on the hero.

3. The prohibition or rule is broken.

4. The villain makes an attempt at reconnaissance.

5. The villain learns something about the victim.

6. The villain tries to deceive the victim to gain possession of them or their belongings.

7. The victim unknowingly assists the villain by being deceived or influenced.

Sequence II: Complication

8. The villain harms a member of the family. 8a. A member of the family lacks or desires something.

9. This lack or misfortune is made known; the hero is requested or commanded to go on a mission or quest.

10. The seeker (often the hero) plans action against the villain.

Sequence III: Transference

11. The hero leaves home.

12. The hero is tested, attacked, or interrogated, resulting in the receipt of a magical agent or a helper.

13. The hero reacts to the actions of the future donor.

14. The hero uses the magical agent.

15. The hero is transferred to the general location of the mission/quest object.

Sequence IV: Struggle

16. The hero and villain engage in direct combat.

17. The hero is branded.

18. The villain is defeated.

19. The initial misfortune or lack is resolved.

Sequence V: Return

20. The hero returns.

21. The hero is pursued.

22. The hero is rescued from pursuit.

23. The hero arrives home or elsewhere and is not recognized.

24. A false hero makes false claims.

25. A difficult task is set for the hero.

26. The task is accomplished.

Sequence VI: Recognition

27. The hero is recognized.

28. The false hero or villain is exposed.

29. The false hero is transformed.

30. The villain is punished.

31. The hero is married and crowned.

Propp's Core Observations

Propp formulated four definitive observations regarding the structure of the fairy tale:

1. Functions of characters serve as stable, constant elements, independent of who fulfills them. They are the fundamental components of a tale.

2. The number of functions in a fairy tale is limited.

3. The sequence of functions is always identical.

4. All fairy tales are of one type in regard to their structure.

Characters as Spheres of Action

• Propp was not concerned with psychological depth or moral personality, but with the function a character performs in the plot. He termed these "dramatis personae" or "spheres of action."

• A single character may perform more than one sphere of action—for example, a character could be both a dispatcher and a donor.

• There are $7$ primary spheres of action:

  • Hero: The axis of the narrative. This can be a "seeker hero" (one who searches) or a "victimized hero" (one who is seized or banished).

  • Villain: The character who causes harm or injury.

  • Donor (Provider): The person who provides the magical agent after testing the hero.

  • Helper: Magical entities that support the hero’s actions.

  • Dispatcher: The authority figure or parent who sends the hero on the quest.

  • False Hero: An individual who makes fraudulent claims to be the hero.

  • Princess and her Father: The sought-for person or thing that serves as the goal of the quest and the hero’s ultimate reward.

Applications in Film and Television

• Propp’s morphology is widely applied to modern action-adventure movies, such as the $James\,Bond$ franchise:

  • Villains: Characters like $Goldfinger$ or $Scaramanga$.

  • Donor: $Q$, who provides gadgets (magical agents).

  • Dispatcher: $M$, who sends Bond on his mission.

  • Goal: Bond often ends up with the "princess" on a yacht, a symbol of reward.

• Other franchises like $Doctor\,Who$, $Star\,Wars$, and $Star\,Trek$ follow similar structures.

• Graeme Turner ($2006$) analyzed the characters in the original $1977$ $Star\,Wars$ using Propp’s spheres:

  • Villain: $Darth\,Vader$

  • Donor: $Obi-Wan\,Kenobi$

  • Helper: $Han\,Solo$

  • Princess: $Princess\,Leia$

  • Dispatcher: $R2-D2$

  • Hero: $Luke\,Skywalker$

  • False Hero: $Darth\,Vader$

• In David Fincher’s thriller $Se7en$ ($1995$), Nick Lacey ($2000$) applied the theory nonliterally:

  • The "family" is the police community.

  • "Villainy" is a state of affairs blocking the hero’s goal.

  • The "magical agent" is the knowledge or information needed to solve the crime.

Analysis of Advertising as Narrative

• Advertising often follows the quest structure. Roland Barthes, in Mythologies ($1957$), analyzed ads for soap powders and detergents as systems of signs reflecting a specific ideology.

• Many cleaning product ads present dirt as an "evil" to be eradicated by a "heroic" act.

• The consumer is typically the hero whose "lack" is a dirty house or clothes.

• A neighbor, friend, or expert acts as the donor, providing the "magical agent" (the product).

• The conclusion usually shows a "symbolic crowning" where the hero receives love or satisfaction once the lack is removed.

Critiques and Modern Extensions

• David Bordwell ($1988$) argued that applying Propp to contemporary narratives can be a stretch, as his work was specifically focused on the Russian wonder tale.

• Propp’s theory works best for single plots and can be difficult to apply to serialized or epic narratives with multiple interwoven storylines and shifting character roles.

• Contemporary films like $500\,Days\,of\,Summer$ ($2009$) and $Wild\,Things$ ($1998$) actively subvert these conventions by eschewing happy endings or offering alternative conclusions.

• Classical Hollywood cinema (Bordwell and Thompson $2008$) often aligns with Propp by focusing on individual characters as causal agents achieving transformative change.

• A.J. Greimas ($1983$ [$1966$]) expanded Propp’s work by creating a narrative grammar of $6$ "actants": Subject, Object, Sender, Receiver, Helper, and Opponent.

• In the field of digital humanities, Propp’s quantification of tales provides a model for computer-aided analysis of massive datasets. Malec’s Proppian Fairy Tale Markup Language ($XML$) uses these structures to explore natural language narratives, essentially treating the morphology as a "DNA" for storytelling.