Vladimir Propp- Spheres of Action

After deciding on the horror genre we divided our work into categories, I have researched and wrote about Vladimir Propp’s Spheres of Action.

Vladimir Propp was a Russian critic and folklorist whose influential book, translated as morphology of the folk tale, was first published in 1928. Propp was working with folk stories so some of the terms are specific to them and have to be adapted to ‘reading’ modern stories. What Propp was asserting was that characters types exist to further the narrative- rather than characters existing in their own right they have roles or functions to perform in propelling the narrative in certain directions and ultimately to the conclusion.

Propp argued that whatever surface differences there might be in stories, it was possible to group together all characters into eight character roles:

The Hero: Character that goes on the quest, (in folk stories this would have traditionally been a male character, in more modern texts this could have taken to mean the bravest and courageous person. In horror this would be the most innocent person who survives the monster/villain and normally kills them.
The Villain/Monster: Character that tries to prevent the hero from completing the quest, in horror this would be killing the hero.
The Donor: This character provides the hero with something that will help them on their quest. In horror this would be the person who gives knowledge on the monster/villain and maybe gives them something to kill it.
The Helper: This character helps the hero in some kind of way. In horror they would normally help kill the monster or help the hero survive.
The Princess: This is a broad term, they might literally be a princess like Maid Marion in Robin Hood or would mean the heroes reward. The princess might also be the object of the villain’s bad deeds. In horror the princess would normally be the heroes reward; they also may be a main target of the villain/monster.
The Dispatcher: This is the character that sends the hero on the quest. In horror this would be the person who sends the hero on to kill the villain/monster or to get away.
The Father: This is the character that gives the princess away and sometimes can be the Dispatcher too. In horror this character would normally not survive as horror films tend to have bad endings and cliff-hangers.
The False Hero: This is the character that looks like the hero but is actually on the side of the villain. In horror this would be the character that helps the hero on the quest but ultimately tries to destroy them by setting traps, giving wrong information etc.

In most of these horror genre films many of these characters do not survive, people like the hero, princess and some others survive; an example of this would be the Scream trilogy. However in others the villain survives and the hero dies, an example of this would be the Saw series.

Example:

Scream 1996

The Hero: Sidney Prescott

The Villain: Billy Loomis and Stuart Macher

The Princess:

The Helper: Deputy Dwight ‘Dewey’ Riley and Gale Weathers

The Donor: Randy Meeks

The Father: Neil Prescott

The Dispatcher: Casey Becker

False Hero: Billy Loomis