Folk and Fairy Tales
Vladimir Propp, in his analysis of the Russian fairy tale, concluded that a fairy tale had only eight dramatis personæ, of which one was the hero, and his analysis has been widely applied to non-Russian folklore. The actions that fall into a such hero's sphere include:
- Departure on a quest
- Reacting to the test of a donor
- Marrying a princess (or similar figure)
He distinguished between seekers and victim-heroes. A villain could initiate the issue by kidnapping the hero or driving him out; these were victim-heroes. On the other hand, an antagonist could rob the hero, or kidnap someone close to him, or, without the villain's intervention, the hero could realize that he lacked something and set out to find it; these heroes are seekers. Victims may appear in tales with seeker heroes, but the tale does not follow them both.
Read more about this topic: Hero
Famous quotes containing the words fairy tales, folk, fairy and/or tales:
“And in their fairy tales
The warty giant and witch
Get sealed in doorless jails
And the match-girl strikes it rich.”
—Anthony Hecht (b. 1923)
“Some folk want their luck buttered.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
“I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)
“Shall we rest us here,
And by relating tales of others’ griefs,
See if ‘twill teach us to forget our own?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)