(according to Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the Fairytale, 1926)
The European fairy tale, apparently, originates in prehistory from rituals surrounding the ancient Indo-European initiation rite of adolescents into adult society. Because all fairy tales share this origin, they are similar in their structure. For one thing, Propp demonstrated that each fairytale contains the same functions, i.e., actions involving the protagonist, who is always an adolescent on the verge of adult life. Using a corpus of 100 Russian fairytales (Russian tales are the largest and best preserved group), Propp discovered that they contain a total of 31 such hero-centric functions (some of which may be absent in a particular tale. Below is an outline of Propp's structural analysis of fairytale functions. See if you can match some of them to the events narrated in the tale "The Firebird and Princess Vasilisa," in your Anthology, pp. 99-102.
a. initial situation-- The setting description, not a function
b. Preparatory part:
1) absenting from home,
2) interdiction,
3) violation of the interdiction,
4) villain's reconnaissance,
5) villain receives information,
6) trickery by the villain,
7) victim submits,
c. The complication:
8) villain causes harm, (If the first 7 functions are missing then the tale begins with a lack of something necessary.)
9) misfortune discovered,
10) agreement to counteraction,
11) hero leaves home,
d. Preparatory testing:
12) hero is tested,
13)hero reacts to donor,
14) hero acquires magic agent or helper,
15) magic transfer to another world (by flying carpet, a magic potion--probably youths were drugged during the initiation ritual and thus "transported"),
e. The main test:
16) hero and villain fight,
17) hero is branded,
18) villain is defeated,
19) initial misfortune or lack is amended,
20) hero returns home,
f. Secondary complications and their resolution:
21) hero is pursued,
22) hero rescued from pursuit,
23) unrecognized arrival
24) false hero appears
25) hero presented with difficult task,
26) task completed,
27) hero recognized,
28) false hero exposed,
29) hero receives new appearance,
30) villain is punished,
g. Ending:
31) hero is married and lives happily ever after as a full-fledged member of society.
Because the motifs and story line found in the European fairytale descend from an ancient puberty rite, the tale always ends happily for the hero, who passes the initiation tests and becomes a full-fledged adult, is married and proceeds to live "happily ever after." Unlike myths, fairytales don't explain the nature of the world; instead, they serve as a model of the ideal quest for individual happiness: adult prosperity and marital tranquility.
Subsequent scholars have demonstrated that the seven basic roles (called dramatis personae), in the fairytale also evince a striking similarity across many diverse fairytales. These are: the hero, the princess and her father (who occupy one role and often act in unison), the villain, the magic agent or helper (which allows the hero to fulfill the quest and win the bride), the donor (personage who, willingly or unwittingly, provides the helper or magic agent), the dispatcher (a minor personage who sends the hero on the quest; often absent in the tale), and finally, the false hero (who tries to steal the reward by posing as the hero and is punished). All the action generated by these figures revolves around the hero in the form of the 31 possible functions described above. Actual people in any particular tale, can play more than one role (for instance the princess-bride might also be the helper; or the donor might be the helper too; or the princess and her father might also be the villain.On the next page is a chart showing the interactive balance between the personages of donor, helper, princess, and villain. I will explain this chart in class.