Character Types

For Mrs Francis, we were told to search for a British Film and write about the types of characters that appeared in the film.

Theorist Valdimir Propp looked at the characters in stories, and stated there were eight basic characters in the traditional narrative that we can transpose to film.

According to Propp, the characters are:

• The hero - the seeker, the major protagonist
  
• The false hero - tries to trick the hero or audience
  
• The donor - helps the hero with extra information
• The princess - the prize and possibly the victim or target of the villain
• The father - gives out an award at the end of the quest
• The helper - gives the hero information to help them complete the task
• The dispatcher - sends the hero out on his quest

When put into pairs, we were not sure which film to choose at first, as there are so many to choose from. We looked on a website for a list of British Films, and chose The Golden Compass, as this has a big cast therefore we were sure that we could find one character for each one of Propp's characters.

The Golden Compass

• The Hero - Lyra, as she seeks to begin an amazing adventure in a battle to save her friend, and other missing children.
• The False Hero - Mrs Coulter and the Jordan's vice-chancellor secretly give Lyra a magic golden compass capable of revealing the truth. When Lyra finds out that Mrs Coulter is the leader of the Gobblers, she escapes from her house.
• The Donor - With the help of Lorek Byrnison, Lyra goes ahead of the Gyptians to a village, where she finds Tony Makarios and learns that the Gobblers are cutting children's demons away from them.
• The Princess - Roger Parslow, the Jordan College kitchen boy, who is Lyra's good friend and playmate. Lyra believes he has been stolen by the Gobblers.
• Billy Costa - Ma Costa's son, who appears to have been taken by the Gobblers.
• The Father - We could not find such a character.
• The Helper - Master of Jordan, the ranking scholar of Jordan College, who feels responsible for raising and protecting Lyra.
• The Dispatcher - no one, Lyra goes herself to find her friends and is not sent by anyone.

I enjoyed this task very much, as it was interesting to see how Propp's theory is actually true, and i will certainly not be watching another film without looking out for each of these character types!