ABSTRACT
Not only is narrative common to all cultures, but there is evidence that there are structural similarities between the tales, stories, and legends produced by different cultures. The narrative structure found in the folk-tales of one culture can recur in another, suggesting that there is something universal in the structure as well as in the function of narrative. Vladimir Propp (1975) analysed a group of Russian folk-tales in order to see if they shared common properties. What he found was that all of them, no matter how widely they differed in their surface details (characterization, setting, plots), shared certain important structural features. The most basic of these were the functions of various sets of characters and actions within the tales. First, he reduced the range of different characters to a maximum of eight character roles. These are not separate characters, since one character can occupy a number of roles or 'spheres of action' as Propp calls them and one role may be played by a number of different characters. They are:
1 the villain 2 the donor (provider) 3 the helper 4 the princess (or sought-for person) and her father 5 the dispatcher 6 the hero or victim 7 the false hero.
