Theories.

Vladimir Propp
Vladimir Propp believed that some narratives have certain character roles and functions. He studied the 1920's Russian folk tales and decided that the same events kept being repeated in each of them, which created a consistent framework. His main theories were that there were the following characters:

• The villain;
• The donor;
• The helper;
• The 'Princess';
• A sought-for person (and/or their father), who exists as another character's goal;
• False hero.

Tzvetan Torodov
Tzvetan's theory was that stories always start with an equilibrium where potentially opposing forces are balanced. This 'balance' is interrupted by a large, important event. There is a new equilibrium after the event.

Claude Levi-Strauss
His theory was that of binary opposites and Claude Levi-Strauss argued that things were easily understood when thought of as binary opposites. For example:

• Love v. hate
• Old v. young
• Good v. evil
• Dark v. light