Soap Opera Genre – Propp’s Character Roles

Propp’s Narrative Functions

Name: Jack J ConnellCandidate Number: 1103Center Name: St. Andrew’s Catholic SchoolCenter Number: 64135

OCR Media Studies – A2 Level

Unit G324: Advanced Portfolio

Propp’s Character RolesTrailer 1 – Eastenders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upBV74yw7vg

The ‘villain’ In the ‘Eastenders’ trailer there is a scene in which a male antagonist (villain) confronts one of the male protagonists “No ones going to want to have anything to do with you.” This resulted in a brief struggle where the ‘villain’ was knocked to the ground resulting in a feeling of justice.

The ‘false hero’ The young male character ‘Bobby’ is made out to be innocent at the beginning of the trailer and then the audience are made aware that he is part of the issue when ‘Jane’ answers “Bobby” after being asked by ‘Phil’ who she was protecting.

The ‘hero’ The hero could be seen as ‘Danny’, one of the male protagonists as the trouble seems to stay clear of him throughout the trailer and he shows support for some of the characters experiencing issues in the trailer.

Propp’s Narrative Functions

Struggle: In the ‘EastEnders’ trailer there is an example of on of Propp's narrative functions which is the struggle between the hero and the villain in the form of a physical bout. This is sparked by the villain who gives the dialogue “No ones going to want to have anything to do with you”. The ‘hero’ then knocks the villain down in the brief event giving the audience a sense that there has been justice.

Trailer 1 – Eastenders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upBV74yw7vg

Punishment: ‘Jane’ could in some sense be seen as the ‘villain’ in this ‘Eastenders’ trailer as she is hiding who committed the murder. She gets a form of punishment as ‘Phil’ who could be seen as a ‘hero’ character as she is captured and held forcefully as ‘Phil’ attempts to get answers. This greatly adds drama to the trailer and is one of Propp’s narrative functions. This conforms to ‘men act women appear’ as the male is dominant and made out to be in control.

Reconnaissance: ‘Phil’ seeks information from ‘Jane’. He forcefully grabs her and makes her give him what he wants. The verbal code of diegetic dialogue “who are you protecting?” is delivered in an angry manner to which Jane gives in and responds with “Bobby”. This is the cliffhanger at the end of the trailer.

Propp’s Character RolesTrailer 2 – Coronation Street: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w51KhdDSeto

The ‘villain’ In this ‘Coronation Street’ trailer the young adult male antagonist that is in on the murder could be seen as the villain as he doesn’t appear to be phased by any of the issues like some of the other characters are.

The ‘princess’ One character in the trailer appears to fit in with the ‘princess’ character role. She seems to be quite high up in the hierarchy as there are two scenes in which she seems to have dominance over male characters.

Propp’s Narrative FunctionsTrailer 2 – Coronation Street: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w51KhdDSeto

Trickery: The ‘villain’ attempts to persuade one of the female characters that’s is also in on the murder to stop feeling worried and guilty. He does this by delivering the line “all you’ve got to do is just act like nothing happened” in a smug way like it’s a joke which deceives the female character.

Struggle: There is a scene in which a small fight breaks out between two female characters, it is not clear who has the upper hand in this event but it adds great drama to the trailer. Dialogue is exchanged between the two such as “if anyone’s a cheap tart it’s you!”. The characters briefly engage in conflict.

Reconnaissance: At the end of the trailer one of the female characters demands information from the two characters that are in on the murder that has taken place. The diegetic, forceful dialogue “I wanna know where he is” is anchored by the non-verbal code of a frustrated and serious facial expression which results in the other two characters looking guilty. The audience do not know if she was successful in gaining the information as this is where the trailer is left at a cliffhanger.