Vladimir Propp's Stock Characters

Vladimir Propp's Stock Characters:
Vladimir Propp's was a Russian Scholar who believe that every story has 8 stock characters. These are:

The Villain - This is clearly the bad guy in the story who directly struggles with the hero, the Villain directly tries to prevent the hero from achieving the goal or quest. Due the the Villain being evil it contrasts between them and the hero.

The Princess - The Princess may be the reward for completing the quest usually marrying the Hero for saving her from the Villain.

The Princesses Father - The Princesses Father is a key figure for the hero to persuade as the Father is usually protective over his daughter.

The Dispatcher - The character who sets the Hero on the mission. It can also be the Princess Father to set the quests to be completed before gaining the Princess hand in marriage.


The (magical) Helper - Supports the Hero on his quest, often magical who appears at critical moments to help the hero get past obstacles and achieve his goals. 

The Donor - The Donor is the person who gives the hero something to help him on his quest usually a magical item.

The Hero - In every story there is a hero who saves the day and and gets the Princess, they are usually portrayed as strong and confident.
The False Hero - A potential complication within the plot they appear to act heroically and may even be initially mistaken for the real Hero. The False Hero tries to take the credit for what the Hero has done and try to marry the Princess instead.

Vladimir Propp’s Stock characters linking with the soap opera EastEnders;

The Hero; Peter Beale – After hearing about the death of his twin sister Lucy he begins to seek comfort in his ex-girlfriend and Lucy’s best friend Lauren Branning and pushes his girlfriend Lola away. After seeking comfort Peter expresses his worries about not being able to get Ian through this hard time after Lauren tell him Ian loves him Peter kisses her but later apologises and says it was a mistake. Still carrying on with their investigation Peter goes out and starts asking questions on the wrong side of London. Coming home with cuts and bruises Lauren says she will help him try and find the cab driver.

The Helper; Lauren Branning – When Lucy’s body is found Lauren is devastated, she leans on Peter for support, she is then tempted to start drinking again after her alcohol problems but Cora he grandmother talks her out of it. Determined to help Peter who she secretly has feelings for find the cab driver who brought Lucy and Jake home the night of Lucy’s murder.

The Villain; Michael Moon – He was involved in criminal activity for example: Investment fraud in April 2012 when he used Jean Slater and Alfie Moons savings to invest into his gym which he then later spends on his wedding to Janine Butcher. Michael Moon is labelled as a competitive and manipulative risk-taker. He is known as a charmer in ladies eyes especially in the eyes of Alice Branning a young girl who fell for Michael’s charm which all began when Michael hires Alice to be the babysitter of his daughter Scarlett Moon. When Janine returns she was sole custody of Scarlett and refuses Michael to see his daughter. Alice later get wrapped up in Michaels little game at trying to see and get his daughter back from Janine. Alice tries to leave Michael and wants nothing to do with him until he kisses her and they have sex, the next day he tells Alice he doesn’t love her and their fling meant nothing to him deeply hurting Alice.

The False Hero; Lauren Branning – Trying to create a close relationship with Peter and trying to push Lola (Peter’s girlfriend) out of the picture, this is then succeeds when Lola goes to the press and leaks information out about Lucy and gains £300, Peter and Lola fight which put Peter in an even worse position. After the fall out Lauren comforts Peter and they share a kiss. Peter feels bad for cheating on Lola and leaves but it is obvious Lauren still has feelings for him.

The Donor; Testimony about cab driver given to Peter Beale and Lauren Branning which is the start of their own private investigation. This was discovered when Jake tells Lauren on the night of their meet up about the cab driver in order to clear his name by saying he was too drunk to cause anyone any pain apart from himself. He claims he woke up in his flat the next morning not remembering much from that night, once officers found traces Lucy had been there did everyone think it was him until when Lauren went to see him and believed he was innocent. This started the quest to find the real killer of Lucy Beale.

The Princess; Lucy Beale – Whose body was found lifeless on the 18^th April 2014 on
Walford Common, Lucy has a secret fling with Lauren’s father Max Branning as well as Lee Carter. Lucy’s and Lees relationship causes tension between Lucy and Max, then during a fight in the car lot lucy is pushed to the ground injuringher head. Later on Cindy becomes jealous of Lucy being the apple of Ian’s eye and tells them to open her jewellery box which they find cocaine in. When Ian confronts Lucy he tell her she was the child he was most proud of and Peter her twin brother over hears this a storms off.  After all of this the next morning Lucy’s body was found on Walford Common by a young girl and her grandfather.

The Princesses Father; Ian Beale – Ian was asked to identify his daughters body once she had been found, sharing the devastating news with Jane, Denise, Cindy, Bobby and lastly Peter. He is now struggling with his grief so Jane takes Bobby away for a little while so he doesn’t have to see his dad in this pain. Ian seeks comfort in his friend Sharon and Phil when he is told her body is released for burial, he wants the funeral as soon as possible where he then discovers the fling between Lucy and Max where he attacks Max as he carried Lucy’s coffin into the church.