Home
Artist
Educator
Scholar 

"A FABLE" - PLAY BY J.C.VAN ITALLIE
A STRCTURALIST VIEW FORM INSIDE

“When I write a play there's no single sure track to run on. It's different each time I start. Each time is starting from scratch, a reinvention of form. There may be easier ways to do it, but for me, that's how it is. There are no rules that always apply…. In a sense, each good new play is a new language….Usually I start with an image of some kind….Some people start with characters; with me, it's often a place. I'm very moved by space-the architecture of a space. Sometimes I can work from the idea of a space with characters in it. Sometimes I work from an abstract place, almost like a musical form. I did that in my play Interview, where you could practically map it out: AB, ABC, ABCD, AABCD, AABBCD, AABBCCD, etc.; it was more or less a fugal structure. I am turned on by that - I guess you could call it the "architectonic" approach.” “A Reinvention of Form Author(s): Jean-Claude van Itallie and Bill Simmer Source: The Drama Review: TDR, Vol. 21, No. 4, Playwrights and Playwriting Issue (Dec., 1977),

In some unusual way this statement made back in 1977 by Jean Claude van Itallie, describing his methodology and his writing process, seems to be expression of some essential issues concerning the theoretical discourse on the practice of contemporary drama. That is, it seems that it stands at the core of the contemporary theories of drama and theatre, which are concerned with the form and structure. How the work of art is given form and shape and how it is structured. Less with the content.

Since the topic of our discussion is Jean Claude’s “A fable telling about the journey” we shell focus our attention to and try to indentify the most important segments that bring together the theory and practice, and how by the same token they inform each other.

2 & 3
“A fable telling about the journey” was first performed in the summer of 1975, as a collaborative piece created by Open Theatre, with Joe Chaikin as a director.

Let’s for a moment focus on the idea of the reinvention of the form that Jean Claude talks about in his essay and the idea of the structure and structuralism.

Viktor Shklovski, who was one of the most prominent members of the influential school of literary criticism called Russian formalism, talking about new forms in literature says:
“New forms in arts are created by the canonization of subsidiary or auxiliary [substitute, proxy, alternate] forms. Pushkin grows out [stems] from the memoirs and sentimental poetry, Njekrasov from vaudeville, Block from gypsy ballads, Mayakovski from satire and comic poetry.”

What is that auxiliary form in Jean Claude’s play?

As we can see the auxiliary form that Jean Claude’s play “A Fable… ” stems from obviously is, as it’s title suggests, a fable [a fairy tale, a myth, a folk story]. Even a simple look at the play tells that it is created as a tale, told as a narrative story and having linear dramatic action. The characters, themes, and the story itself, grow out from the auxiliary form mentioned earlier. And most importantly its narrative structure resembles its auxiliary form - that is, the structure of a tale.

Fable as a pure narrative form, according to structuralists and particularly according its most prominent representative Vladimir Propp is one of the basic most important segments in structuralist analysis of a literary work.

Vladimir Propp was a Russian philologist and structuralist. He is considered to be one of the inventors of structuralism, - a literary theory which has become one of the major analytical methods in the humanities in the twentieth century. Roman Jakobson.

4.
Propp in his work analyzed the basic plot components – structural segments - of Russian folk-tales in order to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements. His research on fairy-tales was the first application of structuralism to the humanities and according to Terry Egalton created the foundation for new disciplines, such as narratology, semiology and structural anthropology. [Olshevski]

However it is important to be said that structuralism as a methodology is also seeking out basic deep segments elements in stories, tales, and myths, which are combined in various ways to produce the many versions of the ur-story or ur-myth. Basic archetypical myth. And most importantly these basic elements are meaning-bearing.

Propp, as a matter of fact extended the Russian Formalist approach to the study of narrative structure. In the Formalist approach, sentence structures were broken down into analyzable elements, or morphemes, and Propp used this method by analogy to analyze Russian fairy tales.

5.
In his book "Morphology of the Folk Tale" which was published in Russian in 1928, Vladimir Propp argued that fairy tales could be studied and compared by examining their most basic structural or plot- components.

He developed a methodology, an analysis that reduced fairy tales to a series of dramatic actions - performed by small number of “roles” which he called dramatis personae in each story. These dramatis personae are defined by the sphere of dramatic action, and they are constant.

Only the”Characters” who perform these roles are changeable. naum

No matter what is the story, every folk tale, according to Propp, has a hero, who confronts the villain [no matter what is the name of that villain – beast, monster, brute, witch,] - and that is always going to be a relation between the subject and the object.

6.
This idea of how important is the relation between the subject and the object was developed further on by A. J. Greimas.

Algirdas Julius Greimas A. J. Greimas in his Sémantique structurale (1966), finds Propp’s scheme too empirical, and introduces the concept of an actant or actantial model. Actant is neither a specific narrative nor a character but a structural unit. The six actants of Subject and Object, Sender and Receiver, Helper and Opponent can include/subsume Propp’s various spheres of action and make for an even more elegant simplicity.

His concept of actantial model and the scheme is almost identical to Propp.
and to Ethiene Surriox and his dramtic functions. Saussure

Propp considered morphology to be a principle of forms [he called it doctrine], of relations between the parts and the whole: i.e. a doctrine about structure. (Propp, Morphology of the Folktale, p. 5).

Accordingly, in his research Propp separated variable and constant elements in different fairy-tales, seeking a wonderful uniformity in the labyrinth of multiplicity. (Propp, Morphology of the Folktale, p. 14).

In other words, like the formalists he was less interested in the matter than in the structure of the narrative, trying to establish a stable setting in the relation between parts and whole in a totality of tales.

His successors such as Roland Barthes, A. J. Greimas and Claude Lévi-Strauss, Ronald Barthes, tried to spread this method and resolve similar tasks, looking for the narrative elements in all contemporary culture: "from newspaper chronicle to mass novel" (Barthes, Mythologies, 1957), to the semantics of any type of narrative text (Greimas, Sémantique structurale: Recherche de méthode, 1966) and analysis of primitive peoples and their elementary structures of kinship (Lévi-Strauss, Les Structures élémentaires de la parenté, 1949). Although Propp's investigations may appear rather limited (from Russian fairy-tales to agrarian holidays), his method became significant for a wide range of disciplines and occasioned a methodological turning point in the humanities.

By breaking down a large number of Russian folk tales into their smallest narrative units, or narratemes, Propp was able to arrive at a typology of narrative structures.

Propp considered characters, as variable elements, unimportant for his research. According to the first principle of Propp's morphology, "the constant element of the fairy-tale is a function, independently of who realizes it" (Morphology of the Folktale, p. 25).

7. & 8.
As we said Propp concluded that there were 31 generic functions [narratemes] in the Russian folk tale. While not all of them present in a single folk tale, he found that all the tales he had analyzed displayed the functions in consistent sequence.

1. One of the members of a family absents himself from home.
2. An interdiction is addressed to the hero.
3. The interdiction is violated.
4. The villain makes an attempt at reconnaissance.
5. The villain receives information about his victim.
6. The villain attempts to deceive his victim in order to take possession of him or his belongings.
7. The victim submits to deception and thereby unwittingly helps his enemy.
8. The villain causes harm or injury to a member of a family or,
8a.One member of a family either lacks something or desires to have something.
9. Misfortune is made known; the hero is approached with a request/command and allowed to go or dispatched.
10. The seeker agrees to or decides upon counteraction.
11. The hero leaves home.
12. The hero is tested, interrogated, attacked, that prepares the way for his receiving a magical helper.
13. The hero reacts to the actions of the future donor.
14. The hero acquires the use of a magical agent.
15. The hero is transferred, delivered, or led to the whereabouts of an object of search.
16. The hero and the villain join in direct combat.
17. The Hero is branded.
18. The villain is defeated.
19. The initial misfortune or lack is liquidated.
20. The hero returns
21. The hero is pursued.
22. Rescue of the hero from pursuit.
23. The hero, unrecognized, arrives home or in another country.
24. A false hero presents unfounded claims.
25. A difficult task is proposed to the hero.
26. The task is resolved.
27. The hero is recognized.
28. The false hero or villain is exposed.
29. The hero is given a new appearance.
30. The villain is punished.
31. The hero is married and ascends the throne.

According to Propp, a cohesive story can be formed by connecting a series of any set of these thirty-one functions in some order. [brown]

9.
Dramatis Personae:
Villain
Donor [Provider]
Helper
Sought for person [Princess]
Sender / Dispatcher [ Princess’ Father – The King]
Hero
False or Fake Hero

10.
Greimas actants
Subject - hero
Object – sought perosn,princess
Adresant – sender, the king
Adresat – reciever, hero
Helper – giver
Enemy – villain contender, false hero.

However, attempted Proppian analyses of several tales reveal that his claim of a uniform plot progression does not hold. Propp’s analysis also fails to recognize the importance of such story components as tone, mood, characterization, and writing style just to name a few.

Many theories of contemporary theatre, drama, and literature - and structuralism among them in particular - have shown that there is a close connection between a fairy tale, fable and a dramatic work of art. That connection very often has the same semantic foundation, and that is that drive, that desire which on a level of the dramatic action, over and over, reveals itself in a form of practical and mythical exploration, a journey and in search for someone or something.

11.
Title
According to the structuralist methodology, and according ot Propp, looking at the relations between the parts and the whole: that is utilizing “a doctrine about structure and looking at all the narrative segments which constitute a literary work’ and trying to articulate the relation between parts and whole in a totality of tales is very important.

In that sense the title itself, “A Fable telling about the journey” suggests, as an essential segment of the whole - the play in its totality - how this play is structured.

As it was pointed out a fairy tale is that subsidiary or auxiliary form, which “A Fable…” incorporates in its structure.

Is it intentional or not? Is that a conscious choice or not? Is it matter of creative intuition, only?

Is this an example of a playwriting which follows a theoretical model, or it is just playwrights creative intuition that founds fertile ground in fables, tales?

As we know the word Fable – tale, story, myth - The word "fable" comes from the Latin "fabula" (a "story"), itself derived from "fari" ("to speak").

A fable is a concise story, in prose or verse, that features animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized (given human qualities), and that illustrates a moral lesson (a "moral"), which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim.

A narrative: a message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events; presented in writing or drama or cinema or as a radio.

Fairy tale is: a story (as for children) involving fantastic forces and beings (as fairies, wizards, and goblins) —called also fairy story b: a story in which improbable events lead to a happy ending

That title also reveals that the piece has narrative structure, and unfolds a fantastic and magic world, where everything is possible. The title also suggests the time and the place of the dramatic action.

The second part of the title reveals another important segment.
“…telling about the journey” clearly suggests what kind of action will be undertaken in the play and where that action will happen. The word “journey” also suggests visiting many different places, a continuity of different places.

And as a result, from the title we can read that the journey as well reveals the realm of dramatic action. What is going to happen!

Since a journey, journeying (as an act of traveling from one place to another) and as it is defined by fairy tales, very often signifies a search, a search for the princess, a search for the dragon, monster, brute, a hero who is searching for the abducted girl, it is clear then that in the title we can discover a specific action – a function according to Propp - of the dramatis personae [characters] in a given situation.

On the other hand the title “A Fable…” reveals as well a connection between J.C. van Itallie’s play and the auxiliary form the fairy tale [a fable].

As mentioned earlier, dramatic works and fairy tales very often have the same semantic foundation, and that foundation is that drive, that desire, which on a level of the dramatic action, over and over reveals itself in a form of practical and mythical exploration, a search for something, or someone.

And discovering these segments at the very beginning, at the first encounter with the play, with its title, one can as well see the initial elements of its narrative structure that "architectonic" approach” that J.C. van Itallie is talking about in his interview.

12.
Theme
The title as well reveals a lot about the central theme of the play.
The theme also defines the structure. As it is said the “semantic foundation”, the practical and mythical search for something, that we just mentioned, in the case of “A Fable” manifests journeyer’s desire to find and destroy the evil so “the golden time”, the good – the ideal harmony - can be restored. The same as in a fairy tale, this segment - the theme, our human struggle to destroy the evil and to restore the good in the world - is present in every situation. Its presence is repeated and intensified continuously throughout the play.

The person who journeys, the carrier of the desire – usually is in the fairy tales is the prince, the unknown hero. It is he, a man.
However, in Chaikin’s production, and ever since the journeyer is a women – she.

The journeyer is the person - the hero - who searches for the beast – and one who does over and over the same thing – searches – from one place to another, from one situation to another.

13.
Space/Place and Time
Time and space are very important almost essential segments of any literary discourse. That is true for the dramatic works of art as well.

In that light let us see now their place and meaning in relation to the dramatic structure and to the fairy tale form of “A fable...’

As it was pointed out the word “journey ” – as an act of traveling from one place to another - suggests visiting many different places, a continuity of different places.

The dramatic action in “A Fable…” takes place also in many different places. On different levels. What we see in the play is a kind of a plurality of particular unique spaces/places. But that plurality of spaces/places is not articulated and defined by a clear precise, historic, geographic, political, cultural references.

It is just a theatre/theatrical space. The space is defined by the dramatic action. Everything takes place in and is present only within that given theatrical space.

On this semantic level that means that the theatre space, that micro-cosmos, becomes unifying principle, a basic measurement of justification of all the segments that may be, or should be a part of the dramatic discourse. In this way the space elevates itself on the level of content. It does not define it, but it is complementary to the content.

That kind of an open, undefined space we see in “A Fable...”As in any fairy tale, it is simply a place, a village, a kingdom. In “A Fable…” for example we have “A Village of People Who Fish in the Lake”, and that is all, nothing else. Later on we discover The King’s Palace, the Market Place, Woods, and so on, but they are all very general descriptions of the places or the spaces. No clear geographical description or definition of the space is provided. Everything is in general terms.

The space is always invented. It is created space, it is fictional, a product of the imagination. As in any fairy tale that is a fantastic, a thrilling, a magic space where unbelievable things happen, where everything is possible. In that way that space tends to become an ideal space – a space world.

14.
Time
In the same context we can address the idea and the presence of time in “A Fable”. And we can say almost the same about the time. It is not clearly defined. It is just simply a theatrical time. It exits independently, it is not identified, nor historically articulated or framed in a certain time period. The time is defined and articulated but the dramatic action. That is, the time is identified and recognized by the framework provided by the auxiliary form - the fairy tale. That is, the time in “A Fable…” is described as it is described in any the fairy tale: “Once upon a time…” etc.

It is not relevant when the tale, the fable happens. And by implication that time is open and it may be yesterday, today, now, or tomorrow. Whenever. And that openness makes “the time” to be seen in a broader context as a totality of time. However, it is always a theatrical, a stage/space time, within which a certain dramatic action takes place.

15.
The set and the costumes
As we know plays, dramatic works of art, are not written for reading but to be seen on stage in a given time and space, many critics see them as a pretext for a new theatrical entity – performance. As result two very important visual segments – the [set design] stage props and the costumes – are important to our discussion and need our analytical and critical attention.

Set design which defines the visual aspect of the space in many ways is described and defined in similar general terms as the theatre space itself is defined. Consequently, as a result of that general open-ended space, the set is reduced to its basics. Set directions do not provide clearly described set props….

“The physical production is simple. It looks as if it could be carried around by a troupe of traveling performers. Upstage Center is a high “box” made of scaffolding. Its sides are curtained with brown burlap. There is a similarly made box Downstage Right. It is lower than the other and has a small platform in front of it. Stage Left is an area for the musicians, and next to them a singing area for the actors. A wire is stretched across the front of the stage from the musicians to the box on the Right. From it hang several panels of burlap: the “curtain.” There are some portable units which are moved by the actors between scenes: two three-tiered sets of steps, a smaller two-step unit, and a couple of stools.”
Whatever is seen on the stage can be seen as many different locations: “Upstage center is a high “box’ mad of scaffolding.” Can be King’s court but it can be his throne as well… then there are platforms, curtains and so on.

All these elements have one color pallet, shades of color of wood, of earth, soil.

However, the visual aspect of the space in many ways is described and defined by the titles and announcements in the play.

In that way, in addition to describing the decorum, the visual segments include the audience. The audience using its rich imagination becomes an active participant co-creator of the work and that specific image of the world.

In a similar way we can talk about the costumes. They also are not defined neither by time, nor by space, nor by history or culture.

“The costumes are well worn and part of the everyday wear of the performers. The materials are cotton and soft; the cut has no particular ethnic suggestion1 the colors are earth colors. A particular piece of clothing will be used sometimes for a particular scene: a black top for the Ghost, a green top for the Hermit.

The lighting is mostly white and doesn’t change much.
Singing is done by the actors who also occasionally play a musical instrument. Music will sometimes accompany or punctuate the action and words.”

Necessary Perosnal Costume Pieces
Two green watchcaps (for use in Marketplace and Hermit scene)
A simple dark kerchief, easily put on, for Grandmother
A small ragdoll for Hanging person
Simple undyed cloth mask for Hermit with two eyeholes only

All these segments seen in its totality together suggest one global image of the world. That is a world of the poor, of the deprived, oppressed, diseases disintegration, world dominated ruled by evil and greed, world reduced to its basics, a collapsing world in a struggle to survive.

However no matter that this dark environment, reduced to its basics, is not exactly what the traditional fairy tale is, the traditional fairy tale is visually more rich, more colorful, “A fable..” according to its spatial and visual segments, by all the other segments incorporated in its structure, is a dramatic work of art shaped and structured according to the rules and requirements that a fairy tale prescribes.

Structure
“Every play is a structural object par excellence. It is built on pre-existing principles, on a structural format [a scheme] - that can be freely and easily chosen from the pool of already existing clichés. The plot of the play can be identical with the story and can be indentified as a “linear structure”. In that sense, the structure is easily discovered, seen, and therefore easily articulated. When there is a dramatic action such as in a fable/tale for example, then the description of the action, the story, unravels its folk tale or fable like structure.
Structuring a dramatic work of art as a folk tale fable, is at the same time one of the basic ways and forms of structuring in theatre.” Mirjana Miocinovic

According to the statement above and V. Propp’s research of Russian folk tales, we can easily indentify the structure of a folk tale in J.C Van Itallie’s play. “A Fable telling about the journey”, is built on these principles, and it has a form and a structure of a folk tale.

Let’s look at how the narrative evolves throughout a dramatic text.

The actors are in the first row of the audience in seats to which they will sometimes return. The play begins when the actors rise and go to the singing area.
An interdiction is addressed to the hero.
The initial situation: The play begins in a village where people fish on a lake. The lake dries out and their existence is in jeopardy. The people in the village dream of the golden time. They chose a person, a journeyer – a woman in the production - to go and to look for help, to “find out what went wrong”. So, from the very beginning, “A Fable…” follows its own paradigm – fable. The fairy tale is a model – that is, a combination of functions structured as suggested by Propp.

One of the members of a family absents himself from home.
The journeyer leaves the village. The narrative turns into action.

The villain causes harm or injury to a member of a family or: one member of a family either lacks something or desires to have something.
At the door of the kingdom, she realizes that the kingdom is infected and it is falling apart.

An interdiction is addressed to the hero.
The king tells her of the plague, and presents her with another task:
to find the beast [the villain] and to destroy it, so that the golden times can once again come to the village.

The hero agrees accepts the task and to take action or decides upon counteraction.
The woman-traveler accepts the task and embarks on her journey.

Departure: The hero leaves home.
The journeyer leaves the kingdom. At that moment, the action intensifies.

The hero is tested, interrogated, attacked, etc., which prepares the way for his receiving either a magical agent or helper

On her journey, the journeyer meets a person who is hiding and she asks for help.

The person hiding under the stone tells her of all things that is beasts, and in all the forms zand shapes which it takes and exists. The journeyer, continues on her journey. She looks everywhere, but she does not find it in neither a puppet show, nor on the market where things are being bought and sold.

The hero and the villain join in direct combat
Totally distraught, the journeyer runs away and runs into a beast in the form of a tree. Trying to destroy the beast, she cuts the whole tree. The beast had escaped.

The hero is tested, interrogated, attacked, etc., which prepares the way for his receiving either a magical agent or helper

The journeyer continues her journey and search for the beast. She visits an island that is better than the golden times, runs into a person who is trying to hang herself, but she does not find the beast. She meets a Dreamer who never wakes up. From his dreams she learns about the many transformations and shapes that the beast has. The journeyer realizes that she cannot do anything at that moment.

A fugitive comes up to her and tells her that they have killed the King because the beast was in him. The journeyer, knowing that the beast is not only in the King, but that it has many forms and variations, decides to continue the journey looking for the beast. The journey continues. Now the journeyer continues her journey with the fugitive, but she does not find the beast.

The hero returns
After a long journey, [not having found the beast] the journeyer returns home. The village is destroyed. Everyone is dead. The ghost tells her the story of the destruction of the village. The journeyer buries her bones at the floor of the lake, and continues her journey. Wandering, she comes to the forest, to the hermit. She decides to live with him.

The hero, unrecognized, arrives home or in another country
The journeyer leaves the Hermit form the woods with no roads and returns home, to the city where only a few people are left. She finds her own grandmother there, who is 406 years old. She seeks her help in finding the beast. Her grandmother wants to help her, but she dies. The journeyer remains alone in the chaos of the world to find and kill the beast.

Will she succeed?

ANNOUNCEMENT: The Last Scene of the Play
(The last scene is a dance. The journeyor, still standing on the step, moves in rhythm and repeats the words “And then.”…

The whole performance rolls all over again. As sharp short flashbacks.

…Three women are left: the woman with the rag doll at her waist and wearing the net, the journeyor portraying the grandmother with her pot, and in the middle of them the 7-langing Person. Each dances in her fashion. The other two leave the Hanging Person alone on the stage. She still has the jump rope around her neck. She dances a fierce dance of exuberance and joy. Then she dances off.

Dramatis personae in Fable
The other important segment in Propp’s methodology, is the concepts of Dramatis personae. “dramatic spheres” In his analysis Propp reduced folk tales to a series of dramatic actions –- they are performed by the by small number of “roles” which he called dramatis personae in each story. These dramatis personae are defined by the sphere of dramatic action, and they are constant.

And this is how that concept looks in van Itallie’s play.

Dramatis Personae:
Hero
Sought for person
Donor / Provider
Sender / Dispatcher

Helper
Villain
False or fake hero Greimas actants
Subject
Object
Adresant

Adresat
Helper
Villain - Enemy – False Hero
Fairy tale
Hero
Princess
King
Princess’ father / The King
Hero’s friend

Contender
Journeyer
Golden time
Villagers
King
Journeyer
Hermit, Person who hides etc.
Beast, Tree,

The spheres of dramatic action can be graphically present in this way;

Adresant [A1] : Villagers/King = Subject [S] Journeyer = Adresant [A2] Villagers/King

Helper [P] Hermit, ghost, grandma = Object [O] Golden time =Villain [V] Beast

The journeyer is a central character a hero – typical model and pattern in any fable.

The journeyer is a woman in Joe’s production while it is usually man in fables.

However this character does not change its the sphere of dramatic action, or actantial role. According to Greimas concept of actants.

However, the specific characteristic of our hero [subject] are not provided. She is as any other segment - Dramatis personae - reduced to the bare sign. She does not have a name or biography. There are no cultural or historic religious references. There is only one implicit – social reference – she is poor. She is not defined by any other sign. She acts in this given theatre space and time. She is not defined by the costume or by any other visual code. She exists as a vehicle as of the dramatic action – she is just one of the major spheres of dramatic action. She and her dreams nightmares, desires, fears, hopes, are defined and articulated by her sphere of action, by the situation, and the dramatic function. The is in that way just one of many signs, a code, that functions within the dramatic structure – “A fable telling about the journey” – In that way she is a part of the bigger picture – metaphor – that goes from typical – to particular- to universal [general]. In that way, on that linear scale – the particular – is built upon the structure of a folk tale and typical characteristics of the characters of a folk tale, while the universal is that other part/side of the character which is elevated to a level of archetypical: a hero, one who fights for freedom and justice, one who is searching for truth, who defends the weak and the oppressed. Usually the hero comes from nowhere, and he is a alone.

It is clear that the journeyer is a consequent actant / a role which functions along the lines provided in folk tales.

The Beast - Villain – Enemy. Usually in the folk tales the villain is – a dragon, a witch, a monster, a brute, etc. Although the villain is not personalized in this play its presence is very important segment of the structure. As it is in any fairy tale. As an actant, dramatis personae, the villain has double role in “A fable..” The beast is both the Sought for person [Propp] and Object [Greimas] and Villain [Propp] - Enemy– Villain - Opponent - Contender [Greimas]. The beast is one of the two most important segments on the axis subject – object.

The fact that the beats is not physically present in the play does not affect the development of the action and the story. In this case the beats is present through the helpers who inform about what the beast is or is not and where the beast is or not. The other characters define and articulate the beast, and set its boundaries. In that way the best mutates and takes different shapes and forms. In so doing the beast becomes a destructive force that mutates and has a many faces. It is built on the plurality of particular forms of evil. In that way the beast – that ever shifting evil – becomes as well as an archetypical sign for evil. A code that needs to be deciphered.

We can discover similar things about the other characters as well. They can be easily recognized in a any fairy tale, and they are segments that are modeled as significant segments of a fairy tale structure.

The location of the action is not a simple one, instead those are different spaces, ever-changing, a plethora of locations, places that the protagonist visits on his way to the villain. But since the plethora of locations also represents/means the location-world, the location of the action of the play can also be understood as the world in its globality. The situations in which the action takes place are also different and changing, but they are influenced by the surroundings in which the actions take place. However, on the general/basic plan, the situation can be looked at simply as the dissolution or breakup of the village, or more broadly/generally, humanity (cocanstva) in a whole. which boldly reduced all folk tales to seven ‘spheres of action’ and thirty-one fixed elements or ‘functions’. Any individual folk tale merely combined these ‘spheres of action’ (the hero, the helper, the villain, the person sought-for and so on) in specific ways.

As tried to explain Propp believed that all fairy tales were constructed of certain stuctural segments, which he called functions, and that these segments consistently occurred in a uniform sequence and they encompassed all of the plot components from which fairy tales were constructed.

At the end we have to strees that many segemnts that we disciover in Propp's theory, his character types dramatis personae and the functions, can be seed used in media education and/or can be applied to almost any film or television series such as Star Wars, The Lord of the Ring.