Propp Theory and Casablanca

Vladimir Propp is a formalist who developed an analysis for stories to find whether they are fairy tales or not. In order to obtain this theory he studied the narrative of folk tales and observed that they have similar characters and struggles. Because of these, in his theory, Propp says that all fairy tales must share some basic elements, which he called funtions and to be a fairy tale, a story must contain all of these and also they must be used orderly. At the same time, he says that there are seven roles in a fairy story and he describes them not with people’s name but with their duties in the fairy tale. In this situation, some people can still say that Michael Curtiz’s romantic melodram Casablanca which is about two men, a woman and their love triangle and how people’s lives were changed and ruined by Nazis in the duration of World War II, is a fairy tale and some of them say it cannot be a fairy tale. In this essay what I will clarify is that Casablanca is not a fairy tale according to Propp and his theory by making character analysis and examining where the function are used or not used.

First to understand whether Casablanca is a fairy tale or not the characte

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Nazis are looking for Laizlo for the reason that he is one of the most important leaders of the resistance against Germans. After they get on the plane Strasser came to stop them but Rick shoots and kills him. Before Laizlo comes to Casablanca with Ilsa, Ugarte gives Rick the letters, which allow two people to leave Casablanca without encountering any problems. At these times, Nazis receive news about Laizlo.

These are about the member of the hero’s family and the false hero. Nevertheless, containing some of funtions is not enough for a story to make it a fairy tale. Ilsa and Victor come to Casablanca and they go to the Rick’s café so the interdiction is violated and the hero sees his princess. Inspite of the fact that it seems a nummamorous man, who provides people exit visa by taking lots of money from them, actually it can be said that he is the donor of the film. The story does not include them so the others. This contains both the fifth and sixth functions, reconnaissance and delivery, because they are about to get information about the victim. Nevertheless, there are some other people in the theory whom cannot be seen in the film as the false hero or dispatcher. One of the important characters in the Casablanca is Richard Blaine, generally called Rick in the film, who is the hero of the film according to Propp’s theory. They go to the airport and Rick gives them the letters. So, victory becomes true and villain is destroyed and the task is resolve, the twentyeighth function.

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Approximate Word count = 1556
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

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