Structuralism Question 4

In class, we have been exploring Structuralism and applying it to our product. Our lecturer set us a number of questions to answer, applying them to our own moving image text.

The second question was:

Does your text use recognisable character types to help audiences understand the kind of experience they are going to get?

My text uses some examples of Vladimir Propp's theory of character types.

Propp argued that character types reoccur from narrative to narrative. To an extent, I agree with him as my video featured certain examples of these types. For example, all four male band members are protagonists, as they drive the narrative that focuses around their actions. The audience are encouraged to apply sympathies and liking towards them due to the large amount of camera time focused on them in the video. By keeping them visually accessible to the audience, it becomes hard for the reader of the text to watch the video and avoid mirroring the emotions or gaining an attachment to the protagonists. 

I also have a female antagonist character through Hazel, the only female featured in the video. She is characterised as the antagonist because she is the character that is cold and somewhat emotionless in comparison to the chaotic male protagonists. Her actions of enticing the males can portray her as a seductress or temptress, which in turn can be argued makes her an antagonist who causes the mayhem in the video.

Away from Propp's stated character types, the male protagonists are shown as young, somewhat 'dumb' teenage boys who are swayed and motivated by beauty. This characterises them as a stereotypical boy who wants to show off to the girls. This gives an indication to the audience that as soon as the female lead walks into the video, the boys will do anything to impress her, foreshadowing their foolish behaviour in a bid to win the girl.
It could be argued also that the female lead is very quirky and unique in appearance, showing her as a strong and confident individual. This hints at her disinterest in the male protagonist's attempts which could be something that young girls look up to.