Vladimir Propp was a Soviet formalist scholar, he studied narrative structure in Russian folk tales. He identified 31 different functions that follow the sequence after the initial situation is presented. Here the different functions can be found.
Propp also concluded that all the characters could be resolved into 8 broad character types in the 100 tales he analysed:

1. The villain — struggles against the hero.
2. The donor — prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.
3. The (magical) helper — helps the hero in the quest.
4. The princess or prize — the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. The hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating the villain.
5. Her father — gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father can not be clearly distinguished.
6. The dispatcher — character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.
7. The hero or victim/seeker hero — reacts to the donor, weds the princess.
8. False hero — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.

These roles could sometimes be distributed among various characters, as the hero kills the villain dragon, and the dragon's sisters take on the villainous role of chasing him. Conversely, one character could engage in acts as more than one role, as a father could send his son on the quest and give him a sword, acting as both dispatcher and donor. However, Propp has been criticised for removing all verbal aspects that differ in each tale during his analysis. This video, "Mr. Brightside" by The Killers, portrays some of what Propp has listed.