Star Wars: Where Science Fiction meets Fairy Tales

In 1977 a young director by the name of George Lucas completed his second major film project. The project was Star Wars and it debuted to considerable success. Despite being a stand-alone film Lucas went on to produce two sequels and three prequels. The entire series was a commercial success and spawned an expanded universe larger than any other franchise. However, the story of Star Wars: A New Hope, as it was called after the creation of The Empire Strikes Back, is not new. In fact, it follows many guidelines established centuries before in European mythology. Although the most commonly referenced work is the tale of King Arthur, Star Wars can be identified as a fairy tale based on the morphology outlined by Vladimir Propp. According to Theory and History of Folklore, Propp was a Russian and Soviet formalist scholar who analyzed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements (Propp). By applying Propp's thirty-one function outline one understands that Star Wars is a modern science fiction fairy tale.

The tale of Star Wars, based on Propp's morphology, can be divided into three sections. The first section begins with Absentation and ends with Departure.

Luke, the main character of the Star Wars sequels, is introduced to be a lowly moisture farmer's nephew on the desert planet of Tatooine. He dreams of being a starfighter pilot rather than a farmer, but his aunt and uncle forbid him from leaving the planet. When Luke looses one of his uncle's recently purchased droids he goes off in search of it not knowing that his fate has been decided. This plot fits perfectly with the idea of Absentation because Luke is an ordinary person, there is tension in the family unit, and ...

... middle of paper ...

...orrupted by the Emperor. Punishment is swift when Darth Vader is strengthened by Luke’s cries for help, fights the corruption of the Emperor, destroys him and punishes the ultimate enemy. Lastly, Wedding is assumed when Luke tells Leia that he and she are siblings making Leia able to marry her love, Han Solo. Thus, Propp’s morphology of the fairy tale is fit, albeit foroging one of his tenants that the functions must be in order. Despite this, Star Wars: A New Hope is a science fiction fairy tale in terms of this morphology.

Works Cited

Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the Folk Tale. University of Texas Press, 1968.

Propp, Vladimir. "Introduction." Theory and History of Folklore. Ed. Anatoly Liberman. University of Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1984.

Kurtz, Gary, Prod. Star Wars. Dir. George Lucas." Perf. Hamill, Mark. 20th Century fox: 1977, Film.