In this thesis, I provide a comparative analysis of L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the 1939 film adaptation The Wizard of Oz from the perspective of the formalist theory of narrative morphology proposed by Vladimir Propp. I provide a brief background on Propp’s theory, mainly the functions of the dramatis personae he proposes construct tales, the seven character types he determines, and the series of functions he terms “moves,” which connect within a tale, forming either a single-move tale or a multiple-move tale. I use these elements of his theory to analyse both the novel and the film. I first analyse The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in terms of Propp’s functions of the dramatis personae to determine which and how many occur in the novel; I also look into how many moves they connect within the fairy tale, and which dramatis personae or character roles perform these functions. I propose there are two antagonists in both versions of the tale and then discuss which of them assumes the role of the villain in part of the film analysis. I determine the scope of analysis in The Wizard of Oz and then comparatively analyse the film through Propp’s theory. I compare the morphological structure of both the novel and the film and discuss the differences in structure that occurred due to the adaptation of the novel into a film.
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