The actant or actantial model
The actantial model is useful for analysing the conflict of a story.
It breaks down the plot into six actants:
• The subject (e.g. the prince)
• The object (e.g. the princess)
• The sender or instigator (e.g. the king)
• The receiver (e.g. the prince, the princess and the king)
• The helper (e.g. a magic sword)
• The opponent (e.g. a witch)
The same actant can be present in more than one position, and there can be more than one actant in one position.
In fairy tales, the actants are usually different characters in the story, whereas in other genres of literature actants will often be for instance abstracts such as personality traits of the protagonist. Often you can set up different actantial models with different characters as the subject.
Use the three axes of the diagram to analyse the plot:
• The project axis from the Subject to the Object
• The process axis from the Sender to the Receiver
• The conflict axis between the Helper and the Opponent
