The Effect of Transformation on Changing the Role of Characters in the Selection of Folk Tales

Transformation in fictional narratives is referred to the essential changes of human or inhuman characters by a supernatural force. The present article is intended to examine this essential transformation of the characters of folk tales in the context of Claude Bremond's narrative theory. In classifying the role of the character in the narrative, Claude Bremond proposed the "Agent" and the "Patient" characters based on the extension of Levi-Strauss's "Binary Oppositions" theory of "Actant" characters. The agent has an active, effective, and dynamic role in the story, and on the other hand, the patient is passive and impressible. The present study seeks to answer the question: according to Bremond's theory, how the transformation in folk tales can lead to change in the function of the character and consequently, the status and role of the character in the story, from agent to patient and vice versa? This study, through referring to the library sources and by descriptive-analytical methods, in four specific folktales as the case studies, intends to conclude that transformation causes the main and sub characters, to create new actions or be affected by the new ones, after the transubstantiation. And as a result, they change from an agent to a patient or vice versa.