Generally, the women are put to death. Narrative ballads deal with other topics, but these are the main ones. It seems an essentially female worldview, where men are often dangerous and never heroes. This worldview is expressed through the representation of women's emblematic cases of lives. Most ballads deal with the variety of situations occurring in a relationship between a woman and a man, depicting different characters and different behaviors, and pointing out a wide range of possible events.
Family is often a third important element in the narrative, but has a minor role.
Female characters are above all young women, then wives or, quite seldom, mothers, and they may be depicted either as positive or negative characters. By dealing with this theme, ballads represent and interpret a wide range of events which happen or may happen in the world and describe different patterns of behavior. In this way, they express and communicate the women's perception of themselves, men, and the possible developments of their relations. The way ballads are narrated tends sometimes to stress the fantastic side of the stories, mentioning kings, princesses and castles. But ballads represent and interpret events which happen or may happen in the real world, helping one in picturing to oneself their dynamics and meaning .