Copyright 2011 by Gary L. Pullman
Gustav Freytag analyzed the structure of ancient Greek and Shakespearean plays, dividing them into five acts: the exposition, which provides background information such as the identities of the protagonist, the antagonist, and other supporting characters, the setting, and the basic conflict; the rising action, which, set into motion by an inciting moment, complicates the basic conflict; a turning point, or climax, which reverses the direction of the plot so that the story ultimately becomes either a comedy or a tragedy; the falling action, which unravels the conflict and may or may not end in a moment of final suspense during which the story's outcome becomes a matter of doubt; and either a resolution, or denouement (comedy) or a catastrophe (tragedy).
Writers can learn a lot about how to plot a story by using Freytag's analysis to chart the course both of famous stories and of their own stories in progress. A diagram, known as "Freytag's Pyramid," facilitates such analyses. Here, for example, are how a number of famous stories might be analyzed according to Freytag's Pyramid:
Writers can learn a lot about how to plot a story by using Freytag's analysis to chart the course both of famous stories and of their own stories in progress. A diagram, known as "Freytag's Pyramid," facilitates such analyses. Here, for example, are how a number of famous stories might be analyzed according to Freytag's Pyramid:
Carrie by Stephen King
Halloween, directed by John Carpenter
King Kong, directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack
Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Tombstone, directed by George P. Cosmatos
The Wizard of Oz, directed by Victor Fleming
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
My Fair Lady, directed by George Cukor
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