copyright 2013 by Gary L. Pullman
Horror fiction, like all
other genres of literature, popular and otherwise, is concerned with
the following questions”
Literary critic Kenneth
Burke's analysis of dramatic structure, known as dramatism,
identifies a “pentad” of rhetorical elements that underlies all
drama and narrative:
- Who?, which is associated with the agent, or the doer of the deed
- What?, which links to the act, or deed, and is expressed by an action verb
- When? and Where?, which refers to the setting in which the deed is done
- How?, which alludes to the agency, or method, by which the deed was done
- Why?, which explains the purpose (or the cause or the motive) for which the deed was done
These questions are
recursive; they recur, as the writer works his or her way through the
development of the narrative, and they may be related to the
protagonist, the antagonist, or to any other characters; to various
deeds; to different settings; to a variety of methods; and even to
more than one purpose—or cause or motive. In fact, it is a good
idea to develop a storyline from the points of view of as many
relevant characters as possible, which would typically include, as a
minimum, both the protagonist and his o her adversary, the antagonist
(often, in horror fiction, the monster), bearing in mind that each of
the elements of agent, act, setting, agency, and purpose.
Using Gustav Freytag's analysis of classic and Shakespearean drama, which divides a play
into five acts, a writer can structure his or her narrative so that
each part introduces or develops Burke's rhetorical elements.
Act I, the exposition,
provides the background information that the audience (or reader)
needs to know in order to understand the story as a whole. Typically,
as a minimum, the protagonist, the setting, and the basic conflict of
the story are introduced, which equate to Burke's agent, setting, and
purpose (the protagonist's purpose, in general, is to resolve the
conflict, usually by obtaining an objective).
Act II, the rising action,
complicates the conflict by introducing successively more difficult
obstacles to the protagonist's achievement of his or her objective.
Typically, this is the act in which the antagonist competes against
the protagonist, so this act will revisit the rhetorical elements of
agent and purpose, from the points of view of both the protagonist
and the antagonist, adding act to the mix as both characters vie to
obtain the same objective and to prevent the other from obtaining it.
Act III, the climax, or
turning point, spins the action into a new direction; if things have
been going relatively well for the protagonist up to this point, he
or she now suffers a significant setback; if things have, overall,
not been going well for the protagonist, he or she will now enjoy
significant progress, with opposite results occurring with regard to
the antagonist. Act III, while continuing to focus upon agent,
agency, and purpose, stresses act, while setting remains a constant
throughout the story.
Act IV, the falling
action, unravels the conflict. If, at the turning point, the
protagonist has suffered a setback, his or her purpose may be
energized, as a result, as he or she resolves to redouble his or her
efforts to achieve his or her objective. If he or she has made
progress, his or her hard-won moment of success may likewise energize
him or her, reinforcing the main character's purpose. The same,
however, in either case, is likely to be rue of the antagonist as
well. Although the conflict unravels during Act IV, the adversarial
contest between the protagonist and the antagonist continues, but
with one or the other clearly gaining the upper hand and increasing
his or her dominance over his or her rival. Throughout this act,
agent, act, purpose, and agency interact with one another with
setting, as always, the constant variable (although one setting may
have given way to another).
Act V constitutes the
resolution of a comedy (a story in which the protagonist ends up
better off than he or she was at the beginning of the story) or in a
catastrophe in a tragedy (a story in which the protagonist ends up
worse off than he or she was at the beginning of the story). Either
all's well that ends well (comedy), or everything falls apart
(tragedy). This act resolves the conflict once and for all (purpose),
as the protagonist (agent) wins or loses (purpose), based, to a large
extent, upon what he or she has done and how he or she has done it
(act and agency). Again, setting is a constant element.
Freytag's analysis, it
should be stressed, is based not upon modern drama, and certainly not
upon the novel or the short story, and does not take into
consideration such modern tendencies as beginning a work in media
res, employing flashbacks and
prolepses (flash-forwards), and allowing the exposition to be
revealed piecemeal, throughout much of the work, rather than
restricting it to the first act. Nevertheless, in general, Freytag's
ideas, if not rigid formulation of them, remains influential in
narratology and dramatism. Therefore, it is useful as a means of
illustrating how Burke's pentad can be applied in the plotting of a
film or a novel. After the elements are in place, the author can
always rearrange them to suit his or her own dramatic or narrative
purposes.
Here
is an example of the application of Burke vis-a-vis
Freytag; the summary is taken, with slight modifications, from
Wikipedia's article,
“Psycho (1960
film)”:
Act
I: Exposition
Marion
Crane [agent] and her boyfriend Sam Loomis [agent] meet for a secret
romantic rendezvous [act] during lunch hour at a hotel in Phoenix,
Arizona [setting]. They [agents] then talk about how they can barely
afford to get married [act]. Upon Marion's [agent] return to work
[act] at a realtor's office [setting], a client [agent] comes in with
$40,000 in cash [act] to purchase a house for his daughter [purpose].
The money is entrusted to Marion [act], who decides to steal it and
skip town [act; with the implied purpose of using the stolen money to
finance her marriage to Loomis].
Act
II: Rising Action
On the road [setting],
she [agent] pulls over [act] to sleep [purpose]and a suspicious
[purpose] policeman [agent] awakens her [act]. The policeman [agent]
lets her go [act], but upon arriving in another town [act; setting],
Marion [agent] pulls into a used car dealership [act; setting] and
hastily exchanges her car for another one [act]. Driving [act] during
a rainy night [setting], Marion [agent] pulls up [act, with the
implied purpose of seeking shelter from the storm]to the Bates Motel,
a remote lodging [setting] that has recently lost business due to a
diversion of the main highway.
The proprietor, youthful
but nervous Norman Bates [agent], invites her [act] to a light dinner
in the parlor [setting]. Norman [agent] tells her that his mother is
mentally ill [act], but he [agent] becomes irate and bristles [act]
when Marion [agent] suggests that she should be institutionalized
[act]. The conversation [agency] induces [act] Marion [agent] to
decide [act] to return to Phoenix [act] and return the stolen money
[purpose].
Act III: Climax, or
Turning Point
Marion [agent] later
takes a shower [act] in her room [setting], during which a shadowy
figure [agent] comes in and stabs her [act] to death [purpose].
Norman [agent] bursts into the bathroom [act; setting] and discovers
Marion's dead body [act]. He [agent] wraps the body in the shower
curtain and cleans up the bathroom [act]. He [agent] puts Marion's
body in the trunk of her car and sinks it in a nearby swamp [act;
setting].
Act IV: Falling Action
In Phoenix [setting],
Marion's sister Lila [agent] and Marion's boyfriend Sam Loomis
[agent] are concerned [act] about her disappearance [purpose]. A
detective named Arbogast [agent] confirms that Marion is suspected of
having stolen $40,000 from her employer [act]. Arbogast [agent]
eventually finds the Bates Motel [act; setting], where Norman's
[agent] evasiveness and stammering arouse his suspicions [act].
Arbogast [agent] later enters the Bates' residence [act; setting],
looking for Norman's mother [purpose]. A figure [agent] emerges [act]
from her room [setting] and murders Arbogast [act; purpose].
Fearing that something
has happened to Arbogast [act; purpose], Sam [agent] and Lila [agent]
go to the town of Fairvale and talk with the local sheriff [act]. He
[agent] is puzzled by the detective's claim that he was planning to
talk to Norman's mother [act], stating that Mrs. Bates died years
ago, along with her lover, in a murder-suicide [act].
Norman [agent], seen from
above, carries his mother down to the cellar [act] of their house
[setting] as she [agent] verbally protests the arrangement [act].
Sam [agent] and Lila
[agent] rent a room [act] at the Bates Motel [search] and search the
cabin [act] that Marion [agent] stayed [act] in [setting]. Lila
[agent] finds a scrap of paper with "$40,000" written on it
[act], while Sam [agent] notes that the bathtub has no shower curtain
[act]. Sam [agent] distracts Norman [act] while Lila [agent] sneaks
[act] into the house [setting], looking for Mrs. Bates [act, with the
implied purpose of locating her]. Norman [agent] subdues Sam and
chases Lila [act]. Seeing Norman approaching [act], Lila [agent]
hides [act, with the implied purpose of evading Norman] in the cellar
[setting] and discovers Mrs. Bates' body [act], sitting in a rocking
chair [setting]. The chair [agent] rotates [act] to reveal a
desiccated corpse, the preserved body of Mrs. Bates [purpose]. A
figure [agent] enters [act] the basement [setting], wearing a dress
and wig while wielding a large knife [act], revealing Norman to be
the murderer all along [purpose]. Sam [agent] enters and saves Lila
[act].
Act V: Catastrophe
After Norman's arrest
[act], a psychiatrist [agent] who interviewed Norman [act] reveals
that Norman [agent] had murdered his mother and her lover years ago
[act], and he [agent] later developed a split personality [act] to
erase the crime from his memory [purpose]. At times, he [agent] is
able to function [act] as Norman [agency], but other times the mother
personality [agent] completely dominates him [act].
Norman [agent] is now
locked into his mother's identity permanently [act]. Mrs. Bates
[agent], in a voice-over [agency], talks about how harmless she is
[act], and how it was really Norman [agent], not she [agent], who
committed the murders [act].
The final scene [agent]
shows Marion's car being recovered [act] from the swamp [setting].
Although
this approach has some difficulties—the ambiguity, for instance,
inherent in how one summarizes the story, selecting, arranging, and
emphasizing its incidents; of labeling the incidents according to
Burke's pentad {for example, as when determining when to count an
element as significant and when not to do so (for instance, should a
shift of scene be counted as a new setting or as merely a
continuation of an already-identified setting in which a different
aspect of this setting is featured). (My solution has been to allow
the summary to determine these matters as much as possible. However,
if this approach is to be taken, it ought to use the shooting script,
not a secondary source's understanding of the plot, as the basis for
summarizing the movie's action). This approach, nevertheless, a
potentially fruitful approach to analyzing the structure of a work,
whether the work in question is one's own monster or that of another.
Such an analysis, combining Burke's five-element dramatistic pentad
with Freytag's analysis of five-act dramatic structure, suggests the
extent of the use of each of Burke's elements, their interrelation to
one another, and the way in which non-human techniques (that is,
cinematographic agencies) can take the role, as it were, of agents.
It is clear that, regarded as a mimetic medium, fiction simplifies
the true complexity of human behavior by occasionally representing
natural events or omniscient points of view as causal in order to
express purpose which would not, otherwise, be communicated, as when
the chair, acting as an agent, acts in order to accomplish a purpose
that is really the screenwriter's, not that of the imaginary world
(that is, the setting) in which the drama unfolds: he chair [agent]
rotates [act] to reveal a desiccated corpse, the preserved body of
Mrs. Bates [purpose]. Likewise, it is easy to see that purpose, as
the cause or motive of the character's behavior, is typically
suggested,
rather than overtly stated, and
often pertains to not only one or two, but to a whole series, of a
character's acts. However, purpose is implied in each and every act
of the drama and is, therefore, like the other of Burke's rhetorical
elements, a unifying principle.
Removing
the specific contents of each of the rhetorical elements, while
retaining their grouping according to Freytag's acts, discloses the
appearance of these rhetorical elements, their arrangement, and their
relative importance—or, at least, the degree to which each element
is emphasized within and among the various acts of the drama; each
sentence of the synopsis is included, with the periods representing
the respective ends of each.
Act
I: Exposition
Agent
/ agent
/ act
/ setting.
Agent
/ agent
/ act.
Agent
/ act
/ setting
/ agent
/ act
/
purpose.
Act
/ act
/
purpose.
Act
II: Rising Action
Setting
/ agent
/ act
/ purpose/
purpose
/ agent
/ act.
Agent
/ act
/ act
/ setting
/ agent/
act /
setting
/ act.
Act
/ setting /
agent
/ act
/ purpose
/ setting.
Agent
/ act
/ setting.
Agent
/ act /
agent
/ act
/ agent/
act.
Agency
/ act
/ agent
/ act
/ purpose.
Act III: Climax, or
Turning Point
Agent
/ act
/ setting
/ agent
/ act /
purpose.
Agent /
act
/ setting /
act.
Agent /
act.
Agent /
act
/ setting.
Act IV: Falling Action
Setting
/ agent
/ agent
/ act
/ purpose.
Agent
/ act.
Agent
/ act
/ setting /
agent
/ act.
Agent /
act
/ setting
/ purpose.
Agent
/ act /
setting
/ act
/ purpose.
Act
/ purpose/
agent
/ agent
/ act.
Agent /act
/ act.
Agent
/ act
/ setting
/ agent /
act.
Agent
/ agent
/ act
/ setting
/ act
/ agent
/ act
/ setting.
Agent
/ act /
agent
/ act.
Agent
/ act
/ agent
/ act
/ setting /
act
/ purpose.
Agent
/ act.
Act /
agent
/ act /
purpose
/ setting
/ act
/ setting.
Agent
/ act
/ purpose.
Agent
/ act
/ setting /
act
/ purpose.
Agent
/ act.
Act V: Catastrophe
Act
/ agent
/ act /
agent
/ act
/ agent
/ act
/ purpose.
Agent
/ act
/ agent
/ act.
Agent
/ act.
Agent
/ agency
/ act
/ agent
/ agent
/ act.
Agent
/ act /
setting.
Simply by tallying each of the times that an element is used, it is possible to determine the relative emphasis of each, both by dramatic act and in total:
Act
I: Exposition
Agent
/ agent
/ act
/ setting.
Agent
/ agent
/ act.
Agent
/ act
/ setting
/ agent
/ act
/
purpose.
Act
/ act
/
purpose.
Agent
= 6
Act
= 6
Setting
= 2
Purpose
= 2
Act
II: Rising Action
Setting
/ agent
/ act
/ purpose/
purpose
/ agent
/ act.
Agent
/ act
/ act
/ setting
/ agent/
act /
setting
/ act.
Act
/ setting /
agent
/ act
/ purpose
/ setting.
Agent
/ act
/ setting.
Agent
/ act /
agent
/ act
/ agent/
act.
Agency
/ act
/ agent
/ act
/ purpose.
Act
= 14
Agent
= 11
Setting
= 6
Purpose
= 4
Agency
= 1
Act III: Climax, or
Turning Point
Agent
/ act
/ setting
/ agent
/ act /
purpose.
Agent /
act
/ setting /
act.
Agent /
act.
Agent /
act
/ setting.
Act
= 6
Agent
= 5
Setting
= 3
Purpose
= 1
Act IV: Falling Action
Setting
/ agent
/ agent
/ act
/ purpose.
Agent
/ act.
Agent
/ act
/ setting /
agent
/ act.
Agent /
act
/ setting
/ purpose.
Agent
/ act /
setting
/ act
/ purpose.
Act
/ purpose/
agent
/ agent
/ act.
Agent /act
/ act.
Agent
/ act
/ setting
/ agent /
act.
Agent
/ agent
/ act
/ setting
/ act
/ agent
/ act
/ setting.
Agent
/ act /
agent
/ act.
Agent
/ act
/ agent
/ act
/ setting
/ act
/ purpose.
Agent
/ act.
Act /
agent
/ act /
purpose
/ setting
/ act
/ setting.
Agent
/ act
/ purpose.
Agent
/ act
/ setting /
act
/ purpose.
Agent
/ act.
Act
= 29
Agent
= 24
Setting
= 11
Purpose
= 8
Act V: Catastrophe
Act
/ agent
/ act /
agent
/ act
/ agent
/ act
/ purpose.
Agent
/ act
/ agent
/ act.
Agent
/ act.
Agent
/ agency
/ act
/ agent
/ agent
/ act.
Agent
/ act /
setting.
Act
= 10
Agent
= 10
Purpose
= 1
Setting
= 1
Agency
= 1
After converting the incidents of the story's plot, as indicated by the plot's synopsis, into discrete rhetorical elements, in accordance with Burke's pentad, it is an easy matter to transpose the results into the questions that are associated with these elements, even while retaining Freytag's structure, if desirable:
Act
I: Exposition
Who?
/ Who? / What?
/ When?
Where?.
Who?
/ Who?
/ What?
/
Who?
/ What?
/ setting
/ Who?
/ What?
/
Why?.
What?
/ What?
/
Why?.
Act
II: Rising Action
When?
and Where? / Who?
/ What?
/ purpose/
purpose
/ Who?
/ What?.
Who?
/ What?
/ What?
/ When? and Where?
/ Who?/
What? /
When? and Where?
/ What?.
What?
/ When? and Where? /
Who?
/ What?
/ purpose
/ When? and Where?.
Who?
/ What?
/ When? and Where?.
Who?
/ What? /
Who?
/ What?
/ Who?/
What?.
Agency
/ What?
/ Who?
/ What?
/ purpose.
Act III: Climax, or
Turning Point
Who?
/ What?
/ When? and Where?
/ Who?
/ What? /
purpose.
Who? /
What?
/ When? and Where? /
What?.
Who? /
What?.
Who? /
What?
/ When? and Where?.
Act IV: Falling Action
When?
and Where? / Who?
/ Who?
/ What?
/ purpose.
Who?
/ What?.
Who?
/ What?
/ When? and Where? /
Who?
/ What?.
Who? /
What?
/ When? and Where?
/ purpose.
Who?
/ What? /
When? and Where?
/ What?
/ purpose.
What?
/ purpose/
Who?
/ Who?
/ What?.
Who? /What?
/ What?.
Who?
/ What?
/ When? and Where?
/ Who? /
What?.
Who?
/ Who?
/ What?
/ When? and Where?
/ What?
/ Who?
/ What?
/ When? and Where?.
Who?
/ What? /
Who?
/ What?.
Who?
/ What?
/ Who?
/ What?
/ When? and Where? /
What?
/ purpose.
Who?
/ What?.
What? /
Who?
/ What? /
purpose
/ When? and Where?
/ What?
/ When? and Where?.
Who?
/ What?
/ purpose.
Who?
/ What?
/ When? and Where? /
What?
/ purpose.
Who?
/ What?.
Act V: Catastrophe
What?
/ Who?
/ What? /
Who?
/ What?
/ Who?
/ What?
/ purpose.
Who?
/ What?
/ Who?
/ What?.
Who?
/ What?.
Who?
/ agency
/ What?
/ Who?
/ Who?
/ What?.
Who?
/ What?
/
When?
and Where?.
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