Integrative Arts 10
Narrative Structure, Plot
Devices and Stereotypes
- (Click Here For More Information on Aristotelian Theory)
- Author of Poetics
First Analysis of Tragedy and a lost section on Comedy
Details the Dramatic Structure of Oedipus Rex
Six parts of a tragedy -
Plot, Character, Diction, Thought, Spectacle and Song
Time, Place and Action
Anything that does not support the plot and would not
weaken the play by its removal is unnecessary.
History expresses the particular; Poetry, the Universal.
Dramatic Structure (Linear/Pyramidal)
Man Vs. Man / External Struggle
Man Vs. Himself / Internal Struggle
Man Vs. Society / Moral Struggle
Man Vs. Nature / Struggle Against Fate
2. Rising Action
- 3. Inciting Incident
- Compounding Conflict / Alternation
Comic Relief / Tension Release
4. Obligatory Moment
5. Climax O. Henry / De Rigeur
6. Deus Ex Machina
7. Denouement / Falling Action
- Defining the
Emphasis on Emotion and Character
Characters have moral ambiguities and complexities
More developed than stereotypes, these characters have
ability to fail or make mistakes
Drama raises more questions than it answers
How life really is.
Originated as light opera
Characters are instantly recognizable types
Situation is emphasized over development of character
No chance of evil winning out over
Standardized, formulaic narrative structure
Tailored to the Dominant Ideology
How we wish life was.
Similar to Drama in emphasis on Pathos, Emotion and
Social Issues are inspected at close emotional distance
Viewer is emotionally involved with characters through
Viewers feel superior to characters
Viewer is involved with situation and circumstances
Uses stock characters, stereotypes and caricatures
- Elements of Drama, Melodrama, Comedy and
- Definitions and examples from Laurence Perrine,
LITERATURE: Structure, Sound, and Sense;
- 1978, Shapiro and Beum, A Prosody Handbook; Miller
Williams, Patterns of Poetry; and Lawrence Zillman, The
Art and Craft of Poetry.
- Elements of Drama - A Brief
- 1. Plot - the sequence of
events or incidents of which the story is composed.
- A. Conflict is a clash of actions, ideas, desires or
- a. human against human.
b. human against environment - external force, physical
nature, society, or "fate."
c. human against herself/himself - conflict with some
element in her/his own nature; maybe physical, mental,
emotional, or moral.
- B. Protagonist and Antagonist - the protagonist is the
central character, sympathetic or unsympathetic. The
forces working against her/him, whether persons, things,
conventions of society, or traits of their own character,
are the antagonists.
- C. Artistic Unity - essential to a good plot; nothing
irrelevant; good arrangement.
- D. Plot Manipulation - a good plot should not have any
unjustified or unexpected
turns or twists; no false leads; no deliberate and
- 2. Character
- A. Direct Presentation - author tells us straight out, by
exposition or analysis, or through another character.
B. Indirect Presentation - author shows us the character
in action; the reader infers what a character is like
from what she/he thinks, or says, or does. These are also
called dramatized characters and they are generally
consistent (in behavior), motivated (convincing), and
- C. Character Types - a Flat character is known by one or
two traits; a Round character is complex and many-sided;
a Stock character is a stereotyped character (a mad
scientist, the absent-minded professor, the cruel
mother-in-law); a Static character remains the same from
the beginning of the plot to the end; and a Dynamic
(developing) character undergoes permanent change. This
change must be a. within the possibilities of the
character; b. sufficiently motivated; and c.allowed
sufficient time for change.
- 3. Theme - the controlling
idea or central insight. It can be
- 1. a revelation of human character;
2. may be stated briefly or at great length; and
3. a theme is not the "moral" of the story.
- A. A theme must be expressible in the form of a statement
- not "motherhood" but "Motherhood
sometimes has more frustration than reward."
- B. A theme must be stated as a generalization about life;
names of characters or specific situations in the plot
are not to be used when stating a theme.
- C. A theme must not be a generalization larger than is
justified by the terms of the story.
- D. A theme is the central and unifying concept of the
story. It must adhere to the following requirements: 1.
It must account for all the major details of the story.
- 2. It must not be contradicted by any detail of the
- 3. It must not rely on supposed facts - facts not
actually stated or clearly implied by the story.
- E. There is no one way of stating the theme of a story.
- F. Any statement that reduces a theme to some familiar
aphorism, or cliché should be avoided. Do not use
"A stitch in time saves nine," "You can't
judge a book by its cover, " "Fish and guests
smell in three days," and so on.
- 4. Points Of View
- A. Omniscient - a story told by the author, using the
third person; her/his knowledge, control, and
prerogatives are unlimited; authorial subjectivity.
- B. Limited Omniscient - a story in which the author
associates with a major or minor character; this
character serves as the author's spokesperson or
- C. First Person - the author identifies with or
disappears in a major or minor character; the story is
told using the first person "I".
- D. Objective or Dramatic - the opposite of the
omniscient; displays authorial objectivity; compared a
roving sound camera. Very little of the past or the
future is given; the story is set in the present.
- 5. Symbol - a literary
symbol means more than what it is. It has layers of
meanings. Whereas an image has one meaning, a symbol has
- A. Names used as symbols. B. Use of objects as symbols.
C. Use of actions as symbols.
- Note: The ability to recognize and interpret symbols
requires experience in literary readings, perception, and
tact. It is easy to "run wild" with symbols -
to find symbols everywhere. The ability to interpret
symbols is essential to the full understanding and
enjoyment of literature. Given below are helpful
suggestions for identifying literary symbols:
- 1. The story itself must furnish a clue that a detail is
to be taken symbolically - symbols nearly always signal
their existence by emphasis, repetition, or position.
- 2. The meaning of a literary symbol must be established
and supported by the entire context of the story. A
symbol has its meaning inside not outside a story.
- 3. To be called a symbol, an item must suggest a meaning
different in kind from its literal meaning.
- 4. A symbol has a cluster of meanings.
- 6. Irony - a term with a
range of meanings, all of them involving some sort of
discrepancy or incongruity. It should not be confused
with sarcasm which is simply language designed to cause
pain. Irony is used to suggest the difference between
appearance and reality, between expectation and
fulfillment, the complexity of experience, to furnish
indirectly an evaluation of the author's material, and at
the same time to achieve compression.
- A. Verbal irony - the opposite is said from what is
Dramatic irony - the contrast between what a character
says and what
the reader knows to true.
- C. Irony of situation - discrepancy between appearance
and reality, or
between expectation and fulfillment, or between what is
would seem appropriate.
- Drama has one characteristic peculiar to itself -
- it is written primarily to be performed, not read. It is
a presentation of action
- a. through actors (the impact is direct and immediate),
- b. on a stage (a captive audience), and
- c. before an audience (suggesting a communal experience).
- Of the four major points of view, the dramatist is
limited to only one - the objective or dramatic. The
playwright cannot directly comment on the action or the
character and cannot directly enter
the minds of characters and tell us what is going on
there. But there are ways to get around this limitation
through the use of
- 1. soliloquy (a character speaking directly to the
- 2. chorus ( a group on stage commenting on characters and
- 3. one character commenting on another.
- Aristotle's definition of tragedy: A tragedy is the
imitation in dramatic form of an action that is serious
and complete, with incidents arousing pity and fear where
with it effects a catharsis (emotional outpouring) of
such emotions. The language used is pleasurable and
throughout appropriate to the situation in which it is
used. The chief characters are noble personages
("better than ourselves," says Aristotle) and
the actions they perform are noble actions.
- Central features of the Aristotelian archetype:
- 1. The tragic hero is a character of noble stature and
has greatness. If the hero's fall is to arouse in us the
emotions of pity and fear, it must be a fall from a great
- 2. Though the tragic hero is pre-eminently great, he/she
is not perfect.Tragic flaw, hubris (excessive pride or
passion), and hamartia (some error) lead to the hero's
- 3. The hero's downfall, therefore, is partially her/his
own fault, the result of one's own free choice, not the
result of pure accident or villainy, or some overriding
- 4. Nevertheless, the hero's misfortune is not wholly
deserved. The punishment exceeds the crime. The hero
- 5. Yet the tragic fall is not pure loss - though it may
result in the hero's death, before it, there is some
increase in awareness, some gain in self-knowledge or, as
Aristotle puts it, some "discovery."
- 6. Though it arouses solemn emotion - pity and fear, says
Aristotle, but compassion and awe might be better terms -
tragedy, when well performed, does not leave its audience
in a state of depression. It produces a catharsis or an
emotional release at the end, one shared as a common
experience by the audience.
- Comedy, Northrop Frye has
said, lies between satire and romance. Is the comic
mask laughing or smiling? We usually laugh at someone,
but smile with someone. Laughter expresses recognition of
some absurdity in human behavior; smile expresses
pleasure in one's company or good fortune. The essential
difference between tragedy and comedy is in the depiction
of human nature: tragedy shows greatness in human nature
and human freedom whereas comedy shows human weakness and
human limitation. The norms of comedy are primarily
social; the protagonist is always in a group or
emphasizes commonness. A tragic hero possesses
overpowering individuality - so that the play is often
named after her/him (Antigone, Othello); the comic
protagonist tends to be a type and the play is often
named for the type (The Misanthrope, The Alchemist, The
Brute). Comic plots do not exhibit the high degree of
organic unity as tragic plots do. Plausibility is not
usually the central characteristic (cause-effect
progression) but coincidences, improbable disguises,
mistaken identities make up the plot. The purpose of
comedy is to make us laugh and at the same time, help to
illuminate human nature and human weaknesses.
Conventionally comedies have a happy ending. Accidental
discovery, act of divine intervention (deus ex machina),
sudden reform are common comedic devises. "Comedy is
the thinking person's response to experience; tragedy
records the reactions of the person with feeling."
- Charles B. Hands
- Melodrama - arouses pity and
fear through cruder means. Good and evil are
clearly depicted in white and black motifs. Plot is
emphasized over character
- Farce - aimed at arousing
explosive laughter using crude means. Conflicts are
violent, practical jokes are common, and the wit is
coarse. Psychologically farce
may boost the reader's spirit and purge hostility and
- Contrasting views of humans in Shakespeare:
- What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason,
How infinite in faculties, in form and moving,
How express and admirable in action, how like
In apprehension, how like a god - "
Hamlet (Act II, Sc. ii, l. 315)
Puck says: Captain of our fairy band
Helena is here at hand, And the youth,
mistook by me, Pleading for a lover's
fee. Shall we their fond pageant see?
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night's
- (Act III, Sc. ii, l.
Drama, Melodrama, Comedy and Farce Quiz
- Which are which? Answers at Bottom.
Air Force One
Men in Black
Drama, Melodrama, Comedy and Farce
Remains of the Day
Dead Poets Society
the Muppet Movie
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