COMMON PLOT ARCHETYPES
THE QUEST
In a quest plot the main character moves through the Freitag pyramid in search of some
object: a place, a thing, or an idea. Don Quixote, Treasure Island, Grapes of Wrath, and
Raiders of the Lost Ark follow this sequence. The quest can involve a search for something
as concrete as a lost will or something as abstract as freedom.
THE PURSUIT
Ahab pursues Moby Dick relentlessly. Quint pursues Jaws. The Americans and Russians
compete to locate and secure the submarine Red October. The alien hunts the astronauts.
To chase or be chased is the motto of the pursuit plot. Unlike the quest plot, which deals
with a search for an inanimate object or idea, the pursuit involves one character pursuing
another.
THE CONTEST
In a contest plot the main character struggles with a rival (person, animal, or nature). The
crew members on board several ships struggle against three colliding major storm centers
in The Perfect Storm. Lenningen opposes thousands of army ants in “Lenningen Versus
the Ants.” The old man struggles to land the marlin in The Old Man and the Sea. Rainsford
and Zaroff compete to see who will survive in “The Most Dangerous Game.”
THE ROMANCE
Romance plots involve an obstacle between the lovers. In a Writer’s Digest article on
archetypes, Nancy Kress catalogues a number of the romance obstacles in several works:
“Writers have used as obstacles parental disapproval (Romeo and Juliet), a preexisting engagement (Sense and Sensibility), a preexisting marriage (Edith Warton’s Ethan
Frome), class differences (Willa Cather’s My Antonia), disagreements about having children (Avery Corman’s Fifty), indifference on the part of one party (Maugham’s Of Human
Bondage), too-similar natures (Georgette Heyer’s Bath Tangle), too-dissimilar natures
(Philip Roth’s Goodbye Columbus), strange personal scruples (Thomas Hardy’s Jude the
Obscure), war (Elswyth Thane’s Yankee Stranger), revolution (Dickens’ A Tale of Two
Cities), murder (Daphne Du Maurier’s Jamaica Inn), disease (Erich Segal’s Love Story),
abduction by pirates (Anya Seton’s Avalon), abduction by Bolsheviks (Boris Pasternak’s
Doctor Zhivago), abduction by space aliens (Catherine Asaro’s Catch the Lightning)—you
name it” (Kress 1997, 7).
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Common Plot Archetypes, continued
THE REVENGE
“I’ll git you, ya varmit, if it’s the last thing I do” is an old cliché represented in stories of
revenge. Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and Stephen King’s Carrie
are a few examples of the revenge plot pattern.
THE MYSTERY
A mystery plot invites the reader to solve a puzzle. Classic works by Arthur Conan Doyle,
Agatha Christe, Sue Grafton, and even a few of the short stories of Edgar Allen Poe are
built on this pattern. The basic idea is to pose a mystery for the reader, lining the story
structure with clues, teasing the reader to match wits with the main character.
THE SURPRISE
The surprise is a story where the ending startles or surprises the reader. Sometimes, as in
O. Henry’s “Ransom of Red Chief,” the surprise is comical. More often it is shocking, as in
Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” Many short stories developed
into episodes for television’s Alfred Hitchcock and The Twilight Zone used the surprise
plot pattern.
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