PLOT TRANSCRIPT
SLIDE 01
Hello, welcome to ENC 1102. I’m Dr. Michael Baker, and today we will be talking about plot.
SLIDE 02
The first thing we will do is define plot, and then we will discuss Freytag’s Pyramid, which is a way to
break down and analyze a story’s structure. We will then consider several components of plot: sequence
and pace, as well as conflict.
SLIDE 03
Like many literary terms, the word “plot” has been used in several different ways. Often, plot is used as
a synonym for the word “story” – but in the early part of the 20th century, E. M. Forster made a useful
distinction between the terms plot and story. While a story is any sequence of events, a plot is
specifically a connected sequence of events: C happens because B happened, which happened because
A happened first.
Let’s look at a couple of very short examples. Using Forster’s definitions, this is a story: “The king died;
later, the queen died.” In this story, we know two things: that the king died, and that sometime later the
queen also died. But we don’t know if these two events are connected or not. For all we know, the
queen might have died twenty years later.
Now let’s consider how things change when we connect the two events: “The king died, and then the
queen died of grief.” In this case, the queen’s death is directly related to the king’s death – she would
not have died if he had not died first. The second event only happens because the first event radically
changes the queen’s situation.
By the way, it’s worth noting that we learn more about the characters in the “plot” example. In addition
to learning that both the king and the queen die, we have the implication that the queen died shortly
after the king; after all, it’s unlikely she died of grief twenty years later. The plot also suggests that the
queen must have loved the king very much; otherwise, his death would not have affected her so
dramatically. So, keep in mind that a plot is a connected sequence of events, but also keep an eye out
for what the plot can reveal to you about the characters and/or the situation.
Now, I should note that in this class I will frequently use the word “story” in its broader meaning. Often,
I will be referring to one of our short stories, so I might ask something like: “What is an appropriate
theme for this story?” I do like Forster’s distinction between a “story” and a “plot,” but as with so many
other literary terms it has both a specific and a general meaning. To determine which meaning is meant
– or whether or not you should use the word in your own work – pay attention to the context.
SLIDE 04
People have studied story structure for a very long time. Aristotle, for instance, discussed the
trajectories of both tragedy and comedy. But in the 19th century, the German writer Gustav Freytag laid
out five common stages of story structure: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.
Basically, the exposition is the beginning of a story. It introduces us to the characters, and to their lives
and their current situations. Think of how Harry Potter begins – we meet poor little Harry, whose life is
horrible. He lives with his aunt and uncle, but they give all the good things to their own son. Harry is
relegated to the broom closet under the staircase. Typically, the exposition ends when something
happens to upset (or to destabilize) the current situation. Often, that something is referred to as the
inciting incident. For Harry Potter, the inciting incident is when he discovers that he is really a wizard.
Once the situation has changed, the story moves into the rising action. This is a series of events that
serve to intensify the story’s conflict. Once Harry learns that he is a wizard, he moves to the school at
Hogwarts, makes some friends and enemies, learns that he’s kind of famous for surviving an attack by
the greatest evil the wizarding world has ever known, AND that the evil Voldemort may still be alive –
and will probably want revenge against the “boy who lived” (that’s Harry). Whew. As you can see, things
get progressively worse for poor little Harry. Bullies and exams are bad enough, but being the target of a
super-powerful evil wizard is scary stuff indeed!
The rising action continues to build until the story reaches its climax – the point of greatest emotional
intensity. The climax is the turning point of the story, where the central conflict of the story comes to its
head. Often, the climax is a physical confrontation, such as the moment when Harry faces off against the
evil Voldemort.
But, some stories are more emotional or mental than physical. In these stories, the climax might not be
a final battle between good and evil, but something that happens inside of a character. If the character
has a sudden realization of truth – often inspired by something that would seem rather trivial to others
– then we call this type of climax an “epiphany.” James Joyce coined this term, and a great example of
an epiphany can be found at the end of his short story “Araby.”
Once the climax has occurred, we get what Freytag calls the falling action. During this phase, we get a
release of tension as we move toward the resolution (or, conclusion) of the story. After all, the main
conflict may have been resolved in the climax, but there are usually a few more loose ends that need to
be tied up for us. In the first Harry Potter book, this is where we find out who wins the House Cup and all
of that stuff.
The resolution, of course, is the end of the story. After the main conflict has been resolved, our
characters enter into a new, somewhat stable, situation. Harry might have to return to his aunt and
uncle’s house for the summer, but he now knows that he is a wizard – and in the fall, he will be able to
return to Hogwarts.
Now, these five stages of Freytag’s Pyramid are often drawn like a true pyramid…
SLIDE 05
But in many ways, this depiction is a little misleading. After all, you probably recognize that the rising
action of any story is much longer than the falling action. So, it is probably more helpful to visualize the
stages as something more like this…
SLIDE 06
I also like this graphic because it includes the inciting incident. Even here, the falling action is
disproportionately long, though. In a novel, the falling action and resolution usually take up no more
than a couple chapters. Still, when you think about Freytag’s Pyramid, try to visualize something like this
graphic. You will have a pretty accurate idea of how any given story is structured, as we saw with the
Harry Potter example.
But, let’s think of another famous example. How does Freytag’s Pyramid work with the original movie
Star Wars? Well, in the exposition phase, we are introduced to various characters – perhaps most
importantly, to Luke Skywalker. Huh. Oddly enough, he also lives with his aunt and uncle. Anyway, poor
Luke is bored, and wants a more exciting life. What is the inciting incident in the movie?
Well, after finding his run-away droid, R2-D2, and meeting the old hermit Ben Obi-wan Kenobi, Luke
returns home to find that his aunt and uncle have been murdered and his home destroyed by imperial
stormtroopers.
The rising action includes finding transportation in a seedy cantina, getting chased by stormtroopers,
getting sucked into the Death Star, and fighting to rescue the princess. What is the climax? The attack on
the Death Star. We get a little falling action, with the reunion in the hangar, and then the resolution with
the awards ceremony.
So, Freytag’s stages work well with two famous examples. Try them out on your favorite book or movie.
SLIDE 07
Now, in addition to the five stages of a plot, there are two other important components: sequence and
pace. Let’s talk about sequence first…
SLIDE 08
Sequence is the author’s arrangement of the story’s events or action. To return to our earlier example of
Forster’s “story,” compare these two summaries:
First: The king died, and then the queen died.
Second: The queen died after the king died.
As you can see, these two sentences tell the same basic story, but there is a different emphasis for each
one. In the first, we hear that the king died – the fact that the queen died seems almost like additional
information. In the second sentence, though, the focus is on the queen – she is the one that we hear
about first, and the information about the king gives her death a little more context. The first example is
told in chronological order, but the second example is not – it is told out of order.
At first, it might seem weird to think about a story being told out of order, but authors actually have
several techniques that they frequently employ…
SLIDE 09
In medias res is a Latin phrase that means “in the middle of things.” Sometimes, writers like to grab your
attention by foregoing the exposition and starting right in the middle of the action. One classic example
of this is Homer’s epic poem, The Iliad. The poem starts about 9.5 years into the Trojan War (which
lasted for 10 years, so Homer starts his story near the end of the larger story).
Perhaps more common examples can be found on television shows like CBS’s Criminal Minds or ABC’s
Castle – often, crime shows like these will start with a woman running through a dark alleyway (or,
through the woods at night). She’s screaming, and then we see that she is bleeding and someone is
chasing her. At this point, we don’t know exactly what’s going on – but it’s exciting and tense! The
writers hope that we will keep watching because we want to know what happens. Sometimes, it works.
Often when a writer employs in medias res, he or she will have to fill in the exposition material at a later
time. This can be accomplished through the commonly-employed technique called “flashback.” In a
flashback, the writer goes back in time and lets you know about things that happened before the first
page or scene of the story that we read or watch.
Flashbacks have been used for a very long time, of course, but if you watch much television these days,
you will see flashbacks all over the place. It seems like the ABC series Lost, which began in 2004, really
started the current craze with using flashbacks as an integral part of the show’s structure. Since then, a
lot of others shows have followed suit, including…
SLIDE 10
CBS’s How I Met Your Mother was a long-running sitcom, and the entire series was structured as a
flashback – after all, Ted Mosby was explaining to his kids how he had met their mother. ABC’s recently
cancelled Revenge often returned to Emily’s earlier life to show things that happened to her father and
to her.
A couple current superhero shows, the CW’s Arrow and HBO’s Daredevil both utilize flashbacks to show
how Oliver Queen and Matt Murdock became the vigilante heroes they are. Fox’s Sleepy Hollow
incorporates some flashbacks to flesh out the backgrounds of characters like Ichabod Crane and the
Headless Horseman.
Of course, few vampire series fail to incorporate flashbacks – after all, vampire characters are often
centuries old, so they have rich histories that the writers can pull from. Plus, flashbacks are a convenient
way to update viewers on how Stefan and Damon Salvatore know Klaus Michaelson.
Even Netflix has jumped onto the flashback bandwagon, with original series like Orange Is the New
Black. This series starts in medias res, with the main character, Piper Chapman already in prison;
flashbacks are used to fill us in on what her life was like before prison, and how she ended up there.
There are, of course, many other shows that use flashbacks either as integral parts of their structure, or
as occasional techniques. What television shows – or movies – have you seen that use flashbacks? Have
we read any stories that use them?
SLIDE 11
There are other ways that writers can re-order the sequence of events in a story – a less frequently used
technique is called the flashforward. Whereas a flashback goes back in time to show us something that
happened in the past, a flashforward gives us a peek at the future. After three seasons of constant
flashbacks, ABC’s Lost decided to switch things up with a few flashforwards. Occasionally, CBS’s How I
Met Your Mother would give us a glimpse at the main characters in the future (or, in a possible future),
sometimes as old people playing cards and talking about their now-grown children. Flashforwards are
still pretty rare, but we do encounter them sometimes – and there are some writers who utilize dreams,
visions, or prophecies as a sort of “flashforward.”
But often, dreams, visions, and prophecies are not truly flashforwards, but they serve as a form of
foreshadowing. Foreshadowing is when a story gives us a hint about what is going to happen later.
Foreshadowing does not actually break the sequence of events – after all, it’s just a hint about what will
happen, and not a fully-developed scene that happens in the future – but for readers the effect is almost
the same. It gives us the chance to guess at what is coming. You might remember some examples of
foreshadowing in Hawthorne’s short story “The Birth-Mark,” such as when Aylmer has a disturbing
dream or when the plant dies. In such cases, foreshadowing can increase the tension in a story, because
we wonder if these details suggest that things are going to go horribly wrong for the characters – but we
tend to hold onto a little bit of hope that things will actually turn out well.
SLIDE 12
Although sequence can be the most noticeable components of plot, pacing is important as well. Pacing
can be defined as the duration of episodes in a story, particularly as they relate to each other. Few
writers try to cover every minute of a character’s life, because readers would not enjoy most of that
material. It’s just not that exciting, usually, to read about a character brushing her teeth. So writers tend
to pick and choose what they will show the reader.
Because of this, it is important to pay attention to what a writer chooses to share – and how long he or
she spends on it. A formal social event that involves fancy dresses and dancing might take up thirty
pages or more in a novel by Jane Austen; after all, Austen’s focus tends to be on the social interactions
and relationships of her characters. A similar scene, however, might only have five minutes of screen
time in an Iron Man movie – just enough time to demonstrate how wealthy Tony Stark is, introduce the
audience to one of his business partners (who will play a more important role later), and give us a hint of
romance between Tony and his assistant, Pepper Potts. With those goals accomplished, the director will
probably move into a more “exciting” scene pretty quickly.
So, pay attention to what the writer pays attention to – doing so might help you figure out what’s
important in the story. But, it can also help you figure out what a particular scene is supposed to
accomplish.
SLIDE 13
There is, of course, one final element of any plot that we need to consider – conflict. In its basic sense, a
conflict is a struggle between opposing forces. Most writers argue that without conflict, you have no
story (or plot). And this makes sense, especially if you recall Freytag’s Pyramid. The inciting incident
often initiates the conflict; the rising action intensifies the conflict; the climax is when the conflict
reaches its most intense; and the falling action and resolution details the aftermath of the conflict. Most
of a story, then, revolves around conflict.
But, you don’t have to read many stories to realize that not all conflicts are the same. In fact, there are
two broad categories of conflict: external and internal.
External conflict tends to be the one that most people think of first. It is easy to remember epic battles
between good and evil, such as we see in The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, or Star Wars. It’s also
obvious in morally ambiguous wars, such as in Game of Thrones where it can be difficult to separate the
heroes from the villains.
But there are several different types of external conflict. The first is “person vs. person” – this is where
the protagonist has a clear antagonist. In the Harry Potter series, the real conflict is between Harry and
Voldemort. The story won’t end until those two have dealt with each other once and for all. On a less
dramatic scale, though, we might consider Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” to be about a conflict between
Mama and Dee.
A second common type of external conflict is “person vs. society.” In this type of story, the protagonist
confronts a societal institution – the government, for example, or a prevailing belief system. Dystopian
novels like George Orwell’s 1984 are usually good examples of this type of conflict. To a degree, this is
also true of the dystopian series by Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games. Ultimately, isn’t that series
about Katniss Everdeen’s fight against the corruption of the Capitol? Or, consider the movie Footloose,
in which an outsider comes to a town that bans dancing; he starts a movement that looks to lift that
ban.
But external conflict does not have to be against other people, whether it’s an individual or a society.
External conflict can be against nature. There are a number of stories that depict a person’s struggle to
survive harsh conditions, such as the Tom Hanks movie Castaway, or Jack London’s famous short story
“To Build a Fire,” in which the main character travels in weather so cold his spit freezes before hitting
the ground.
Some people will add other types of external conflict, such as person vs. God, fate, or the supernatural.
More and more common today, we see stories about “person vs. technology.” Just keep in mind that
external conflict comes in many forms.
And don’t forget about internal conflict. Some of the most moving stories feature a person against himor herself. This situation frequently happens when a character has opposing desires, or is facing a
serious dilemma. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, for instance, can’t decide if he should or should not
murder his uncle in order to avenge his father. Some people think Hawthorne’s story “Young Goodman
Brown” is an allegory for a man’s struggle between good and evil.
SLIDE 14
So, today we defined plot as a series of connected events. We then discussed the various stages of
Freytag’s Pyramid – and I again invite you to try it out on your favorite story (or, perhaps, on the next
one you read). We also discussed two important components of plot: sequence and pace. The ways in
which an author tells a story can be important.
Finally, we ended with a brief discussion of the different types of conflict. Remember that conflict is so
central to any story that most writers say that without conflict, there is no story.
SLIDE 15
The main sources for this lecture were our Norton textbook.