[MUSIC] Welcome to Segment 2,

How Plot Works in Harry Potter. Now I've just given you lots of technical
descriptions of how plot works, but how do the six points of
Freytag's Pyramid work in actual books? To illustrate this, I'm going to use
the most famous book series in the world, The Harry Potter Series. These books have
action,
dynamic characters, and great writing, but where it really stands out is in plot.
Let's start with Harry Potter and
The Sorcerer's Stone. Exposition. We're introduced to Harry and
his horrible relatives, the Dursleys. We find out Harry is an orphan, and it's
clear he's being
mistreated by the Dursleys, especially concerning the odd incidents
that seem to keep happening around him. Just before Harry's 11th birthday,
letters are delivered to the house, which Harry's uncle intercepts
with an increasing mania. Finally, after removing the family
to a cabin on a remote island, just at midnight on Harry's birthday, Hagrid shows
up to hand-deliver a letter
that informs Harry he's a wizard. Rising action. This is where a majority
of the book takes place. Harry learns what it means to be a wizard
and starts discovering the wizard world. He also meets a few of his supporters,
Hagrid, Ron, and Hermione and antagonists,
Severus Snape and Draco Malfoy. We follow Harry through his first year
in school where he faces the standard problems of a new student, getting lost
on the way to class, trying out for the quidditch team, noticing mysterious
happenings going on around the school. Ultimately, Harry, Ron, and Hermione
reach an erroneous conclusion that Snape is trying to steal the sorcerer's
stone and attempt to stop him. Climax. Harry reaches the end of the teachers' set
traps and puzzles and sees not Snape, but Professor Quirrell attempting to
steal the stone by looking for it in the Mirror of Erised. During the climax,
Quirrell reveals that
he had tried to kill Harry earlier in the year at a quidditch match and that
he'd released a troll into the school. Ultimately, Quirrell reveals that he's
being possessed by Lord Voldemort who forces Harry to look in the mirror and
find the stone. Harry gets the stone but refuses to give
it to Lord Voldemort slash Quirrell. When Voldemort tries to take the stone
from Harry, Harry passes out. Falling action. Harry wakes up later to find out that
Quirrell couldn't take the stone from him, likely because he's still under
the protection of his mother's love, which saved him as a baby. Professor
Dumbledore reveals that
Voldemort left Quirrell to die, and that the stone has been destroyed. Resolution.
The conclusion of the school year Harry,
Ron, Hermione, and Neville win back on the house
points they'd lost earlier by sneaking out of their common room,
and Gryffindor wins the House Cup. Denouement. Harry returns home to the Dursleys
for
the summer without letting them know he's not allowed to
use magic outside of the school. Now let's take a look at a pivotal book in
the series, book four, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, again,
using the six points in Freytag's Pyramid. Exposition. Harry wakes up in his bed at
the Dursleys after having a vivid dream. His scar hurts enough that Harry
feels the need to tell someone, so he dashes off a letter to Sirius Black. Harry
then goes off to the World Cup
with the Weasley family. Once Harry gets back to Hogwarts,
he and the other students find out that the Triwizard Tournament is
being held at their school this year, and any student over 17 is invited to apply.
Inciting incident. Despite being under 17 and another
champion from the school being chosen, Harry's name emerges from the goblet, as it
represents a binding magical
contract, Harry must compete. Rising action. The whole year Harry faces friendships
falling in and falling out, his first crush, and
the whole of the tournament. The final task in
the tournament is a maze that each of the champions must try to get
through to get the trophy in the middle. Harry and the other Hogwarts
champions reach it together, so they decide to take it together. When they touch
it, they are transported
together to a graveyard. Immediately after arriving,
Cedric is killed. Climax. Harry recognizes Pettigrew,
who ties Harry up and performs a ritual that raises
Voldemort back into a corporeal form. Once he has a body back,
he challenges Harry to a dual. Their spells cancel each other out,
and this gives Harry enough time to grab Cedric's body and the portkey and
transport back to Hogwarts. Falling action. Once back,
Harry tries to explain what happened, but Mad-Eye Moody takes him
away to his office. Once they are alone, it becomes
apparent that Mad-Eye Moody is really Barty Crouch Jr.,
one of Voldemort's ardent supporters. Before he can kill Harry,
Dumbledore rushes in and intervenes. Resolution. The real Moody is found, Barty
Crouch Jr.
is given the Dementor's Kiss, and Harry is declared the winner
of the Triwizard Tournament. Denouement. Harry gives all his money to Fred and
George to start a joke shop, and it is revealed that most people in
the Ministry of Magic don't believe that Harry has seen Voldemort. Now, let's
examine how Rowling wraps up
all of her plot points in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Exposition. Harry
is just about to turn 17,
which is the age of majority for wizards. At this age, the protection on his aunt
and uncle's house will be broken, so there is a very complicated plot
hatched to move Harry safely from Privet Drive to Ron's house at the Burrow. They
are attacked
immediately upon leaving and suffer a few losses before
making it to the Burrow. Inciting incident. There is a wedding celebration
at the Burrow, but the night of the wedding the Ministry
of Magic is taken over by Death Eaters. Ron, Hermione, and
Harry barely escape, and from this point forward,
they are on the run. Rising action. The majority of this book is spent with
the trio hunting down the Horcruxes. They find the original locket fairly
quickly, but have no way to destroy. They are dogged constantly by
the threat of Death Eaters and catchers, and they are eventually
captured and taken to Malfoy Manor. Dobby appears and rescues them, and it's
at that point they realize that the rest of the Horcruxes they haven't found
must be in Hogwarts, so they return. A massive battle ensues, but they manage
to find and destroy the other Horcruxes. Climax. Harry offers himself to Voldemort
who fires a killing curse at him while Harry just lets it happen. Voldemort thinks
Harry is dead, but
what's actually happened is that Voldemort has destroyed a piece of
his soul that was inside Harry, leaving himself vulnerable to death. Falling
action. Harry pretends to be dead, and Voldemort walks into the castle with his
body, triumphant at having defeated him. Of course, at this point,
Harry reveals himself to be alive, and the real final duel takes place. Resolution.
Harry urges Voldemort to feel some
remorse for what he did, but instead, Voldemort fires a last
killing curse at Harry. Harry uses a disarming spell,
causing the killing curse to rebound and kill Voldemort. Denouement. The wizarding
world returns to peace, and we see a future flash forward where Harry
is sending his own kids off to Hogwarts. [MUSIC]