Dramatic Plot &

its Division

Dr Farida Panhwar
Institute of English Language & Literature
University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan
 Dramatic plot

■ Every dramatic story arises out of some conflict some

clash of opposed individuals, or passions, or interests
between good and evil.
■ Or as embodied respectively in the hero and the villain.
■ Or against fate or circumstance, as in Oedipus the King.
■ Or against the code or conventions of society, as in An
Enemy of the People.
■ Or the collision of the hero with inward struggle of the
man with himself, like Hamlet and Macbeth -
 Dramatic plot
■ The word ' incident ' is the starting-point is the
motive-principle of the plot.
■ It may cover mental (Hamlet) processes as well as
external events.
■ In many cases we may distinguish two springs of action
: as in Romeo and Juliet, where the conflict arises both
from Romeo's determination to attend the Capulets ball
and from the resolve of Juliet's parents to marry her to
the County Paris.
■ Of course in a play composed of two or more stories,
each story will have its initial incident ; and these initial
incidents may or may not occur close together.
 The movement of the plot

■ With the opening of this conflict the real plot

begins; leading actions towards the end.
■ Between the beginning and end the story will be
composed of fluctuations of the inner or outer
struggle.
■ Thus the movement of the plot will necessarily
follow a fairly well-defined and uniform course .
 The dramatic line.

■ The complications arise from the initial clash of

opposed forces will continue to increase until a
point is reached at which a decisive turn is taken
in favour of one side or the other.
■ After which, the progress towards the final
triumph of good over evil or of evil over good.
■ This is sometimes called the dramatic line.
 Division of Dramatic Plot

■ Hudson follows the Freytag’s Pyramid structure of Plot

that describes the five key stages of a story, offering a
conceptual framework for writing a story. These stages
are:
1. Exposition
2. Rising Action, Complication
3. Climax or Turning Point
4. The Falling Action, Resolution, or Denouement
5. Catastrophe or conclusion.
 1. Exposition
■ This part of the story primarily introduces
the major fictional elements – the setting,
characters, style, etc.
■ The word ' incident ' is the starting-point is the
motive-principle of the plot.
■ In many cases we may distinguish two springs of
action : as in Romeo and Juliet, where the conflict
arises both from Romeo's determination to attend
the Capulets ball and from the resolve of Juliet's
parents to marry her to the County Paris.
 1. Exposition
■ Drama begins with some initial incident in which
the conflict originates.
■ In the opening scenes only those details will be
given which are needed for the comprehension of
the first stages of the action, other particulars
being left for later introduction.
■ Good exposition will take the form of dialogue
which seems in the circumstances to be natural
and appropriate, which is put into the mouths of
characters who are made at once to interest us.
 1. Exposition
■ The purpose of the introduction or exposition is
to put the spectator in possession of all such
information as is necessary for the proper
understanding of the play.
■ Also the character whose fortunes he hopes soon
to be interested, but of whom and of whose
circumstances he for the moment knows nothing ;
and it is essential that he should learn as quickly
as possible who and what they are.
■ The opening scene or scenes largely occupied
with explanatory matter.
 2. Complication
■ The rising action explores the story’s conflict
where things “get worse”.
■ It provides necessary information for the proper
understanding of the play, character whose
fortunes he hopes soon to be interested and
circumstances
■ In rising action, as the conflict unfolds, the reader
should learn more about the characters’ motives,
the world of the story, the themes .
 2. Complication

• One special feature of the complication is that during the

rising action the elements in the conflict come into
prominence, for good or evil, as the chief agents in
bringing about the catastrophe.
• If the conflict is mainly between persons or two forces.
• Then the first part of the play should familiarise us with
the characters who are dominated the second part.
• If it lies mainly in the mind of the hero, then by the
careful presentation of those qualities which are presently
to gain control, the conduct should be foreshadowed
which will lead him to happiness or disaster.
 2. Complication

■ Complication or crisis tests the dramatist's

workmanship by the elementary canons of
clearness and logical consistency.
■ Given the characters and their circumstances, then
every event should appear to grow naturally out of
what preceded it.
■ The movement of the action as a whole should
never be obscured by unimportant details.
■ The play of motives should be distinctly shown,
and proper relations between character and action
should be carefully maintained.
 2. Complication

■ The great law of the crisis is that it shall be the

natural and logical outcome of 'all that has gone
before.
■ which means that we shall be able to explain it
completely by reference to the characters and to
the condition of things existing at the time.
■ An event which is to determine the whole course
of the action to its catastrophe should thus arise
out of the action itself ; it should not be a mere
accident thrown into the plot from the outside.
 3. Climax
■ Climax, Crisis or Turning Point, at which one of
the contending forces obtains control henceforth,
its ultimate success is assured .
■ Complication or crisis tests the dramatist's
workmanship by the elementary canons of
clearness and logical consistency.
■ Given the characters and their circumstances, then
every event should appear to grow naturally out
of what preceded it.
■ The movement of the action as a whole should
never be obscured by unimportant details.
 3. Climax
■ The play of motives should be distinctly shown,
and proper relations between character and action
should be carefully maintained.
■ Here, the story’s conflict peaks and we learn the
fate of the main characters.
■ A lot of writers write short, fast, and
action-packed, while some stories climax is
streched.
 3. Climax
■ Whether the climax is only one scene or several
chapters but remember that climax isn’t just the
turning point in the story’s plot structure, but also
its themes and ideas and it is readers’ emotional
takeaway.
■ For playwrights, the climax is usually the middle
act, though of course not every theatrical
production follows the rules.
 4. Falling Action
■ The story shifts to action that happens as a result
of the climax, which can also contain
a reversal (when the character shows how they are
changed by events of the climax).
■ In falling action, the writer explores the aftermath
of the climax where the writer must start to tie up
loose ends from the main conflict, explore broader
concepts and themes, and push the story towards
some form of a resolution.
 4. Falling Action
■ One special feature of the complication is that during the
rising action the elements in the conflict come into
prominence, for good or evil, as the chief agents in
bringing about the catastrophe.
■ If the conflict is mainly between persons, then the first
part of the play should familiarise us with the characters
who are dominated the second part ; if it lies mainly in
the mind of the hero, then by the careful presentation of
those qualities which are presently to gain control, the
conduct should be foreshadowed which will lead him to
happiness or disaster.
 4. Falling Action
■ The great law of the crisis is that it shall be the natural
and logical outcome of 'all that has gone before.
■ which means
■ that we shall be able to explain it completely by
reference to the characters and to the condition of things
existing at the time.
■ An event which is to determine the whole course of the
action to its catastrophe should thus arise out of the
action itself ; it should not be a mere accident thrown into
the plot from the outside.
 4. Falling Action
■ If the rising action pushes the story away from
“normal,” the falling action is a return to a “new
normal,” though rising and falling action look
dramatically different.
■ When writing the story’s falling action, be sure to
expand on the world of the story, the mysteries
that lie within that world, and whatever else
makes your story compelling.
 5. Denouement

■ The crisis past, we enter to its conclusion

whether the play is to have a happy or an
unhappy ending.
■ In comedy it will take the form of the
gradual withdrawal of the obstacles, the
clearing difficulties and misunderstandings,
by which the wishes of the hero and heroine
have been thwarted and their good fortune
jeopardised.
 5. Denouement
■ In tragedy, on the contrary, its essence will consist
in the removal of those resisting elements which
have held the power of evil in check, and in the
consequent setting free of that power to work out
its own will.
■ In any case, what remains after the crisis is the
development of the new movement and to the
extent to which we now foresee the outcome of
events.
 5. Denouement
■ Now we have watched the plot with growing uncertainty
and suspense.
■ Now, uncertainty and suspense being largely set at rest,
■ our interest will be due in part to that sympathy with the
characters which makes us desirous of following their
story to its very close, in part to the dramatist's skill in the
treatment of the incidents by which the anticipated results
are to be accomplished.
 5. Denouement
■ The Conclusion, Denouement or Catastrophe, in which
the conflict is brought to a close. Now is the ultimate
stage of the plot, in which the dramatic conflict is brought
to rest with a sense of finality or conclusion.
■ It is usual to distinguish between the two chief kinds of
drama comedy and tragedy by reference to the nature of
the catastrophe: the one having a happy, the other an
unhappy, ending.
■ There are many plays, in which, as in the tragi-comedy
where the interest of the plot is largely tragic, though at
the last the Fates smile on most of the good characters.
 5. Denouement
■ Moreover, whether the catastrophe be in the main
unhappy
■ or happy, it may be qualified in various ways.
■ In tragedy the darkness may be somewhat broken
by a suggestion that virtue has not suffered nor
good been overcome in vain ; while in a
comedy-close our sympathetic interest has been
specially aroused.