Personally, they have never been useful to me. But Jeff Kitchen, in his book Writing a Great Movie, brilliantly uses these dramatic situations to create a screenplay. Perhaps some of the situations will help novice screenwriters come up with unexpected moves in their plots.
1. PRAYER. Elements of the situation: 1) the pursuer, 2) the persecuted and begging for protection, help, shelter, forgiveness, etc., 3) the force on which it depends to provide protection, etc., while the force does not immediately decide to protect , hesitant, unsure of herself, which is why you have to beg her (thereby increasing the emotional impact of the situation), the more she hesitates and does not dare to provide help. Examples: 1) a person fleeing begs someone who can save him from his enemies, 2) begs for shelter in order to die in it, 3) a shipwrecked person asks for shelter, 4) asks those in power for dear, close people, 5) asks for one a relative for another relative, etc.
2. RESCUE. Elements of the situation: 1) unfortunate, 2) threatening, persecuting, 3) savior. This situation differs from the previous one in that there the persecuted person resorted to hesitant force, which had to be begged, but here the savior appears unexpectedly and saves the unfortunate man without hesitation. Examples: 1) interchange famous fairy tale about Bluebeard. 2) saving a person sentenced to death or generally in mortal danger, etc.
3. REVENGE FOLLOWING CRIME. Elements of the situation: 1) avenger, 2) guilty, 3) crime. Examples: 1) blood feud, 2) revenge on a rival or rival or lover or mistress out of jealousy.
4. REVENGE OF A CLOSE PERSON FOR ANOTHER CLOSE PERSON OR CLOSE PEOPLE. Elements of the situation: 1) living memory of the insult, harm inflicted on another loved one, the sacrifices he made for the sake of his loved ones, 2) an avenging relative, 3) the relative guilty of these insults, harm, etc. Examples: 1) revenge on a father for his mother or mother on his father, 2) revenge on his brothers for his son, 3) on his father for his husband, 4) on his husband for his son, etc. Classic example: Hamlet’s revenge on his stepfather and mother for his murdered father .
5. PERSECUTED. Elements of the situation: 1) a crime committed or a fatal mistake and the expected punishment, retribution, 2) hiding from punishment, retribution for a crime or mistake. Examples: 1) persecuted by the authorities for politics (for example, “The Robbers” by Schiller, the history of the revolutionary struggle in the underground), 2) persecuted for robbery ( detective stories), 3) persecuted for a mistake in love (“Don Juan” by Moliere, alimony stories, etc.), 4) a hero pursued by a force superior to him (“Chained Prometheus” by Aeschylus, etc.).
6. SUDDEN DISASTER. Elements of the situation: 1) the victorious enemy, appearing in person; or a messenger bringing terrible news of defeat, collapse, etc., 2) a defeated ruler, a powerful banker, an industrial king, etc., defeated by a winner or struck down by the news. Examples: 1) the fall of Napoleon, 2) “Money” by Zola, 3 ) “The End of Tartarin” by Anfons Daudet, etc.
7. VICTIM (i.e. someone, a victim of some other person or people, or a victim of some circumstances, some misfortune). Elements of the situation: 1) one who can influence the fate of another person in the sense of his oppression or some kind of misfortune. 2) weak, being a victim of another person or misfortune. Examples: 1) ruined or exploited by someone who was supposed to care and protect, 2) previously loved or loved one finding themselves forgotten, 3) unfortunate, having lost all hope, etc.
8. OUTRAGE, REVOLT, REBELLION. Elements of the situation: 1) tyrant, 2) conspirator. Examples: 1) a conspiracy of one (“The Fiesco Conspiracy” by Schiller), 2) a conspiracy of several, 3) the indignation of one (“Egmond” by Goethe), 4) the indignation of many (“William Tell” by Schiller, “Germinal” by Zola)
9. A BOLD ATTEMPT. Elements of the situation: 1) the daring person, 2) the object, i.e., what the daring person decides to do, 3) the opponent, the opposing person. Examples: 1) theft of an object (“Prometheus - the Thief of Fire” by Aeschylus). 2) enterprises associated with dangers and adventures (novels by Jules Verne, and adventure stories in general), 3) a dangerous enterprise in connection with the desire to achieve the woman he loves, etc.
10. KIDNAPPING. Elements of the situation: 1) the kidnapper, 2) the kidnapped, 3) protecting the kidnapped and being an obstacle to the kidnapping or opposing the kidnapping. Examples: 1) abduction of a woman without her consent, 2) abduction of a woman with her consent, 3) abduction of a friend, comrade from captivity, prison, etc. 4) abduction of a child.
11. RIDDLE (i.e., on the one hand, asking a riddle, and on the other, asking, striving to solve the riddle). Elements of the situation: 1) asking a riddle, hiding something, 2) trying to solve a riddle, find out something, 3) the subject of a riddle or ignorance (mysterious) Examples: 1) under pain of death, you need to find some person or object, 2 ) to find the lost, lost, 3) on pain of death to solve the riddle (Oedipus and the Sphinx), 4) to force a person with all sorts of tricks to reveal what he wants to hide (name, gender, state of mind etc.)
12. ACHIEVEMENT OF SOMETHING. Elements of the situation: 1) someone striving to achieve something, seeking something, 2) someone on whom the achievement of something depends for consent or help, refusing or helping, mediating, 3) there may be a third party - a party opposing the achievement. Examples: 1) try to get from the owner a thing or some other benefit in life, consent to marriage, position, money, etc. by cunning or force, 2) try to get something or achieve something with the help of eloquence (directly addressed to the owner of the thing or to the judge, arbitrators on whom the award of the thing depends)
13. HATRED TO YOUR LOVED ONES. Elements of the situation: 1) the hater, 2) the hated, 3) the cause of hatred. Examples: 1) hatred between loved ones (for example, brothers) out of envy, 2) hatred between loved ones (for example, a son hating his father) for reasons of material gain, 3) hatred of a mother-in-law for a future daughter-in-law, 4) mother-in-law for a son-in-law, 5) stepmothers to stepdaughter, etc.
14. Rivalry between relatives. Elements of the situation: 1) one of the close ones is preferred, 2) the other is neglected or abandoned, 3) an object of rivalry (in this case, apparently, a twist is possible: at first the preferred one is then neglected and vice versa) Examples: 1) rivalry between brothers (“Pierre and Jean” by Maupassant), 2) rivalry between sisters, 3) father and son - because of a woman, 4) mother and daughter, 5) rivalry between friends (“The Two Gentlemen of Verona” by Shakespeare)
15. ADULTURE (i.e. adultery, adultery), LEADING TO MURDER. Elements of the situation: 1) one of the spouses who violates marital fidelity, 2) the other spouse is deceived, 3) violation of marital fidelity (i.e., someone else is a lover or mistress). Examples: 1) kill or allow her lover to kill her husband (“Lady Macbeth Mtsensk district"Leskova, "Therese Raquin" by Zola, "The Power of Darkness" by Tolstoy) 2) kill a lover who entrusted his secret ("Samson and Delilah"), etc.
16. MADNESS. Elements of the situation: 1) a person who has fallen into madness (mad), 2) a victim of a person who has fallen into madness, 3) a real or imaginary reason for madness. Examples: 1) in a fit of madness, kill your lover (“The Prostitute Elisa” by Goncourt), a child, 2) in a fit of madness, burn, destroy your or someone else’s work, a work of art, 3) while drunk, reveal a secret or commit a crime.
17. FATAL NEGLIGENCE. The elements of the situation are: 1) a careless person, 2) a victim of carelessness or a lost object, sometimes accompanied by 3) a good adviser warning against carelessness, or 4) an instigator, or both. Examples: 1) through carelessness, be the cause of your own misfortune, dishonor yourself (“Money” by Zola), 2) through carelessness or gullibility, cause misfortune or the death of another person close to you (Biblical Eve)
18. INVOLVED (ignorant) CRIME OF LOVE (in particular incest). Elements of the situation: 1) lover (husband), mistress (wife), 3) recognition (in the case of incest) that they are in a close degree of relationship that does not allow love relationship according to the law and current morality. Examples: 1) find out that he married his mother (“Oedipus” by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Corneille, Voltaire), 2) find out that his mistress is his sister (“The Bride of Messina” by Schiller), 3) a very commonplace case: find out that his mistress - Married.
19. INVOLVED (OUT OF IGNORANCE) KILLING OF A CLOSE ONE. Elements of the situation: 1) killer, 2) unrecognized victim, 3) exposure, recognition. Examples: 1) unwittingly contribute to the murder of his daughter, out of hatred for her lover (“The King is Having Fun” by Hugo, the play on which the opera “Rigoletto” was made), 2) without knowing his father, kill him (“Freeloader” by Turgenev with the fact that murder replaced by an insult), etc.
20. SELF-SACRIFICE IN THE NAME OF AN IDEAL. Elements of the situation: 1) a hero sacrificing himself, 2) an ideal (word, duty, faith, conviction, etc.), 3) a sacrifice made. Examples: 1) sacrifice your well-being for the sake of duty (“Resurrection” by Tolstoy), 2) sacrifice your life in the name of faith, belief...
21. SELF-SACRIFICE FOR THE SAKE OF LOVED ONES. Elements of the situation: 1) the hero sacrificing himself, 2) the loved one for whom the hero sacrifices himself, 3) what the hero sacrifices. Examples: 1) sacrifice your ambition and success in life for the sake of loved one(“The Zemgano Brothers” by Goncourt), 2) to sacrifice one’s love for the sake of a child, for the life of a loved one, 3) to sacrifice one’s chastity for the sake of the life of a loved one or loved one (“Tosca” by Sordu), 4) to sacrifice one’s life for the sake of the life of a loved one or loved one, etc. d.
22. SACRIFICE EVERYTHING FOR PASSION. Elements of the situation: 1) the lover, 2) the object of fatal passion, 3) what is being sacrificed. Examples: 1) passion that destroys the vow of religious chastity (“The Mistake of Abbe Mouret” by Zola), 2) passion that destroys power, authority (“Antony and Cleopatra” by Shakespeare), 3) passion quenched at the cost of life (“Egyptian Nights” by Pushkin) . But not only passion for a woman, or women for a man, but also passion for racing, card games, wine, etc.
23. SACRIFICE A CLOSE PERSON DUE TO NECESSITY, INEVITABILITY. Elements of the situation: 1) a hero sacrificing a loved one, 2) a loved one who is being sacrificed. Examples: 1) the need to sacrifice a daughter for the sake of public interest (“Iphigenia” by Aeschylus and Sophocles, “Iphigenia in Tauris” by Euripides and Racine), 2) the need to sacrifice loved ones or one’s followers for the sake of one’s faith, belief (“93” by Hugo), etc. .d.
24. RIVALRY OF INEQUAL (as well as almost equal or equal). Elements of the situation: 1) one rival (in case of unequal rivalry - lower, weaker), 2) another rival (higher, stronger), 3) the subject of rivalry. Examples: 1) the rivalry between the winner and her prisoner (“Mary Stuart” by Schiller), 2) the rivalry between the rich and the poor. 3) rivalry between a person who is loved and a person who does not have the right to love (“Esmeralda” by V. Hugo), etc.
25. ADULTERY (adultery, adultery). Elements of the situation: the same as in adultery leading to murder. Not considering adultery to be capable of creating a situation in itself, Polti considers it as a special case of theft, aggravated by betrayal, while pointing out three possible cases: 1) the lover is more pleasant than firm than the deceived spouse ), 2) the lover is less attractive than the deceived spouse, 3) the deceived spouse takes revenge. Examples: 1) “Madame Bovary” by Flaubert, “The Kreutzer Sonata” by L. Tolstoy.
26. CRIME OF LOVE. Elements of the situation: 1) lover, 2) beloved. Examples: 1) a woman in love with her daughter’s husband (“Phaedra” by Sophocles and Racine, “Hippolytus” by Euripides and Seneca), 2) the incestuous passion of Doctor Pascal (in Zola’s novel of the same name), etc.
27. LEARNING ABOUT THE DISHONOR OF A LOVED OR RELATIVE (sometimes associated with the fact that the person who finds out is forced to pronounce a sentence, punish a loved one or loved one). Elements of the situation: 1) the person who recognizes, 2) the guilty loved one or loved one, 3) guilt. Examples: 1) learn about the dishonor of your mother, daughter, wife, 2) discover that your brother or son is a murderer, a traitor to the motherland and be forced to punish him, 3) be forced by virtue of an oath to kill a tyrant - to kill your father, etc. .
28. OBSTACLE OF LOVE. Elements of the situation: 1) lover, 2) mistress, 3) obstacle. Examples: 1) a marriage upset by social or wealth inequality, 2) a marriage upset by enemies or random circumstances, 3) a marriage upset by enmity between parents on both sides, 4) a marriage upset by dissimilarities in the characters of lovers, etc.
29. LOVE FOR THE ENEMY. Elements of the situation: 1) the enemy who aroused love, 2) the loving enemy, 3) the reason why the beloved is the enemy. Examples: 1) the beloved is an opponent of the party to which the lover belongs, 2) the beloved is the killer of the father, husband or relative of the one who loves him (“Romeo and Juliet”), etc.
30. AMBITION AND LOVE OF POWER. Elements of the situation: 1) an ambitious person, 2) what he wants, 3) an opponent or rival, i.e. a person opposing. Examples: 1) ambition, greed, leading to crimes (“Macbeth” and “Richard 3” by Shakespeare, “The Rougons’ Career” and “Land” by Zola), 2) ambition, leading to rebellion, 3) ambition, which is opposed by a loved one, friend, relative, own supporters, etc.
31. FIGHTING GOD (struggle against God). Elements of the situation: 1) man, 2) god, 3) the reason or subject of struggle. Examples: 1) fighting with God, arguing with him, 2) fighting with those faithful to God (Julian the Apostate), etc.
32. UNCONSCIOUS JEALOUSY, ENVY. Elements of the situation: 1) the jealous person, the envious person, 2) the object of his jealousy and envy, 3) the alleged rival, challenger, 4) the reason for the error or the culprit (traitor). Examples: 1) jealousy is caused by a traitor who is motivated by hatred (“Othello”) 2) the traitor acts out of profit or jealousy (“Cunning and Love” by Schiller), etc.
33. JUDICIAL MISTAKE. Elements of the situation: 1) the one who is mistaken, 2) the victim of the mistake, 3) the subject of the mistake, 4) the true criminal Examples: 1) a miscarriage of justice is provoked by an enemy (“The Belly of Paris” by Zola), 2) a miscarriage of justice is provoked by a loved one, the brother of the victim (“The Robbers” by Schiller), etc.
34. REMENTS OF CONSCIENCE. Elements of the situation: 1) the culprit, 2) the victim of the culprit (or his mistake), 3) looking for the culprit, trying to expose him. Examples: 1) remorse of a murderer (“Crime and Punishment”), 2) remorse due to a mistake in love (“Madeleine” by Zola), etc.
35. LOST AND FOUND. Elements of the situation: 1) lost 2) found, 2) found. Examples: 1) “Children of Captain Grant”, etc.
36. LOSS OF LOVED ONES. Elements of the situation: 1) a deceased loved one, 2) a lost loved one, 3) the perpetrator of the death of a loved one. Examples: 1) powerless to do anything (save his loved ones) - a witness to their death, 2) being bound by a professional secret (medical or secret confession, etc.) he sees the misfortune of loved ones, 3) to anticipate the death of a loved one, 4) to find out about the death of an ally, 5) in despair from the death of a loved one, lose all interest in life, become depressed, etc.
36 dramatic situations BY GEORGE POLTI
In one of his “Paris Letters”, in the magazine “Theater and Art” (before the revolution), A.V. Lunacharsky wrote: In “Goethe’s Conversations with Eckermann” there is the following phrase from Goethe “Gozzi argued that there are only thirty-six tragic situations. Schiller racked his brains for a long time to discover more, but he didn’t even find as much as Gozzi. “This is truly impressive. Gozzi was one of the wittiest writers of the 18th century. And next to him, such playwrights as Goethe and Schiller agree with the thesis of the extraordinary. at first glance, the limitations of dramatic situations. Polti found all thirty-six and lists them, at the same time giving a huge mass of transitions and options.
How did he search? For this purpose he studied, analyzed and categorized twelve hundred dramatic works from the literature of all times and peoples, traced the fate of eight thousand characters. Of course, he does not see anything cabalistic in the number thirty-six. He understands that he can easily disagree with him, compress two situations into one, or count two variations as two situations, but still have to revolve around the number thirty-six...
36 dramatic situations BY GEORGE POLTI
In one of his “Paris Letters”, in the magazine “Theater and Art” (before the revolution), A.V. Lunacharsky wrote: In “Goethe’s Conversations with Eckermann” there is the following phrase from Goethe “Gozzi argued that there are only thirty-six tragic situations. Schiller racked his brains for a long time to discover more, but he didn’t even find as much as Gozzi. “This is truly impressive. Gozzi was one of the wittiest writers of the 18th century. And next to him, playwrights like Goethe and Schiller agree with the thesis of the extraordinary. at first glance, the limitations of dramatic situations. Polti found all thirty-six and lists them, at the same time giving a huge mass of transitions and options.
How did he search? For this purpose, he studied, analyzed and divided into categories one thousand two hundred dramatic works from the literature of all times and peoples, and traced the fate of eight thousand characters. Of course, he does not see anything cabalistic in the number thirty-six. He understands that he can easily disagree with him, compress two situations into one, or count two variations as two situations, but still have to revolve around the number thirty-six...
“When I looked through Polti's list of basic situations, I tried to check it. I must admit, no matter how much I strained my imagination, with every discovery it turned out that what I took to be a new situation was already provided for by the author as some radical variation of the situation he had already given... But, on the contrary, it seemed to me that that Polti boasted. If Schiller modestly declared that he had not found thirty-six basic situations, then Polti surpassed him, only more or less skillfully doubling, and sometimes even tripling, in my opinion, one basic note. “For all its paradoxical nature, the book deserves attention and can be useful” (A. Lunacharsky “Theater and Revolution.” Gosizdat, 1924, p. 379. “Thirty-six plots”) Below we present in an abbreviated summary all thirty-six situations and We suggest working through it as educational material.
In this case, you need to keep in mind the following: these are not plots, but motives, situations (i.e. situations), which are sometimes the main thing in the plot, plot-forming, but even more often they are found in all sorts of combinations. The number of combinations of these situations is infinitely large. There is a rich field for imagination, which will be interested in such work.
The weak point in Polti's work is its ahistorical nature. Because of this, along with plot provisions that remain in full force today, there are also situations that today either do not sound at all, or are implemented in a different capacity, with a different content of real human relations, since the structure of society, worldview, and legislation have changed about family and marriage, etc. d.
Lunacharsky points out another weak point in his work: Polti’s classification of situations is still quite arbitrary, there is no single principle of classification: variants of one situation become independent situations, and within the framework of one situation situations that could be considered as independent are given as its variants .
The educational study of this material would be conceived in this way: 1) find the correspondence of this or that situation to real relationships in our reality, 2) give your own examples of each situation from literature, plays, films, 3) practice combining different situations into one complex plot, 4) and, of course, look for new situations 1, especially based on real life.
Let's look at these dramatic situations.
1st situation - PRAY . Elements of the situation: 1) the pursuer, 2) the persecuted and begging for protection, help, shelter, forgiveness, etc., 3) the force on which it depends to provide protection, etc., while the force does not immediately decide to protect , hesitant, unsure of herself, which is why you have to beg her (thereby increasing the emotional impact of the situation), the more she hesitates and does not dare to provide help. Examples: 1) a person fleeing begs someone who can save him from his enemies, 2) begs for shelter in order to die in it, 3) a shipwrecked person asks for shelter, 4) asks those in power for dear, close people, 5) asks for one a relative for another relative, etc.
2nd situation - RESCUE. Elements of the situation: 1) unfortunate, 2) threatening, persecuting, 3) savior. This situation differs from the previous one in that there the persecuted person resorted to hesitant force, which had to be begged, but here the savior appears unexpectedly and saves the unfortunate man without hesitation. Examples: 1) the denouement of the famous fairy tale about Bluebeard. 2) saving a person sentenced to death or generally in mortal danger, etc.
3rd situation - REVENGE FOLLOWING A CRIME. Elements of the situation: 1) avenger, 2) guilty, 3) crime. Examples: 1) blood feud, 2) revenge on a rival or rival or lover, or mistress out of jealousy.
4th situation - REVENGE OF A CLOSE PERSON FOR ANOTHER CLOSE PERSON OR CLOSE PEOPLE, Elements of the situation: 1) living memory of the insult, harm inflicted on another loved one, the sacrifices he made for his own. Close ones, 2) an avenging relative, 3) a relative who is guilty of these insults, harm, etc. Examples: 1) revenge on a father for his mother or a mother on his father, 2) revenge on his brothers for his son, 3) on his father for his husband, 4) on his husband for his son, etc. Classic example: Hamlet’s revenge on his stepfather and his mother for his murdered man father.
5th situation - PERSECUTED. Elements of the situation: 1) a crime committed or a fatal mistake and the expected punishment, retribution, 2) hiding from punishment, retribution for a crime or mistake. Examples: 1) persecuted by the authorities for politics (for example, “The Robbers” by Schiller, the history of the revolutionary struggle in the underground), 2) persecuted for robbery (detective stories), 3) persecuted for a mistake in love (“Don Juan” by Moliere, alimony stories and etc.), 4) a hero pursued by a force superior to him ("Chained Prometheus" by Aeschylus, etc.).
6th situation - SUDDEN DISASTER. Elements of the situation: 1) the victorious enemy, appearing in person; or a messenger bringing terrible news of defeat, collapse, etc., 2) a defeated ruler, a powerful banker, an industrial king, etc., defeated by a winner or struck down by the news. Examples: 1) the fall of Napoleon, 2) “Money” by Zola, 3 ) “The End of Tartarin” by Anfons Daudet, etc.
7th situation - VICTIM (i.e. someone, a victim of some other person or people, or a victim of some circumstances, some misfortune). Elements of the situation: 1) one who can influence the fate of another person in the sense of his oppression or some kind of misfortune. 2) weak, being a victim of another person or misfortune. Examples: 1) ruined or exploited by someone who was supposed to care and protect, 2) a previously loved one or loved one who finds themselves forgotten, 3) unfortunate ones who have lost all hope, etc.
8th situation - OUTRAGE, REVOLT, REBELLION. Elements of the situation: 1) tyrant, 2) conspirator. Examples: 1) a conspiracy of one (“The Fiesco Conspiracy” by Schiller), 2) a conspiracy of several, 3) the indignation of one (“Egmond” by Goethe), 4) the indignation of many (“William Tell” by Schiller, “Germinal” by Zola)
9th situation - BOLD ATTEMPT. Elements of the situation: 1) the daring person, 2) the object, i.e., what the daring person decides to do, 3) the opponent, the opposing person. Examples: 1) theft of an object (“Prometheus - the Thief of Fire” by Aeschylus). 2) enterprises associated with dangers and adventures (novels by Jules Verne, and adventure stories in general), 3) a dangerous enterprise in connection with the desire to achieve the woman he loves, etc.
10th situation - ABDUCTION. Elements of the situation: 1) the kidnapper, 2) the kidnapped, 3) protecting the kidnapped and being an obstacle to the kidnapping or opposing the kidnapping. Examples: 1) abduction of a woman without her consent, 2) abduction of a woman with her consent, 3) abduction of a friend, comrade from captivity, prison, etc. 4) abduction of a child.
11th situation - RIDDLE, (i.e., on the one hand, asking a riddle, and on the other, asking, striving to solve the riddle). Elements of the situation: 1) asking a riddle, hiding something, 2) trying to solve a riddle, find out something, 3) the subject of a riddle or ignorance (mysterious) Examples: 1) under pain of death, you need to find some person or object, 2 ) to find the lost, lost, 3) to solve the riddle under pain of death (Oedipus and the Sphinx), 4) to force a person with all sorts of tricks to reveal what he wants to hide (name, gender, state of mind, etc.)
12th situation - ACHIEVEMENT OF SOMETHING. Elements of the situation: 1) someone striving to achieve something, seeking something, 2) someone on whom the achievement of something depends for consent or help, refusing or helping, mediating, 3) there may be a third party - a party opposing the achievement. Examples: 1) try to get from the owner a thing or some other benefit in life, consent to marriage, position, money, etc. by cunning or force, 2) try to get something or achieve something with the help of eloquence (directly addressed to the owner of the thing or to the judge, arbitrators on whom the award of the thing depends)
13th situation - HATRED FOR YOUR FAMILY. Elements of the situation: 1) the hater, 2) the hated, 3) the cause of hatred. Examples: 1) hatred between loved ones (for example, brothers) out of envy, 2) hatred between loved ones (for example, a son hating his father) for reasons of material gain, 3) hatred of a mother-in-law for a future daughter-in-law, 4) mother-in-law for a son-in-law, 5) stepmothers to stepdaughter, etc.
Situation 14 - Rivalry between relatives . Elements of the situation: 1) one of the close ones is preferred, 2) the other is neglected or abandoned, 3) an object of rivalry (in this case, apparently, a twist is possible: at first the preferred one is then neglected and vice versa) Examples: 1) rivalry between brothers (“Pierre and Jean” by Maupassant), 2) rivalry between sisters, 3) father and son - because of a woman, 4) mother and daughter, 5) rivalry between friends (“The Two Gentlemen of Verona” by Shakespeare)
Situation 15 - ADULTURE (i.e. adultery, adultery), LEADING TO MURDER. Elements of the situation: 1) one of the spouses who violates marital fidelity, 2) the other spouse is deceived, 3) violation of marital fidelity (i.e., someone else is a lover or mistress). Examples: 1) kill or allow your lover to kill your husband (“Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” by Leskov, “Thérèse Raquin” by Zola, “The Power of Darkness” by Tolstoy) 2) kill a lover who entrusted his secret (“Samson and Delilah”), etc. .
Situation 16 - MADNESS . Elements of the situation: 1) a person who has fallen into madness (mad), 2) a victim of a person who has fallen into madness, 3) a real or imaginary reason for madness. Examples: 1) in a fit of madness, kill your lover (“The Prostitute Elisa” by Goncourt), a child, 2) in a fit of madness, burn, destroy your or someone else’s work, a work of art, 3) while drunk, reveal a secret or commit a crime.
17th situation - FATAL NEGLIGENCE . The elements of the situation are: 1) a careless person, 2) a victim of carelessness or a lost item, sometimes accompanied by 3) a good adviser warning against carelessness, or 4) an instigator, or both. Examples: 1) through carelessness, be the cause of your own misfortune, dishonor yourself (“Money” by Zola), 2) through carelessness or gullibility, cause misfortune or the death of another person close to you (Biblical Eve)
Situation 18 - INVOLVED (out of ignorance) CRIME OF LOVE(in particular incest). Elements of the situation: 1) lover (husband), mistress (wife), 3) learning (in the case of incest) that they are in a close degree of relationship, which does not allow love relationships according to the law and current morality. Examples: 1) find out that he married his mother (“Oedipus” by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Corneille, Voltaire), 2) find out that his mistress is his sister (“The Bride of Messina” by Schiller), 3) a very commonplace case: find out that his mistress - Married.
Situation 19 - INVOLVED (unknowingly) KILLING A CLOSE ONE. Elements of the situation: 1) killer, 2) unrecognized victim, 3) exposure, recognition. Examples: 1) unwittingly contribute to the murder of his daughter, out of hatred for her lover (“The King is Having Fun” by Hugo, the play on which the opera “Rigoletto” was made), 2) without knowing his father, kill him (“Freeloader” by Turgenev with the fact that murder replaced by an insult), etc.
20th situation - SELF-SACRIFICATION IN THE NAME OF AN IDEAL. Elements of the situation: 1) a hero sacrificing himself, 2) an ideal (word, duty, faith, conviction, etc.), 3) a sacrifice made. Examples: 1) sacrifice your well-being for the sake of duty (“Resurrection” by Tolstoy), 2) sacrifice your life in the name of faith, belief...
Situation 21 - SELF-SACRIFICATION FOR THE SAKE OF LOVED ONES. Elements of the situation: 1) the hero sacrificing himself, 2) the loved one for whom the hero sacrifices himself, 3) what the hero sacrifices. Examples: 1) sacrifice your ambition and success in life for the sake of a loved one (“The Zemgano Brothers” by Goncourt), 2) sacrifice your love for the sake of a child, for the life of a loved one, 3) sacrifice your chastity for the life of a loved one (“Longing” by Sordu ), 4) sacrifice life for the life of a loved one, etc.
22nd situation - SACRIFICE EVERYTHING - FOR THE SAKE OF PASSION. Elements of the situation: 1) the lover, 2) the object of fatal passion, 3) what is being sacrificed. Examples: 1) passion that destroys the vow of religious chastity (“The Mistake of Abbe Mouret” by Zola), 2) passion that destroys power, authority (“Antony and Cleopatra” by Shakespeare), 3) passion quenched at the cost of life (“Egyptian Nights” by Pushkin) . But not only passion for a woman, or women for a man, but also passion for racing, card games, wine, etc.
23rd situation - SACRIFICE A CLOSE PERSON DUE TO NECESSITY, INEVITABILITY , Elements of the situation: 1) a hero sacrificing a loved one, 2) a loved one who is being sacrificed. Examples: 1) the need to sacrifice a daughter for the sake of public interest (“Iphigenia” by Aeschylus and Sophocles, “Iphigenia in Tauris” by Euripides and Racine), 2) the need to sacrifice loved ones or one’s followers for the sake of one’s faith, belief (“93” by Hugo), etc. .d.
24th situation - RIVALRY OF INEQUALS (as well as almost equal or equal). Elements of the situation: 1) one rival (in case of unequal rivalry - lower, weaker), 2) another rival (higher, stronger), 3) the subject of rivalry. Examples: 1) the rivalry between the winner and her prisoner (“Mary Stuart” by Schiller), 2) the rivalry between the rich and the poor. 3) rivalry between a person who is loved and a person who does not have the right to love (“Esmeralda” by V. Hugo), etc.
25th situation - ADULTURE (adultery, adultery). Elements of the situation: the same as in adultery leading to murder. Not considering adultery to be capable of creating a situation in itself, Polti considers it as a special case of theft, aggravated by betrayal, while pointing out three possible cases: 1) the lover is more pleasant than firm than the deceived spouse ), 2) the lover is less attractive than the deceived spouse, 3) the deceived spouse takes revenge. Examples: 1) “Madame Bovary” by Flaubert, “The Kreutzer Sonata” by L. Tolstoy.
Situation 26 - CRIME OF LOVE . Elements of the situation: 1) lover, 2) beloved. Examples: 1) a woman in love with her daughter’s husband (“Phaedra” by Sophocles and Racine, “Hippolytus” by Euripides and Seneca), 2) the incestuous passion of Doctor Pascal (in Zola’s novel of the same name), etc.
27th situation - LEARNING ABOUT THE DISHONOR OF A LOVED OR RELATIVE (sometimes related to the fact that the person who finds out is forced to pronounce a sentence, punish a loved one or loved one). Elements of the situation: 1) the person who recognizes, 2) the guilty loved one or loved one, 3) guilt. Examples: 1) learn about the dishonor of your mother, daughter, wife, 2) discover that your brother or son is a murderer, a traitor to the motherland and be forced to punish him, 3) be forced by virtue of an oath to kill a tyrant - to kill your father, etc. .
28th situation - OBSTACLE OF LOVE. Elements of the situation: 1) lover, 2) mistress, 3) obstacle. Examples: 1) a marriage upset by social or wealth inequality, 2) a marriage upset by enemies or random circumstances, 3) a marriage upset by enmity between parents on both sides, 4) a marriage upset by dissimilarities in the characters of lovers, etc.
Situation 29 - LOVE FOR THE ENEMY. Elements of the situation: 1) the enemy who aroused love, 2) the loving enemy, 3) the reason why the beloved is the enemy. Examples: 1) the beloved is an opponent of the party to which the lover belongs, 2) the beloved is the killer of the father, husband or relative of the one who loves him (“Romeo and Juliet”), etc.
30th situation - AMBITION AND LOVE OF POWER. Elements of the situation: 1) an ambitious person, 2) what he wants, 3) an opponent or rival, i.e. a person opposing. Examples: 1) ambition, greed, leading to crimes (“Macbeth” and “Richard 3” by Shakespeare, “The Rougons’ Career” and “Land” by Zola), 2) ambition, leading to rebellion, 3) ambition, which is opposed by a loved one, friend, relative, own supporters, etc.
Situation 31 - FIGHTING GOD (fight against God) Elements of the situation: 1) man, 2) God, 3) the reason or subject of the struggle Examples: 1) fight with God, arguing with him, 2) fight with those faithful to God (Julian the Apostate), etc.
32nd situation - UNCONSCIOUS JEALOUSY, ENVY. Elements of the situation: 1) the jealous person, the envious person, 2) the object of his jealousy and envy, 3) the alleged rival, challenger, 4) the reason for the error or the culprit (traitor). Examples: 1) jealousy is caused by a traitor who is motivated by hatred (“Othello”) 2) the traitor acts out of profit or jealousy (“Cunning and Love” by Schiller), etc.
33rd situation - JUDICIAL MISTAKE. Elements of the situation: 1) the one who is mistaken, 2) the victim of the mistake, 3) the subject of the mistake, 4) the true criminal Examples: 1) a miscarriage of justice is provoked by an enemy (“The Belly of Paris” by Zola), 2) a miscarriage of justice is provoked by a loved one, the brother of the victim (“The Robbers” by Schiller), etc.
Situation 34 - REMENTS OF CONSCIENCE. Elements of the situation: 1) the culprit, 2) the victim of the culprit (or his mistake), 3) looking for the culprit, trying to expose him. Examples: 1) remorse of a murderer (“Crime and Punishment”), 2) remorse due to a mistake in love (“Madeleine” by Zola), etc.
Situation 35 - LOST AND FOUND. Elements of the situation: 1) lost 2) found, 2) found. Examples: 1) “Children of Captain Grant”, etc.
Situation 36 - LOSS OF LOVED ONES. Elements of the situation: 1) a deceased loved one, 2) a lost loved one, 3) the perpetrator of the death of a loved one. Examples: 1) powerless to do anything (save his loved ones) - a witness to their death, 2) being bound by a professional secret (medical or secret confession, etc.) he sees the misfortune of loved ones, 3) to anticipate the death of a loved one, 4) to find out about the death of an ally, 5) in despair from the death of a loved one, lose all interest in life, become depressed, etc.
So, Georges Polti (1868 - 1946) - French writer, translator, literary and theater critic, fellow student of the famous French occultist Papus. In 1895, Polti published his most famous work, “36 Dramatic Situations,” which was the result of an analysis of one thousand two hundred dramatic works of various authors and eras. Of course, there are a great many variations of these basic plots, but Polti tried to fit them into his classification, making it very flexible. Indeed, it is extremely difficult to come up with a plot that in no way falls under at least one of the proposed variations. Therefore, I propose to get acquainted with the classification proposed by the Frenchman and make sure that it does not lose its relevance today.
1st situation - PRAY. Elements of the situation: 1) the pursuer, 2) the persecuted and begging for protection, help, shelter, forgiveness, etc., 3) the force on which it depends to provide protection, etc., while the force does not immediately decide to protect , hesitant, unsure of herself, which is why you have to beg her (thereby increasing the emotional impact of the situation), the more she hesitates and does not dare to provide help. Examples: 1) a person fleeing begs someone who can save him from his enemies, 2) begs for shelter in order to die in it, 3) a shipwrecked person asks for shelter, 4) asks those in power for dear, close people, 5) asks for one a relative for another relative, etc.
2nd situation - RESCUE. Elements of the situation: 1) unfortunate, 2) threatening, persecuting, 3) savior. This situation differs from the previous one in that there the persecuted person resorted to hesitant force, which had to be begged, but here the savior appears unexpectedly and saves the unfortunate man without hesitation. Examples: 1) the denouement of the famous fairy tale about Bluebeard. 2) saving a person sentenced to death or generally in mortal danger, etc.
3rd situation - REVENGE FOLLOWING A CRIME. Elements of the situation: 1) avenger, 2) guilty, 3) crime. Examples: 1) blood feud, 2) revenge on a rival or rival or lover, or mistress out of jealousy.
4th situation - REVENGE OF A CLOSE PERSON FOR ANOTHER CLOSE PERSON OR CLOSE PEOPLE. Elements of the situation: 1) living memory of the insult, harm inflicted on another loved one, the sacrifices he made for his own. Close ones, 2) an avenging relative, 3) a relative who is guilty of these insults, harm, etc. Examples: 1) revenge on a father for his mother or a mother on his father, 2) revenge on his brothers for his son, 3) on his father for his husband, 4) on his husband for his son, etc. Classic example: Hamlet’s revenge on his stepfather and his mother for his murdered man father.
5th situation - PERSECUTED. Elements of the situation: 1) a crime committed or a fatal mistake and the expected punishment, retribution, 2) hiding from punishment, retribution for a crime or mistake. Examples: 1) persecuted by the authorities for politics (for example, “The Robbers” by Schiller, the history of the revolutionary struggle in the underground), 2) persecuted for robbery (detective stories), 3) persecuted for a mistake in love (“Don Juan” by Moliere, alimony stories and etc.), 4) a hero pursued by a force superior to him (“Chained Prometheus” by Aeschylus, etc.).
6th situation - SUDDEN DISASTER. Elements of the situation: 1) the victorious enemy, appearing in person; or a messenger bringing terrible news of defeat, collapse, etc., 2) a defeated ruler, a powerful banker, an industrial king, etc., defeated by a winner or struck down by the news. Examples: 1) the fall of Napoleon, 2) “Money” by Zola, 3 ) “The End of Tartarin” by Anfons Daudet, etc.
7th situation - VICTIM (i.e. someone, a victim of some other person or people, or a victim of some circumstances, some misfortune). Elements of the situation: 1) one who can influence the fate of another person in the sense of his oppression or some kind of misfortune. 2) weak, being a victim of another person or misfortune. Examples: 1) ruined or exploited by someone who was supposed to care and protect, 2) previously loved or loved one finding themselves forgotten, 3) unfortunate, having lost all hope, etc.
8th situation - OUTRAGE, REVOLT, REBELLION. Elements of the situation: 1) tyrant, 2) conspirator. Examples: 1) a conspiracy of one (“The Fiesco Conspiracy” by Schiller), 2) a conspiracy of several, 3) the indignation of one (“Egmond” by Goethe), 4) the indignation of many (“William Tell” by Schiller, “Germinal” by Zola)
9th situation - BOLD ATTEMPT. Elements of the situation: 1) the daring person, 2) the object, i.e., what the daring person decides to do, 3) the opponent, the opposing person. Examples: 1) theft of an object (“Prometheus - the Thief of Fire” by Aeschylus). 2) enterprises associated with dangers and adventures (novels by Jules Verne, and adventure stories in general), 3) a dangerous enterprise in connection with the desire to achieve the woman he loves, etc.
10th situation - ABDUCTION. Elements of the situation: 1) the kidnapper, 2) the kidnapped, 3) protecting the kidnapped and being an obstacle to the kidnapping or opposing the kidnapping. Examples: 1) abduction of a woman without her consent, 2) abduction of a woman with her consent, 3) abduction of a friend, comrade from captivity, prison, etc. 4) abduction of a child.
The 11th situation is a RIDDLE, (i.e., on the one hand, asking a riddle, and on the other, asking, trying to solve the riddle). Elements of the situation: 1) asking a riddle, hiding something, 2) trying to solve a riddle, find out something, 3) the subject of a riddle or ignorance (mysterious) Examples: 1) under pain of death, you need to find some person or object, 2 ) to find the lost, lost, 3) to solve the riddle under pain of death (Oedipus and the Sphinx), 4) to force a person with all sorts of tricks to reveal what he wants to hide (name, gender, state of mind, etc.)
12th situation - ACHIEVEMENT OF SOMETHING. Elements of the situation: 1) someone striving to achieve something, seeking something, 2) someone on whom the achievement of something depends for consent or help, refusing or helping, mediating, 3) there may be a third party - a party opposing the achievement. Examples: 1) try to get from the owner a thing or some other benefit in life, consent to marriage, position, money, etc. by cunning or force, 2) try to get something or achieve something with the help of eloquence (directly addressed to the owner of the thing or to the judge, arbitrators on whom the award of the thing depends)
13th situation - HATRED FOR YOUR FAMILY. Elements of the situation: 1) the hater, 2) the hated, 3) the cause of hatred. Examples: 1) hatred between loved ones (for example, brothers) out of envy, 2) hatred between loved ones (for example, a son hating his father) for reasons of material gain, 3) hatred of a mother-in-law for a future daughter-in-law, 4) mother-in-law for a son-in-law, 5) stepmothers to stepdaughter, etc.
14-situation - RIVALRY OF CLOSE ones. Elements of the situation: 1) one of the close ones is preferred, 2) the other is neglected or abandoned, 3) an object of rivalry (in this case, apparently, a twist is possible: at first the preferred one is then neglected and vice versa) Examples: 1) rivalry between brothers (“Pierre and Jean” by Maupassant), 2) rivalry between sisters, 3) father and son - because of a woman, 4) mother and daughter, 5) rivalry between friends (“The Two Gentlemen of Verona” by Shakespeare)
15-situation - ADULTURE (i.e. adultery, adultery), LEADING TO MURDER. Elements of the situation: 1) one of the spouses who violates marital fidelity, 2) the other spouse is deceived, 3) violation of marital fidelity (i.e., someone else is a lover or mistress). Examples: 1) kill or allow your lover to kill your husband (“Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” by Leskov, “Thérèse Raquin” by Zola, “The Power of Darkness” by Tolstoy) 2) kill a lover who entrusted his secret (“Samson and Delilah”), etc. .
16th situation - MADNESS. Elements of the situation: 1) a person who has fallen into madness (mad), 2) a victim of a person who has fallen into madness, 3) a real or imaginary reason for madness. Examples: 1) in a fit of madness, kill your lover (“The Prostitute Elisa” by Goncourt), a child, 2) in a fit of madness, burn, destroy your or someone else’s work, a work of art, 3) while drunk, reveal a secret or commit a crime.
17th situation - FATAL NEGLIGENCE. The elements of the situation are: 1) a careless person, 2) a victim of carelessness or a lost object, sometimes accompanied by 3) a good adviser warning against carelessness, or 4) an instigator, or both. Examples: 1) through carelessness, be the cause of your own misfortune, dishonor yourself (“Money” by Zola), 2) through carelessness or gullibility, cause misfortune or the death of another person close to you (Biblical Eve)
18th situation - INVOLVED (ignorant) CRIME OF LOVE (in particular incest). Elements of the situation: 1) lover (husband), mistress (wife), 3) learning (in the case of incest) that they are in a close degree of relationship, which does not allow love relationships according to the law and current morality. Examples: 1) find out that he married his mother (“Oedipus” by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Corneille, Voltaire), 2) find out that his mistress is his sister (“The Bride of Messina” by Schiller), 3) a very commonplace case: find out that his mistress - Married.
19th situation - INVOLVED (through ignorance) MURDER OF A CLOSE ONE. Elements of the situation: 1) killer, 2) unrecognized victim, 3) exposure, recognition. Examples: 1) unwittingly contribute to the murder of his daughter, out of hatred for her lover (“The King is Having Fun” by Hugo, the play on which the opera “Rigoletto” was made), 2) without knowing his father, kill him (“Freeloader” by Turgenev with the fact that murder replaced by an insult), etc.
20th situation - SELF-SACRIFICATION IN THE NAME OF AN IDEAL. Elements of the situation: 1) a hero sacrificing himself, 2) an ideal (word, duty, faith, conviction, etc.), 3) a sacrifice made. Examples: 1) sacrifice your well-being for the sake of duty (“Resurrection” by Tolstoy), 2) sacrifice your life in the name of faith, belief...
Situation 21 - SELF-SACRIFICATION FOR THE SAKE OF LOVED ONES. Elements of the situation: 1) the hero sacrificing himself, 2) the loved one for whom the hero sacrifices himself, 3) what the hero sacrifices. Examples: 1) sacrifice your ambition and success in life for the sake of a loved one (“The Zemgano Brothers” by Goncourt), 2) sacrifice your love for the sake of a child, for the life of a loved one, 3) sacrifice your chastity for the life of a loved one (“Longing” by Sordu ), 4) sacrifice life for the life of a loved one, etc.
22nd situation - SACRIFICE EVERYTHING - FOR THE SAKE OF PASSION. Elements of the situation: 1) the lover, 2) the object of fatal passion, 3) what is being sacrificed. Examples: 1) passion that destroys the vow of religious chastity (“The Mistake of Abbe Mouret” by Zola), 2) passion that destroys power, authority (“Antony and Cleopatra” by Shakespeare), 3) passion quenched at the cost of life (“Egyptian Nights” by Pushkin) . But not only passion for a woman, or women for a man, but also passion for racing, card games, wine, etc.
23rd situation - SACRIFICE A CLOSE PERSON DUE TO NECESSITY, INEVITABILITY, Elements of the situation: 1) a hero sacrificing a loved one, 2) a loved one who is sacrificed. Examples: 1) the need to sacrifice a daughter for the sake of public interest (“Iphigenia” by Aeschylus and Sophocles, “Iphigenia in Tauris” by Euripides and Racine), 2) the need to sacrifice loved ones or one’s followers for the sake of one’s faith, belief (“93” by Hugo), etc. .d.
24th situation - RIVALRY OF INEQUAL (as well as almost equal or equal). Elements of the situation: 1) one rival (in case of unequal rivalry - lower, weaker), 2) another rival (higher, stronger), 3) the subject of rivalry. Examples: 1) the rivalry between the winner and her prisoner (“Mary Stuart” by Schiller), 2) the rivalry between the rich and the poor. 3) rivalry between a person who is loved and a person who does not have the right to love (“Esmeralda” by V. Hugo), etc.
25th situation - ADULTERY (adultery, adultery). Elements of the situation: the same as in adultery leading to murder. Not considering adultery to be capable of creating a situation in itself, Polti considers it as a special case of theft, aggravated by betrayal, while pointing out three possible cases: 1) the lover is more pleasant than firm than the deceived spouse ), 2) the lover is less attractive than the deceived spouse, 3) the deceived spouse takes revenge. Examples: 1) “Madame Bovary” by Flaubert, “The Kreutzer Sonata” by L. Tolstoy.
26th situation - CRIME OF LOVE. Elements of the situation: 1) lover, 2) beloved. Examples: 1) a woman in love with her daughter’s husband (“Phaedra” by Sophocles and Racine, “Hippolytus” by Euripides and Seneca), 2) the incestuous passion of Doctor Pascal (in Zola’s novel of the same name), etc.
27th situation - LEARNING ABOUT THE DISHONOR OF A LOVED OR RELATIVE (sometimes associated with the fact that the learner is forced to pronounce a sentence, punish a loved one or loved one). Elements of the situation: 1) the person who recognizes, 2) the guilty loved one or loved one, 3) guilt. Examples: 1) learn about the dishonor of your mother, daughter, wife, 2) discover that your brother or son is a murderer, a traitor to the motherland and be forced to punish him, 3) be forced by virtue of an oath to kill a tyrant - to kill your father, etc. .
28th situation - OBSTACLE OF LOVE. Elements of the situation: 1) lover, 2) mistress, 3) obstacle. Examples: 1) a marriage upset by social or wealth inequality, 2) a marriage upset by enemies or random circumstances, 3) a marriage upset by enmity between parents on both sides, 4) a marriage upset by dissimilarities in the characters of lovers, etc.
Situation 29 - LOVE FOR THE ENEMY. Elements of the situation: 1) the enemy who aroused love, 2) the loving enemy, 3) the reason why the beloved is the enemy. Examples: 1) the beloved is an opponent of the party to which the lover belongs, 2) the beloved is the killer of the father, husband or relative of the one who loves him (“Romeo and Juliet”), etc.
30th situation - AMBITION AND LOVE OF POWER. Elements of the situation: 1) an ambitious person, 2) what he wants, 3) an opponent or rival, i.e. a person opposing. Examples: 1) ambition, greed, leading to crimes (“Macbeth” and “Richard 3” by Shakespeare, “The Rougons’ Career” and “Land” by Zola), 2) ambition, leading to rebellion, 3) ambition, which is opposed by a loved one, friend, relative, own supporters, etc.
31st situation - FIGHTING GOD (struggle against God) Elements of the situation: 1) man, 2) God, 3) reason or subject of struggle Examples: 1) fight with God, arguing with him, 2) fight with those faithful to God (Julian the Apostate) etc.
32nd situation - UNCONSCIOUS JEALOUSY, ENVY. Elements of the situation: 1) the jealous person, the envious person, 2) the object of his jealousy and envy, 3) the alleged rival, challenger, 4) the reason for the error or the culprit (traitor). Examples: 1) jealousy is caused by a traitor who is motivated by hatred (“Othello”) 2) the traitor acts out of profit or jealousy (“Cunning and Love” by Schiller), etc.
33rd situation - JUDICIAL MISTAKE. Elements of the situation: 1) the one who is mistaken, 2) the victim of the mistake, 3) the subject of the mistake, 4) the true criminal Examples: 1) a miscarriage of justice is provoked by an enemy (“The Belly of Paris” by Zola), 2) a miscarriage of justice is provoked by a loved one, the brother of the victim (“The Robbers” by Schiller), etc.
Situation 34 - REMENTS OF CONSCIENCE. Elements of the situation: 1) the culprit, 2) the victim of the culprit (or his mistake), 3) looking for the culprit, trying to expose him. Examples: 1) remorse of a murderer (“Crime and Punishment”), 2) remorse due to a mistake in love (“Madeleine” by Zola), etc.
Situation 35 - LOST AND FOUND. Elements of the situation: 1) lost 2) found, 2) found. Examples: 1) “Children of Captain Grant”, etc.
Situation 36 - LOSS OF LOVED ONES. Elements of the situation: 1) a deceased loved one, 2) a lost loved one, 3) the perpetrator of the death of a loved one. Examples: 1) powerless to do anything (save his loved ones) - a witness to their death, 2) being bound by a professional secret (medical or secret confession, etc.) he sees the misfortune of loved ones, 3) to anticipate the death of a loved one, 4) to find out about the death of an ally, 5) in despair from the death of a loved one, lose all interest in life, become depressed, etc.
I found a wonderful post from Oleg Kodol, which I immediately wanted to share...Borges saw four main plots of literature.
Modern researchers - six.
Booker - seven.
Vonnegut counted eight.
The gathering of writers at Litkult saw twelve.
Polti distinguished himself - he listed thirty-six.
And now - more details!
Four plots of Borges
“There are only four stories. And no matter how much time we have left, we will retell them - in one form or another.” - notes Jorge Luis Borges. These stories are as follows: the first is about the fortified city, the second is about the return, the third is about the search and the fourth is about the suicide of God. Classic examples of these stories that Borges himself gives are: Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Jason's journey, the crucifixion of Jesus and Odin's self-sacrifice.
However, the number of these stories can be reduced to just two, which we will retell in one form or another. Namely: these are stories about a Woman and a Man and about a Man and his Path. That is, stories in which events revolve around a woman or women, and stories in which they do without this. The story of the fortified city began with several women and one man. The story of return ended with a return to a woman. Stories of the search rarely included women. They were also in the story of Jason. And only the story of the crucifixion is not tied to women. Of all these, the stories where everything revolves around women are the ones we retell the most. But no one learns from stories of self-sacrifice.
Main literary plots It turned out there were only six - modern researchers!
A team of scientists from the USA and Australia analyzed changes in emotional coloring in the texts of popular literary works and found several in them common types stories. Among them, six turned out to be the most popular: “rags to riches”, “tragedy”, “fall and rise”, “Icarus”, “Cinderella” and “Oedipus”.
Booker's version: 7 main plots of world literature
"1. From rags to riches: history an ordinary person who discovers something extraordinary in himself.
Examples: Cinderella, David Copperfield, Jane Eyre. From films: Gold rush, My fair lady.
2. Adventure (quest): a journey full of difficulties in search of an elusive, distant goal. Examples: The Odyssey, the myth of the Argonauts, King Solomon's Mines, Around the World in 80 Days
3. There and back: some event takes the hero/heroine out of her usual environment. The plot is their attempts to return home. (Why isn't Odyssey here, by the way?!) Examples: Alice Through the Looking Glass, Robinson Crusoe, Time Machine.
4. Comedy : Not just a general term, but an identifiable form of plot which follows its own rules.
(Still a very slippery definition). Examples: Tom Jones, all the novels of Jane Austen, Some Like It Hot.
5. Tragedy: At the Climax main character dies due to his lack of character, usually the passion of love, or the thirst for power. Examples: Macbeth, Faust, Lolita, King Lear.
6. Resurrection: Hero, under control dark forces or curses. A miracle brings him out of this state into the light. Examples: Sleeping Beauty, A Christmas Carol, The Sound of Music
7. Victory over the monster: the hero or heroine fights the monster, defeats it in an unequal battle, and receives treasure or love. Examples: David and Goliath, Nicholas Nickleby, Dracula, James Bond stories.
D. Johnston's version
(also 7 types):
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Cinderella (unrecognized virtue),
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Achilles (fatal mistake),
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Faust (a debt that must be paid),
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Tristan ( love triangle),
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Circe (spider and fly),
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Romeo and Juliet,
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Orpheus (selected gift).
Eight Plots of World Literature - Kurt Vonnegut
Writer Kurt Vonnegut managed to fit all the works of world literature and cinema into eight simple stories. In general, all stories tell us about how people get out of pits, meet their other half, or lose everything they could get in this life.
The genius of Hamlet, according to Vonnegut, lies precisely in its uncertainty: “Shakespeare told us the truth, and people so rarely do this, being too carried away by their own ups and downs. The truth is that we know so little about life that we are not even able to determine what is good for us and what is bad.”
Here are the 8 stories:
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Man in complete ass
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Boy meets girl
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History of the creation of the world
· Old Testament
· New Testament
· Cinderella
· Getting worse and worse
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How to get to the top
12 plots of world literature
The FIRST plot, the most hackneyed one, is Cinderella.
It is very stable, all variations fit into a clear plot outline of the “standard”. The plot is loved by authors of women's literature, and is often used by screenwriters of melodramas. There are a lot of examples.
SECOND plot - The Count of Monte Cristo is a secret hero who becomes clear towards the end of the play, receiving wealth or opportunities from somewhere.
His mission is to take revenge, or bring justice! The authors really love the plot adventure novels and detectives. It appeared long before Alexandre Dumas, but this novelist most successfully “smoked” this plot, and after him many people used and used the above-mentioned plot.
THIRD plot - Odyssey.
This story can be called the first; it is extremely popular. Variations based on it may be different, but you just have to look closely and the ears stick out quite clearly. Science fiction writers, fantasy writers, authors of adventure literature, travel novels and some other genres are very fond of this ancient plot, and sometimes copy the details ancient greek history, which can conditionally be considered a starting point, a reference.
FOURTH story - Anna Karenina.
Tragic love triangle. Has roots in ancient Greek tragedies, but Lev Nikolaevich was able to write it out most clearly and in detail. In the twentieth century, especially at the beginning and middle of the century, this plot was one of the most popular (even ordinary copies copied from Tolstoy, when skilled authors change only names, historical settings and other surroundings, I saw several). But there are many talented variations on this theme.
FIFTH plot - Hamlet.
A strong personality with an agile psyche. A broken hero, reflective and bright, fighting for justice, having tasted the betrayal of loved ones and other delights. In the end, he achieves nothing, capable only of tormenting himself, but achieving some kind of spiritual enlightenment and purification, to which he encourages the viewer. Interesting to a fault.
There is nothing to comment on here. The plot is stable, very popular, there is a lot of Dostoevsky in it (near and dear to the Russian heart, and mine in particular). At the moment, this story is more popular than ever.
SIXTH plot - Romeo and Juliet. A story of happy love.
The total number of repetitions of this plot exceeds the number of repetitions of all other plots, but for some reason talented works very few, you can literally count them on your fingers. However, in current TV series, in fiction (especially women's fiction), in drama and song creativity The plot is extremely popular.
The plot, again, is extremely stable, as it has been since ancient times and to this day, there are few special variations.
SEVENTH plot - Fathers and sons.
Its origins are ancient Greek, the plot is complex, and there is a lot of room for variations in it. This also includes the story of Jason’s bride, who is forced to choose between her father and her groom, and to sacrifice one of them. In short, the whole diversity of parental egoism colliding with the egoism of children is described by this ancient tangle of plots that are similar to each other. There is also altruism of parents, and even less often altruism of children, but usually this also ends in tragedy (as if someone has jinxed our entire human race. Ask King Lear, he will tell you).
EIGHTH Plot - Robinson.
It partly echoes Hamlet, primarily in the theme of loneliness, and a little with Odysseus, but Robinson’s story can still be called a separate large plot of world literature. Today's writers and screenwriters often copy, word for word, the work of Daniel Defoe. But there are also many talented and original variations. The hero, most often, is absolutely alone on the island, but this is not prerequisite, it happens that several heroes find themselves in some kind of isolation from big world, trying to survive and remain individuals in order to ultimately be saved. My favorite variation is Saltykov-Shchedrin’s story “How one man fed two generals.”
NINTH plot - Trojan theme, war theme.
The confrontation between two systems, enmity and hatred, the other side of which is nobility and self-denial. This plot, as a rule, is layered on other plots, or they are layered on top of it, but classic war novels are also not uncommon, descriptions of wars in detail, with varying degrees of artistry.
TENTH plot - The catastrophe and its consequences. Classic antique story.
At the present time he has been worn out so much that there is no desire to talk. There are a lot of mediocre copies, but occasionally there are interesting ones. The plot is very narrow in terms of semantic variations, but very broad in terms of descriptive possibilities, setting and details. But, in all honesty, almost everyone next novel repeats the previous one, at least don’t go to a fortune teller!
ELEVENTH plot - Ostap Bender - a picaresque novel, an adventure novel.
The origins and classic examples are in the literature of France of the New Time. Extremely popular these days, most often comedic. The tangle of plots is quite bright, and there are often successful variations, but all of them, one way or another, copy a couple of templates created at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Plot TWELVE - Time machine, travel to the future.
Its mirror image is a stylization of travel into the past, historical novels. However this type works, as a rule, uses “a journey to the past” only as an entourage, and the plot is one of those that I listed above, while “a journey to the future” is often a “pure plot”, that is, its essence comes down to the description how it all works there in this unknown future.
36 stories by J. Polti:
· Prayer
· Rescue
·
Revenge pursuing crime
·
Revenge on loved ones for loved ones
· Hunted
·
Sudden misfortune
·
Victim of someone
· Riot
·
A valiant attempt
· Kidnapping
· Mystery
· Achievement
·
Hatred between loved ones
·
Rivalry between loved ones
·
Adultery accompanied by murder
· Madness
·
Fatal negligence
·
Involuntary incest
·
Involuntary murder of a loved one
·
Self-sacrifice in the name of an ideal
·
Self-sacrifice for loved ones
·
Victim of immeasurable joy
·
Sacrifice for loved ones in the name of duty
·
Rivalry of unequals
·Adulter
·
Crime of love
·
Dishonor of a Beloved Being
·
Love meets obstacles
· Love for the enemy
· Ambition
·
Fight against God
·
Unfounded jealousy
· Miscarriage of justice
·
Remorse
· Newly found
· Loss of loved ones
