Fragments from Yuri Rost's book about love by Andrei Sakharov and Elena Bonner. Plots of World Literature and Plot Archetypes Georges Polti 36 Dramatic Situations
Borges saw four main plots of literature.
Modern researchers - six.
Booker - seven.
Vonnegut counted eight.
A gathering of writers on the "Litkult" saw twelve.
Polti distinguished himself - he listed thirty-six.
And now - in more detail!
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. - says Jorge Luis Borges. These stories are: 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. Classical examples of these stories, cited by Borges himself: Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Jason's journey, Jesus' crucifixion, 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 Way. That is, stories in which events revolve around a woman or women, and stories in which they do without it. The story of the fortified city began with several women and one man. The story of the return - ended with a return to the woman. Search stories rarely featured women. They were also in the story of Jason. And only the story of the crucifixion is not tied to women. Of all this history, where everything revolves around women, we retell the most. And no one learns from stories of self-sacrifice.
There were only six main literary plots - modern researchers!
A team of scientists from the United States and Australia analyzed the change in emotional coloring in the texts of popular literary works and found in them several common types of plots. Among them, six turned out to be the most popular: "from rags to riches", "tragedy", "fall and rise", "Icarus", "Cinderella" and "Oedipus".
Booker's version: 7 main plots of world literature
"one. From rags to riches: the story of an ordinary man who discovers something extraordinary in himself.
Examples: Cinderella, David Copperfield, Jane Eyre. Movies: Gold Rush, My Fair Lady.
2. Adventure (quest): a difficult journey 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 pulls the hero / heroine out of the familiar environment. The plot is their attempts to return home. (Why isn't Odysseus 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 Jane Austen novels, Only girls in jazz.
5. Tragedy: At the climax main character dies because of his lack of character, usually the passion of love, or the thirst for power. Examples: Macbeth, Faust, Lolita, King Lear.
6. Resurrection: Hero, under the power of dark forces or a curse. A miracle brings him out of this state into the light. Examples: Sleeping Beauty, A Christmas Carol, The Sound of Music
7. Defeat the monster: the hero or heroine fights the monster, defeats it in an unequal fight, and receives treasure or love. Examples: David and Goliath, Nicholas Nickleby, Dracula, James Bond stories.
D. Johnston version
(also 7 types):
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Cinderella (unrecognized virtue),
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Achilles ( fatal mistake),
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Faust (debt to 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 plots. In general, all stories tell us about how people get out of holes, meet their other half, or lose everything they could get in this life.
The genius of Hamlet, according to Vonnegut, lies precisely in its vagueness: “Shakespeare told us the truth, and people so rarely do this, being too engrossed in 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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Full ass man
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Boy meets girl
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The story of the creation of the world
· Old Testament
· New Testament
· Cinderella
· Worse and worse
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How to get to the top
12 plots of world literature
FIRST plot, the most hackneyed - Cinderella.
It is very stable, all variations fit into a clear plot outline of the "standard". The plot is loved by the authors of women's literature, often used by screenwriters of melodramas. There are a huge number of examples.
SECOND Plot - The Count of Monte Cristo is a secret hero who becomes apparent towards the end of the play, gaining wealth or opportunities from somewhere.
His mission is to take revenge, or to do justice! The plot is very fond of the authors of adventure novels and detective stories. It appeared long before Alexandre Dumas, but this novelist most successfully “lit up” this plot, and after him, many used and used the above-named plot.
THIRD plot - Odyssey.
This story can be called the first, it is extremely popular. Variations based on it can be different, but you just have to take a closer look, and the ears stick out quite clearly. Fantasists, fantasy writers, authors of adventure literature, travel novels and some other genres are very fond of this ancient plot, and sometimes they copy the details of ancient Greek history, which can conditionally be considered the starting, reference.
FOURTH plot - Anna Karenina.
Tragic love triangle. It has roots in ancient Greek tragedies, but Lev Nikolayevich managed to write it out most vividly 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 first names, historical scenery and other surroundings, I saw several). But there are many talented variations on this theme.
FIFTH plot - Hamlet.
Strong personality with a moving mind. A broken hero, reflective and bright, fighting for justice, having tasted the betrayal of loved ones and other delights. Nothing, in the end, not achieving, only able to torture himself, but to achieve some spiritual enlightenment and purification, which encourages the viewer. Interesting as hell.
There is nothing to comment here. The plot is stable, very popular, there is a lot of Dostoevism in it, (native and close to the Russian heart, and to me in particular). At the moment, this story is more popular than ever.
SIXTH plot - Romeo and Juliet. Happy love story.
The total number of repetitions of this plot exceeds the number of repetitions of all other plots, but for some reason there are very few talented works, you can literally count them on your fingers. However, in current serials, in fiction (especially women's), in dramaturgy and songwriting, the plot is unusually popular.
The plot, again, is extremely stable, as it has gone from antiquity to the present day, there are few special variations.
SEVENTH plot - Fathers and sons.
Its origins are ancient Greek, the plot is complex, and now there is a lot of room for variations in it. This can also be conditionally attributed to the story of the bride of Jason, who is forced to choose between her father and the groom, to sacrifice one of them. In short, all the diversity of parental egoism, colliding with the egoism of children, describes 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 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 sound of the theme of loneliness, and a little with Odysseus, but the story of Robinson can still be called a separate big plot of world literature. Current writers and screenwriters often copy, word for word, the work of Daniel Defoe. But there are many talented and original variations. The hero, most often, is absolutely alone on the island, but this is not a 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 eventually be saved. My favorite variation is the story of Saltykov-Shchedrin "How one man fed two generals."
NINTH story - Trojan theme, the theme of war.
The confrontation between the two systems, enmity and hatred, the reverse side of which is nobility and self-denial. This plot, as a rule, is superimposed on other plots, or they are superimposed on it, but classic military novels, descriptions of wars in detail, with varying degrees of artistry, are also not uncommon.
TENTH plot - Catastrophe and its consequences. Classic antique story.
At the present time, he was dragged so that it is reluctant to speak. There are a lot of mediocre copies, but occasionally there are also curious ones. The plot is very narrow in terms of semantic variations, but very broad in terms of descriptive possibilities, surroundings and details. But, to be honest, almost every next novel repeats the previous one, even if you don’t go to a fortuneteller!
ELEVENTH plot - Ostap Bender - a picaresque novel, an adventurous novel.
Sources and classic examples - in the literature of France of the New Time. Extremely popular these days, most often comedic. The tangle of plots is quite bright, and successful variations often come across, but all of them, one way or another, copy a couple of templates created at the beginning of the twentieth century.
TWELVE plot - Time machine, journey into the future.
Its mirror image is a stylized journey into the past, historical novels. However, this type of work, as a rule, uses “journey into the past” only as an entourage, and the plot follows one of those that I listed above, while “journey into the future” is often a “pure plot”, that is, its essence boils down to precisely to the description of how it all works there in this unknown future.
36 stories by J. Polti:
Prayer
· The rescue
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Revenge chasing crime
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Revenge, close for a close
· Hounded
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Sudden misfortune
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someone's victim
Riot
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a brave attempt
Abduction
· Mystery
· Achievement
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Hatred between loved ones
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rivalry between loved ones
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Adultery accompanied by murder
madness
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fatal negligence
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involuntary incest
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Unintentional killing of a loved one
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Self-sacrifice in the name of the ideal
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Self-sacrifice for loved ones
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Victim of infinite joy
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Sacrifice of loved ones in the name of duty
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Rivalry of unequals
Adultery
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Crime of love
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Dishonor of a Beloved Being
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Love that meets obstacles
love for the enemy
· Ambition
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Fight against god
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Unfounded jealousy
· Judgement mistake
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Remorse
・Rediscovered
The loss of loved ones
36 Dramatic Situations ACCORDING TO GEORGE POLTI
In one of his "Paris Letters", in the journal "Theater and Art" (before the revolution), A. V. Lunacharsky wrote: In "Goethe's Conversations with Eckermann" there is such a phrase by Goethe "Gozzi claimed that there are only thirty-six tragic situations. Schiller racked his brains for a long time to discover more, but he did not even find as much as Gozzi: "It's really impressive. Gozzi was one of the most witty writers of the 18th century. And next to him, such playwrights as Goethe and Schiller agree with the thesis of an extraordinary at first glance, the limitations of dramatic situations.Polti found all thirty-six and enumerates them, while giving at the same time a huge mass of transitions and options.
How did he search? For this he studied, analyzed and divided into rubrics one thousand two hundred dramatic works from the literatures of all times and peoples, traced the fate of eight thousand actors. Of course, he does not see anything cabalistic in the number thirty-six. He understands that one can easily disagree with him, compress any two situations into one, or count two variations as two situations, but still have to rotate around the number thirty-six ...
The number of stories in world literature is limited. This fact is faced by almost every person who once decided to take up writing. And this number is not only limited, but also counted! There are several typologies that give a fairly convincing answer to the question: “How many plots are there in total?”
For the first time, the Byzantine writer (and part-time Patriarch of Constantinople) Photius became interested in this problem. short descriptions works of ancient Greek and Byzantine authors, including ecclesiastical, secular, historical literature.
A thousand years later, interest in this problem flared up with renewed vigor, and now the list of plots was sought to be as short as possible!
Jorge Luis Borges stated that there are only four plots and, accordingly, four heroes, whom he described in his novel Four Cycles.
1. Most old story- a story about a city under siege, which is being stormed and defended by heroes. The defenders know that the city is doomed and resistance is futile. (This is a story about Troy, and the main character, Achilles, knows that he will die without seeing victory. A rebel hero, the very fact of whose existence is a challenge to the surrounding reality.
2. The second story is about the return. The story of Odysseus, who wandered the seas for ten years in an attempt to return home. The hero of these stories is a man rejected by society, endlessly wandering in an attempt to find himself - Don Quixote, Beowulf.
3. The third story is about the search. This story is somewhat similar to the second, but in this case the hero is not an outcast and does not oppose himself to society. The most famous example of such a hero is Jason, sailing for the Golden Fleece.
4. The fourth story is about the suicide of God. Atys maims and kills himself, Odin sacrifices himself to Odin, to himself, hanging on a tree for nine days, nailed with a spear, Roman legionnaires crucify Christ. The hero of the "death of the gods" - losing or gaining faith, in search of faith - Zarathustra, Bulgakov's Master, Bolkonsky.
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Christopher Booker, in his book The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories, describes, as you might guess, the seven basic plots that he believes all the books in the world are based on. the world.
1. "From rags to riches" - the name speaks for itself, the most striking example, familiar to everyone since childhood - Cinderella. Heroes are ordinary people who discover something unusual in themselves, thanks to their own efforts or by coincidence, they find themselves “on top”.
2. "Adventure" - a difficult journey in search of an elusive goal. According to Booker, both Odysseus and Jason fall into this category, in addition, both "King Solomon's Mines" and "Around the World in Eighty Days" fall into this category.
3. "There and back." At the heart of the plot is the attempt of the hero, torn from the familiar world, to return home. In Booker's interpretation, this is Robinson Crusoe, and Alice Through the Looking-Glass, and many others.
4. "Comedy" - A certain type of plot that develops according to its own rules. All Jane Austen novels fall into this category.
5. "Tragedy" - the climax is the death of the protagonist due to any character flaws, usually love passion or a thirst for power. These are, first of all, "Macbeth", "King Lear" and "Faust".
6. "Resurrection" - the hero is under the power of a curse or dark forces, and a miracle brings him out of this state. A vivid example of this plot is the Sleeping Beauty, awakened by the kiss of the prince.
7. "Victory over the monster" - from the name it is clear what the plot is - the hero fights the monster, defeats him and receives a "prize" - treasures or love. Examples: Dracula, David and Goliath
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But the most sensational was the list of plots compiled by the playwright Georges Polti, which included thirty-six items (by the way, the first number thirty-six was proposed by Aristotle and much later supported by Victor Hugo). Thirty-six plots and themes of Polti cover mainly dramaturgy and tragedies. There were disputes around this list, it was repeatedly criticized, but almost no one tried to protest the number 36 itself.
1. PLEASE. Elements of the situation: 1) the persecutor, 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 that does not immediately decide to defend , hesitant, unsure of herself, which is why she has to beg (thus increasing the emotional impact of the situation), the more she hesitates and does not dare to help. Examples: 1) a fleeing person begs someone who can save him from enemies, 2) begs for shelter in order to die in it, 3) a shipwrecked person asks for shelter, 4) asks for someone in power for dear, close people, 5) asks for one relative for another relative, etc.
2. SALVATION. Elements of the situation: 1) unhappy, 2) threatening, persecuting, 3) savior. This situation differs from the previous one in that there the persecuted resorted to the hesitant power, which had to be pleaded, but here the savior appears unexpectedly and saves the unfortunate without hesitation. Examples: 1) the denouement of the famous tale of the Bluebeard. 2) saving a person sentenced to death or generally in mortal danger, etc.
3. REVENGE PURSUING 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 on the basis of jealousy.
4. REVENGE OF A CLOSE PERSON FOR ANOTHER CLOSE PERSON OR RELATED PEOPLE. Elements of the situation: 1) a living memory of the offense inflicted on another loved one, harm, of the victims he suffered for the sake of his loved ones, 2) a vengeful relative, 3) the person responsible for these insults, harm, etc. - a relative. Examples: 1) revenge on the father for the mother or mother for the father, 2) revenge on the brothers for their son, 3) father for the husband, 4) husband for the son, etc. A classic example: Hamlet's revenge on his stepfather and mother for his murdered father .
5. Haunted. 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, Schiller's "Robbers", 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, alimentary stories and etc.), 4) a hero pursued by a superior force (“Chained Prometheus” by Aeschylus, etc.).
6. SUDDEN DISASTER. Elements of the situation: 1) the victorious enemy, appearing personally; or a messenger bringing terrible news of defeat, collapse, etc., 2) a ruler defeated by a winner or slain by news, a powerful banker, an industrial king, etc. Examples: 1) the fall of Napoleon, 2) Zola's "Money", 3 ) "The End of Tartarin" by Anphonse Daudet, etc.
7. SACRIFICE (i.e., someone, the victim of some other person or people, or the victim of some circumstances, some kind of 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 close, convinced that he was forgotten, 3) unfortunate, who have lost all hope, etc.
8. REBELLION, REBELLION, REBELLION. Elements of the situation: 1) tyrant, 2) conspirator. Examples: 1) conspiracy of one (“The Fiesco Conspiracy” by Schiller), 2) conspiracy of several, 3) indignation of one (“Egmond” by Goethe), 4) indignation of many (“William Tell” by Schiller, “Germinal” by Zola)
9. A BOLD ATTEMPT. Elements of the situation: 1) the daring one, 2) the object, that is, what the daring one decides on, 3) the opponent, the opposing person. Examples: 1) the abduction of an object ("Prometheus - the thief of fire" by Aeschylus). 2) enterprises associated with dangers and adventures (Jules Verne's novels, and adventure stories in general), 3) a dangerous enterprise in connection with the desire to achieve a beloved woman, etc.
10. KIDNAPPING. Elements of the situation: 1) the kidnapper, 2) the kidnapped person, 3) protecting the kidnapped person and being an obstacle to the kidnapping or counteracting 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. MYSTERY (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 the 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) under pain of death to solve the riddle (Oedipus and the Sphinx), 4) to force a person to reveal by all sorts of tricks what he wants to hide (name, gender, state of mind, etc.)
12. ACHIEVING SOMETHING. Elements of the situation: 1) striving to achieve something, pursuing something, 2) the one on which the achievement of something depends on consent or help, refusing or helping, mediating, 3) there may be a third party that opposes the achievement. Examples: 1) try to get from the owner a thing or some other blessing 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. HATE TO RELATED. Elements of the situation: 1) hater, 2) hated, 3) cause of hatred. Examples: 1) hatred between relatives (for example, brothers) out of envy, 2) hatred between relatives (for example, a son who hates 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 the stepdaughter, etc.
14. COMPETITION OF RELATED. Elements of the situation: 1) one of the relatives is preferred, 2) the other is neglected or abandoned, 3) the subject of rivalry (at the same time, apparently, ups and downs are possible at first, the preferred one turns out to be neglected and vice versa) Examples: 1) rivalry of brothers (“Pierre and Jean "Maupassant), 2) rivalry of sisters, 3) father and son - because of a woman, 4) mother and daughter, 5) rivalry of friends ("Two Veronets" by Shakespeare)
15. ADULTER (i.e., adultery, adultery), LEADING TO MURDER. Elements of the situation: 1) one of the spouses who violates marital fidelity, 2) the other of the spouses is deceived, 3) adultery (that is, someone else is a lover or mistress). Examples: 1) kill or let your lover kill her husband ("Lady Macbeth Mtsensk district" Leskov, "Teresa Raquin" Zola, "The Power of Darkness" 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 (insane), 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 (Elise the Prostitute by Goncourt), a child, 2) in a fit of madness, burn, destroy your own or someone else's work, a work of art, 3) in a drunken state, betray a secret or commit a crime.
17. FATAL NEGLIGENCE. Elements of the situation: 1) careless, 2) a victim of carelessness or a lost object, this is sometimes joined by 3) a good adviser warning against carelessness, or 4) an instigator, or both. Examples: 1) due to negligence, be the cause of one’s own misfortune, dishonor oneself (“Money” by Zola), 2) due to negligence or gullibility, cause misfortune or death of another person close (Biblical Eve)
18. INWITNESS (out of ignorance) CRIME OF LOVE (in particular, incest). Elements of the situation: 1) lover (husband), mistress (wife), 3) recognition (in case of incest) that they are in a close degree of kinship, 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 a sister (“Messinian bride” by Schiller), 3) a very banal case: find out that the mistress - married.
19. UNWINNING (out of ignorance) KILLING OF A RELATED. Elements of the situation: 1) killer, 2) unrecognized victim, 3) exposure, recognition. Examples: 1) involuntarily contribute to the murder of his daughter, out of hatred for her lover ("The King is having fun" Hugo, a play based on which the opera "Rigoletto" was made, 2) not knowing his father, kill him ("The freeloader" by Turgenev with the fact that the murder replaced by an insult), etc.
20. SELF-SACRIFICE IN THE NAME OF THE IDEAL. Elements of the situation: 1) a hero who sacrifices himself, 2) an ideal (word, duty, faith, conviction, etc.), 3) a sacrifice. Examples: 1) sacrifice your well-being for the sake of duty (“Resurrection” by Tolstoy), 2) sacrifice your life in the name of faith, conviction ...
21. SELF-SACRIFICE FOR THE RELATED. 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 sake of life native person, 3) to sacrifice one's chastity for the sake of the life of a loved one or loved one ("Tosca" to Sordu), 4) to sacrifice one's life for the sake of the life of a loved one, etc.
22. SACRIFICE EVERYTHING - FOR THE SAKE OF PASSION. Elements of the situation: 1) a lover, 2) an object of fatal passion, 3) something that is sacrificed. Examples: 1) a passion that destroys the vow of religious chastity (“Mistake of Abbé Mouret” by Zola), 2) a passion that destroys power, power (“Antony and Cleopatra” by Shakespeare), 3) a passion quenched at the cost of life (“Egyptian Nights” by Pushkin) . But not only a passion for a woman, or a woman for a man, but also a passion for running, playing cards, wine, etc.
23. SACRIFICE A LOVED PERSON BECAUSE OF NECESSITY, INEVITABILITY. Elements of the situation: 1) a hero who sacrifices 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 their adherents for the sake of their faith, conviction (“93 year” Hugo), etc. d.
24. COMPETITION OF UNEQUAL (and also almost equal or equal). Elements of the situation: 1) one opponent (in case of unequal rivalry - inferior, weaker), 2) another opponent (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. ADULTER (adultery, adultery). Elements of the situation: the same as in adultery leading to murder. Not considering adultery capable of creating a situation - by itself, Polti considers it as a special case of theft aggravated by betrayal, while pointing out three possible cases: 1) the lover (tsa) is more pleasant than firm than the deceived spouse (and ), 2) the lover is less attractive than the deceived spouse, 3) the deceived spouse takes revenge. Examples: 1) Madame Bovary by Flaubert, Kreutzer Sonata by L. Tolstoy.
26. CRIME OF LOVE. Elements of the situation: 1) in love (th), 2) beloved (th). 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 Dr. Pascal (in Zola's novel of the same name), etc.
27. LEARNING ABOUT THE DISHONOR OF A LOVED OR RELATED (sometimes associated with the fact that the one who found out is forced to pronounce a sentence, punish a loved one or a loved one). Elements of the situation: 1) recognizer, 2) guilty loved one or close, 3) guilt. Examples: 1) find out about the dishonor of your mother, daughter, wife, 2) discover that a 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 his father, etc. .
28. OBSTACLE OF LOVE. Elements of the situation: 1) lover, 2) mistress, 3) obstacle. Examples: 1) a marriage frustrated by social or property inequality, 2) a marriage frustrated by enemies or accidental circumstances, 3) a marriage frustrated by enmity between parents on both sides, 4) a marriage frustrated 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 one who loves the 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 murderer 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 adversary or rival, i.e., a counteracting person. Examples: 1) ambition, greed leading to crimes (“Macbeth” and “Richard 3” by Shakespeare, “The Rougon Career” and “Earth” by Zola), 2) ambition leading to rebellion, 3) ambition that is opposed by a loved one, friend, relative, own supporters, etc.
31. FIGHTING THE GOD (fight against God). Elements of the situation: 1) a person, 2) a god, 3) a reason or an object of struggle. Examples: 1) fighting with God, arguing with him, 2) fighting with those who are faithful to God (Julian the Apostate), etc.
32. UNCONSCIOUS JEYALY, ENVY. Elements of the situation: 1) jealous, envious, 2) the object of his jealousy and envy, 3) the alleged rival, applicant, 4) a reason for delusion or his culprit (traitor). Examples: 1) jealousy is caused by a traitor who is motivated by hatred (“Othello”) 2) a 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 error, 3) the subject of the error, 4) the true criminal Examples: 1) a judicial error provoked by an enemy (“The Womb of Paris” by Zola), 2) a judicial error provoked by a loved one, the brother of the victim (“Robbers” by Schiller), etc.
34. CONCUSES OF CONSCIENCE. Elements of the situation: 1) the guilty, 2) the victim of the guilty (or his mistake), 3) looking for the guilty, trying to expose him. Examples: 1) remorse of the killer (“Crime and Punishment”), 2) remorse due to a mistake of 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) deceased loved one, 2) lost loved one, 3) responsible for the death of a loved one. Examples: 1) powerless to do something (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) foresee the death of a loved one, 4) find out about the death of an ally, 5) in despair at the death of a loved one, lose all interest in life, sink, etc.
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Frankly, it seems to me that Polti compiled his list too broadly, too sweepingly, and although I have studied this list more than once, I was interested in it, but I cannot say that it suits me completely and completely. I agree with the idea that the number of topics in world literature is limited, but from the typologies and lists that existed before, none seems completely adequate to me.
And therefore, I am ready to offer my typology, or rather my list, and in order not to repeat my older comrades, I will define the circle of the most frequently encountered plots, the most popular, to which, however, most works of literature, dramaturgy and cinematography are reduced. Moreover, I will describe not the basic topics, not in general, but concretize.
So, the main plots, according to Max Akimov, are twelve:
FIRST plot, the most hackneyed - Cinderella. It is very stable, all variations fit into a clear plot outline of the "standard". The plot is loved by the authors of women's literature, often used by screenwriters of melodramas. There are a huge number of examples.
SECOND Plot - The Count of Monte Cristo is a secret hero who becomes apparent towards the end of the play, gaining wealth or opportunities from somewhere. His mission is to take revenge, or to do justice! The plot is very fond of the authors of adventure novels and detective stories. It appeared long before Alexandre Dumas, but this novelist most successfully “lit up” this plot, and after him, many used and used the above-named plot.
THIRD plot - Odyssey. This story can be called the first, it is extremely popular. Variations based on it can be different, but you just have to take a closer look, and the ears stick out quite clearly. Fantasists, fantasy writers, authors of adventure literature, travel novels and some other genres are very fond of this ancient plot, and sometimes they copy the details of ancient Greek history, which can conditionally be considered the starting, reference.
FOURTH plot - Anna Karenina. Tragic love triangle. It has roots in ancient Greek tragedies, but Lev Nikolayevich managed to write it out most vividly 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 first names, historical scenery and other surroundings, I saw several). But there are many talented variations on this theme.
FIFTH plot - Hamlet. A strong personality with a mobile psyche. A broken hero, reflective and bright, fighting for justice, having tasted the betrayal of loved ones and other delights. Nothing, in the end, not achieving, only able to torture himself, but to achieve some spiritual enlightenment and purification, which encourages the viewer. Interesting as hell.
There is nothing to comment here. The plot is stable, very popular, there is a lot of Dostoevism in it, (native and close to the Russian heart, and to me in particular). At the moment, this story is more popular than ever.
SIXTH plot - Romeo and Juliet. Happy love story. The total number of repetitions of this plot exceeds the number of repetitions of all other plots, but for some reason there are very few talented works, you can literally count them on your fingers. However, in current serials, in fiction (especially women's), in dramaturgy and songwriting, the plot is unusually popular.
The plot, again, is extremely stable, as it has gone from antiquity to the present day, there are few special variations.
SEVENTH plot - Fathers and sons. Its origins are ancient Greek, the plot is complex, and now there is a lot of room for variations in it. This can also be conditionally attributed to the story of the bride of Jason, who is forced to choose between her father and the groom, to sacrifice one of them. In short, all the diversity of parental egoism, colliding with the egoism of children, describes 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 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 sound of the theme of loneliness, and a little with Odysseus, but the story of Robinson can still be called a separate big plot of world literature. Current writers and screenwriters often copy, word for word, the work of Daniel Defoe. But there are many talented and original variations. The hero, most often, is absolutely alone on the island, but this is not a prerequisite, it happens that several heroes find themselves in some kind of isolation from the big world, trying to survive and remain individuals in order to eventually be saved. My favorite variation is the story of Saltykov-Shchedrin "How one man fed two generals."
NINTH story - Trojan theme, the theme of war. The confrontation between the two systems, enmity and hatred, the reverse side of which is nobility and self-denial. This plot, as a rule, is superimposed on other plots, or they are superimposed on it, but classic military novels, descriptions of wars in detail, with varying degrees of artistry, are also not uncommon. An organic part of this category of plots is the plot "Spartacus" - a story about a fighter, about a hero, whose personality is sometimes the opposite of the characteristics of reflecting heroes, since the essence of Spartacus is a tough struggle as an image of salvation, as a way of life and way of thinking, a struggle intense, obvious, throwing call.
TENTH plot - Catastrophe and its consequences. Classic antique story. At the present time, he was dragged so that it is reluctant to speak. There are a lot of mediocre copies, but occasionally there are also curious ones. The plot is very narrow in terms of semantic variations, but very broad in terms of descriptive possibilities, surroundings and details. But, to be honest, almost every next novel repeats the previous one, even if you don’t go to a fortuneteller!
ELEVENTH plot - Ostap Bender - a picaresque novel, an adventurous novel. Sources and classic examples - in the literature of France of the New Time. Extremely popular these days, most often comedic. The tangle of plots is quite bright, and successful variations often come across, but all of them, one way or another, copy a couple of templates created at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Numerous novels, novellas and stories that exploit the image of an ironic private detective (or investigator) who acts as “Ostap Bender in reverse” can be conditionally attributed to the similarity of the same plot. Nowadays, a certain “picaresque detective” (sometimes a “picaresque action movie”) is popular and in demand, the main character of which solves crimes or scams (and sometimes the secrets of the past).
This plot is often supplemented by a literary device, which can be conditionally called a “rebus story”, most television series (detective format) are built on it, as well as many book series, which are laid out in abundance on store shelves.
TWELVE plot - Time machine, journey into the future. Its mirror image is a stylization of travel into the past, historical novels. However, this type of work, as a rule, uses “journey into the past” only as an entourage, and the plot follows one of those that I listed above, while “journey into the future” is often a “pure plot”, that is, its essence boils down to to the description of how it all works there in this unknown future.
Well, this is an approximate list of the most frequently used, often touched upon by writers plots. Often plots come across in a standard form, but the writer who is smarter, who has read a lot, he, before sitting down at his desk, tries to find a synthesis of plots for himself, that is, to combine several basic plots in one work, and also to modify the original idea as much as possible. plot.
There is also such a phenomenon as plotless prose, something like a story-sketches, a novel-sketches (these genres can be defined in different ways). The literary merits of such texts are different, sometimes not bad, they can sound philosophical motives, imitation of Ovid, and so on.
But still, there are often quite distinct modifications of the twelve plots that I have listed.
Personally, they never came in handy for me. But Jeff Kitchen in his book "Writing a Great Movie" brilliantly uses these dramatic situations to create a script. Perhaps some of the situations will help novice screenwriters come up with unexpected moves in their stories.
1. PLEASE. Elements of the situation: 1) the persecutor, 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 that does not immediately decide to defend , hesitant, unsure of herself, which is why she has to beg (thus increasing the emotional impact of the situation), the more she hesitates and does not dare to help. Examples: 1) a fleeing person begs someone who can save him from enemies, 2) begs for shelter in order to die in it, 3) a shipwrecked person asks for shelter, 4) asks for someone in power for dear, close people, 5) asks for one relative for another relative, etc.
2. SALVATION. Elements of the situation: 1) unhappy, 2) threatening, persecuting, 3) savior. This situation differs from the previous one in that there the persecuted resorted to the hesitant power, which had to be pleaded, but here the savior appears unexpectedly and saves the unfortunate without hesitation. Examples: 1) the denouement of the famous tale of the Bluebeard. 2) saving a person sentenced to death or generally in mortal danger, etc.
3. REVENGE PURSUING 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 on the basis of jealousy.
4. REVENGE OF A CLOSE PERSON FOR ANOTHER CLOSE PERSON OR RELATED PEOPLE. Elements of the situation: 1) a living memory of the offense inflicted on another loved one, harm, of the victims he suffered for the sake of his loved ones, 2) a vengeful relative, 3) the person responsible for these insults, harm, etc. - a relative. Examples: 1) revenge on the father for the mother or mother for the father, 2) revenge on the brothers for their son, 3) father for the husband, 4) husband for the son, etc. A classic example: Hamlet's revenge on his stepfather and mother for his murdered father .
5. Haunted. 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, Schiller's "Robbers", 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, alimentary stories and etc.), 4) a hero pursued by a superior force (“Chained Prometheus” by Aeschylus, etc.).
6. SUDDEN DISASTER. Elements of the situation: 1) the victorious enemy, appearing personally; or a messenger bringing terrible news of defeat, collapse, etc., 2) a ruler defeated by a winner or slain by news, a powerful banker, an industrial king, etc. Examples: 1) the fall of Napoleon, 2) Zola's "Money", 3 ) "The End of Tartarin" by Anphonse Daudet, etc.
7. SACRIFICE (i.e., someone, the victim of some other person or people, or the victim of some circumstances, some kind of 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 close, convinced that he was forgotten, 3) unfortunate, who have lost all hope, etc.
8. REBELLION, REBELLION, REBELLION. Elements of the situation: 1) tyrant, 2) conspirator. Examples: 1) conspiracy of one (“The Fiesco Conspiracy” by Schiller), 2) conspiracy of several, 3) indignation of one (“Egmond” by Goethe), 4) indignation of many (“William Tell” by Schiller, “Germinal” by Zola)
9. A BOLD ATTEMPT. Elements of the situation: 1) the daring one, 2) the object, that is, what the daring one decides on, 3) the opponent, the opposing person. Examples: 1) the abduction of an object ("Prometheus - the thief of fire" by Aeschylus). 2) enterprises associated with dangers and adventures (Jules Verne's novels, and adventure stories in general), 3) a dangerous enterprise in connection with the desire to achieve a beloved woman, etc.
10. KIDNAPPING. Elements of the situation: 1) the kidnapper, 2) the kidnapped person, 3) protecting the kidnapped person and being an obstacle to the kidnapping or counteracting 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. MYSTERY (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 the 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) under pain of death to solve the riddle (Oedipus and the Sphinx), 4) to force a person to reveal by all sorts of tricks what he wants to hide (name, gender, state of mind, etc.)
12. ACHIEVING SOMETHING. Elements of the situation: 1) striving to achieve something, pursuing something, 2) the one on which the achievement of something depends on consent or help, refusing or helping, mediating, 3) there may be a third party that opposes the achievement. Examples: 1) try to get from the owner a thing or some other blessing 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. HATE TO RELATED. Elements of the situation: 1) hater, 2) hated, 3) cause of hatred. Examples: 1) hatred between relatives (for example, brothers) out of envy, 2) hatred between relatives (for example, a son who hates 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 the stepdaughter, etc.
14. COMPETITION OF RELATED. Elements of the situation: 1) one of the relatives is preferred, 2) the other is neglected or abandoned, 3) the subject of rivalry (at the same time, apparently, ups and downs are possible at first, the preferred one turns out to be neglected and vice versa) Examples: 1) rivalry of brothers (“Pierre and Jean "Maupassant), 2) rivalry of sisters, 3) father and son - because of a woman, 4) mother and daughter, 5) rivalry of friends ("Two Veronets" by Shakespeare)
15. ADULTER (i.e., adultery, adultery), LEADING TO MURDER. Elements of the situation: 1) one of the spouses who violates marital fidelity, 2) the other of the spouses is deceived, 3) adultery (that is, someone else is a lover or mistress). Examples: 1) kill or let your lover kill her husband (“Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” by Leskov, “Teresa Raken” 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 (insane), 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 (Elise the Prostitute by Goncourt), a child, 2) in a fit of madness, burn, destroy your own or someone else's work, a work of art, 3) in a drunken state, betray a secret or commit a crime.
17. FATAL NEGLIGENCE. Elements of the situation: 1) careless, 2) a victim of carelessness or a lost object, this is sometimes joined by 3) a good adviser warning against carelessness, or 4) an instigator, or both. Examples: 1) due to negligence, be the cause of one’s own misfortune, dishonor oneself (“Money” by Zola), 2) due to negligence or gullibility, cause misfortune or death of another person close (Biblical Eve)
18. INWITNESS (out of ignorance) 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 kinship, which does not allow love relationships in accordance with 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 a sister (“Messinian bride” by Schiller), 3) a very banal case: find out that the mistress - married.
19. UNWINNING (out of ignorance) KILLING OF A RELATED. Elements of the situation: 1) killer, 2) unrecognized victim, 3) exposure, recognition. Examples: 1) involuntarily contribute to the murder of his daughter, out of hatred for her lover ("The King is having fun" Hugo, a play based on which the opera "Rigoletto" was made, 2) not knowing his father, kill him ("The freeloader" by Turgenev with the fact that the murder replaced by an insult), etc.
20. SELF-SACRIFICE IN THE NAME OF THE IDEAL. Elements of the situation: 1) a hero who sacrifices himself, 2) an ideal (word, duty, faith, conviction, etc.), 3) a sacrifice. Examples: 1) sacrifice your well-being for the sake of duty (“Resurrection” by Tolstoy), 2) sacrifice your life in the name of faith, conviction ...
21. SELF-SACRIFICE FOR THE RELATED. 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 or loved one (“Tosca” by Sordu ), 4) to sacrifice life for the life of a loved one, etc.
22. SACRIFICE EVERYTHING - FOR THE SAKE OF PASSION. Elements of the situation: 1) a lover, 2) an object of fatal passion, 3) something that is sacrificed. Examples: 1) a passion that destroys the vow of religious chastity (“Mistake of Abbé Mouret” by Zola), 2) a passion that destroys power, power (“Antony and Cleopatra” by Shakespeare), 3) a passion quenched at the cost of life (“Egyptian Nights” by Pushkin) . But not only a passion for a woman, or a woman for a man, but also a passion for running, playing cards, wine, etc.
23. SACRIFICE A LOVED PERSON BECAUSE OF NECESSITY, INEVITABILITY. Elements of the situation: 1) a hero who sacrifices 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 their adherents for the sake of their faith, conviction (“93 year” Hugo), etc. d.
24. COMPETITION OF UNEQUAL (and also almost equal or equal). Elements of the situation: 1) one opponent (in case of unequal rivalry - inferior, weaker), 2) another opponent (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. ADULTER (adultery, adultery). Elements of the situation: the same as in adultery leading to murder. Not considering adultery capable of creating a situation - by itself, Polti considers it as a special case of theft aggravated by betrayal, while pointing out three possible cases: 1) the lover (tsa) is more pleasant than firm than the deceived spouse (and ), 2) the lover is less attractive than the deceived spouse, 3) the deceived spouse takes revenge. Examples: 1) Madame Bovary by Flaubert, Kreutzer Sonata by L. Tolstoy.
26. CRIME OF LOVE. Elements of the situation: 1) in love (th), 2) beloved (th). 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 Dr. Pascal (in Zola's novel of the same name), etc.
27. LEARNING ABOUT THE DISHONOR OF A LOVED OR RELATED (sometimes associated with the fact that the one who found out is forced to pronounce a sentence, punish a loved one or a loved one). Elements of the situation: 1) recognizer, 2) guilty loved one or close, 3) guilt. Examples: 1) find out about the dishonor of your mother, daughter, wife, 2) discover that a 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 his father, etc. .
28. OBSTACLE OF LOVE. Elements of the situation: 1) lover, 2) mistress, 3) obstacle. Examples: 1) a marriage frustrated by social or property inequality, 2) a marriage frustrated by enemies or accidental circumstances, 3) a marriage frustrated by enmity between parents on both sides, 4) a marriage frustrated 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 one who loves the 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 murderer 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 adversary or rival, i.e., a counteracting person. Examples: 1) ambition, greed leading to crimes (“Macbeth” and “Richard 3” by Shakespeare, “The Rougon Career” and “Earth” by Zola), 2) ambition leading to rebellion, 3) ambition that is opposed by a loved one, friend, relative, own supporters, etc.
31. FIGHTING THE GOD (fight against God). Elements of the situation: 1) a person, 2) a god, 3) a reason or an object of struggle. Examples: 1) fighting with God, arguing with him, 2) fighting with those who are faithful to God (Julian the Apostate), etc.
32. UNCONSCIOUS JEYALY, ENVY. Elements of the situation: 1) jealous, envious, 2) the object of his jealousy and envy, 3) the alleged rival, applicant, 4) a reason for delusion or his culprit (traitor). Examples: 1) jealousy is caused by a traitor who is motivated by hatred (“Othello”) 2) a 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 error, 3) the subject of the error, 4) the true criminal Examples: 1) a judicial error provoked by an enemy (“The Womb of Paris” by Zola), 2) a judicial error provoked by a loved one, the brother of the victim (“Robbers” by Schiller), etc.
34. CONCUSES OF CONSCIENCE. Elements of the situation: 1) the guilty, 2) the victim of the guilty (or his mistake), 3) looking for the guilty, trying to expose him. Examples: 1) remorse of the killer (“Crime and Punishment”), 2) remorse due to a mistake of 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) deceased loved one, 2) lost loved one, 3) responsible for the death of a loved one. Examples: 1) powerless to do something (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) foresee the death of a loved one, 4) find out about the death of an ally, 5) in despair at the death of a loved one, lose all interest in life, sink, etc.
1. PLEASE. Elements of the situation: 1) the persecutor, 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 that does not immediately decide to defend , hesitant, unsure of herself, which is why she has to beg (thus increasing the emotional impact of the situation), the more she hesitates and does not dare to help. Examples: 1) a fleeing person begs someone who can save him from enemies, 2) begs for shelter in order to die in it, 3) a shipwrecked person asks for shelter, 4) asks for someone in power for dear, close people, 5) asks for one relative for another relative, etc.
2. SALVATION. Elements of the situation: 1) unhappy, 2) threatening, persecuting, 3) savior. This situation differs from the previous one in that there the persecuted resorted to the hesitant power, which had to be pleaded, but here the savior appears unexpectedly and saves the unfortunate without hesitation. Examples: 1) the denouement of the famous tale of the Bluebeard. 2) saving a person sentenced to death or generally in mortal danger, etc.
3. REVENGE PURSUING 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 on the basis of jealousy.
4. REVENGE OF A CLOSE PERSON FOR ANOTHER CLOSE PERSON OR RELATED PEOPLE. Elements of the situation: 1) a living memory of the offense inflicted on another loved one, harm, of the victims he suffered for the sake of his loved ones, 2) a vengeful relative, 3) the person responsible for these insults, harm, etc. - a relative. Examples: 1) revenge on the father for the mother or mother for the father, 2) revenge on the brothers for their son, 3) father for the husband, 4) husband for the son, etc. A classic example: Hamlet's revenge on his stepfather and mother for his murdered father .
5. Haunted. 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, Schiller's "Robbers", 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, alimentary stories and etc.), 4) a hero pursued by a superior force (“Chained Prometheus” by Aeschylus, etc.).
6. SUDDEN DISASTER. Elements of the situation: 1) the victorious enemy, appearing personally; or a messenger bringing terrible news of defeat, collapse, etc., 2) a ruler defeated by a winner or slain by news, a powerful banker, an industrial king, etc. Examples: 1) the fall of Napoleon, 2) Zola's "Money", 3 ) "The End of Tartarin" by Anphonse Daudet, etc.
7. SACRIFICE(i.e., someone, a victim of some other person or people, or a victim of some circumstances, some kind of 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 close, convinced that he was forgotten, 3) unfortunate, who have lost all hope, etc.
8. REBELLION, REBELLION, REBELLION. Elements of the situation: 1) tyrant, 2) conspirator. Examples: 1) conspiracy of one (“The Fiesco Conspiracy” by Schiller), 2) conspiracy of several, 3) indignation of one (“Egmond” by Goethe), 4) indignation of many (“William Tell” by Schiller, “Germinal” by Zola)
9. A BOLD ATTEMPT. Elements of the situation: 1) the daring one, 2) the object, that is, what the daring one decides on, 3) the opponent, the opposing person. Examples: 1) the abduction of an object ("Prometheus - the thief of fire" by Aeschylus). 2) enterprises associated with dangers and adventures (Jules Verne's novels, and adventure stories in general), 3) a dangerous enterprise in connection with the desire to achieve a beloved woman, etc.
10. KIDNAPPING. Elements of the situation: 1) the kidnapper, 2) the kidnapped person, 3) protecting the kidnapped person and being an obstacle to the kidnapping or counteracting 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. MYSTERY(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 the 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) under pain of death to solve the riddle (Oedipus and the Sphinx), 4) to force a person to reveal by all sorts of tricks what he wants to hide (name, gender, state of mind, etc.)
12. ACHIEVING SOMETHING. Elements of the situation: 1) striving to achieve something, pursuing something, 2) the one on which the achievement of something depends on consent or help, refusing or helping, mediating, 3) there may be a third party that opposes the achievement. Examples: 1) try to get from the owner a thing or some other blessing 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. HATE TO RELATED. Elements of the situation: 1) hater, 2) hated, 3) cause of hatred. Examples: 1) hatred between relatives (for example, brothers) out of envy, 2) hatred between relatives (for example, a son who hates 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 the stepdaughter, etc.
14. COMPETITION OF RELATED. Elements of the situation: 1) one of the relatives is preferred, 2) the other is neglected or abandoned, 3) the subject of rivalry (at the same time, apparently, ups and downs are possible at first, the preferred one turns out to be neglected and vice versa) Examples: 1) rivalry of brothers (“Pierre and Jean "Maupassant), 2) rivalry of sisters, 3) father and son - because of a woman, 4) mother and daughter, 5) rivalry of friends ("Two Veronets" by Shakespeare)
15. ADULTER(i.e. adultery, adultery), LEADING TO MURDER. Elements of the situation: 1) one of the spouses who violates marital fidelity, 2) the other of the spouses is deceived, 3) adultery (that is, someone else is a lover or mistress). Examples: 1) kill or let your lover kill her husband (“Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” by Leskov, “Teresa Raken” 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 (insane), 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 (Elise the Prostitute by Goncourt), a child, 2) in a fit of madness, burn, destroy your own or someone else's work, a work of art, 3) in a drunken state, betray a secret or commit a crime.
17. FATAL NEGLIGENCE. Elements of the situation: 1) careless, 2) a victim of carelessness or a lost object, this is sometimes joined by 3) a good adviser warning against carelessness, or 4) an instigator, or both. Examples: 1) due to negligence, be the cause of one’s own misfortune, dishonor oneself (“Money” by Zola), 2) due to negligence or gullibility, cause misfortune or death of another person close (Biblical Eve)
18. INVOLVED(out of ignorance) CRIME OF LOVE(particularly 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 kinship, which does not allow love relationships in accordance with 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 a sister (“Messinian bride” by Schiller), 3) a very banal case: find out that the mistress - married.
19. INVOLVED(out of ignorance) MURDER OF A LOVED ONE. Elements of the situation: 1) killer, 2) unrecognized victim, 3) exposure, recognition. Examples: 1) involuntarily contribute to the murder of his daughter, out of hatred for her lover ("The King is having fun" Hugo, a play based on which the opera "Rigoletto" was made, 2) not knowing his father, kill him ("The freeloader" by Turgenev with the fact that the murder replaced by an insult), etc.
20. SELF-SACRIFICE IN THE NAME OF THE IDEAL. Elements of the situation: 1) a hero who sacrifices himself, 2) an ideal (word, duty, faith, conviction, etc.), 3) a sacrifice. Examples: 1) sacrifice your well-being for the sake of duty (“Resurrection” by Tolstoy), 2) sacrifice your life in the name of faith, conviction ...
21. SELF-SACRIFICE FOR THE RELATED. 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 or loved one (“Tosca” by Sordu ), 4) to sacrifice life for the life of a loved one, etc.
22. SACRIFICE EVERYTHING - FOR THE SAKE OF PASSION. Elements of the situation: 1) a lover, 2) an object of fatal passion, 3) something that is sacrificed. Examples: 1) a passion that destroys the vow of religious chastity (“Mistake of Abbé Mouret” by Zola), 2) a passion that destroys power, power (“Antony and Cleopatra” by Shakespeare), 3) a passion quenched at the cost of life (“Egyptian Nights” by Pushkin) . But not only a passion for a woman, or a woman for a man, but also a passion for running, playing cards, wine, etc.
23. SACRIFICE A LOVED PERSON BECAUSE OF NECESSITY, INEVITABILITY. Elements of the situation: 1) a hero who sacrifices 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 their adherents for the sake of their faith, conviction (“93 year” Hugo), etc. d.
24. COMPETITION OF THE UNEQUAL(and also almost equal or equal). Elements of the situation: 1) one opponent (in case of unequal rivalry - inferior, weaker), 2) another opponent (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. ADULTER(adultery, adultery). Elements of the situation: the same as in adultery leading to murder. Not considering adultery capable of creating a situation - by itself, Polti considers it as a special case of theft aggravated by betrayal, while pointing out three possible cases: 1) the lover (tsa) is more pleasant than firm than the deceived spouse (and ), 2) the lover is less attractive than the deceived spouse, 3) the deceived spouse takes revenge. Examples: 1) Madame Bovary by Flaubert, Kreutzer Sonata by L. Tolstoy.
26. CRIME OF LOVE. Elements of the situation: 1) in love (th), 2) beloved (th). 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 Dr. Pascal (in Zola's novel of the same name), etc.
27. LEARNING ABOUT THE DISCORDING OF A LOVED OR RELATED(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) recognizer, 2) guilty loved one or close, 3) guilt. Examples: 1) find out about the dishonor of your mother, daughter, wife, 2) discover that a 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 his father, etc. .
28. OBSTACLE OF LOVE. Elements of the situation: 1) lover, 2) mistress, 3) obstacle. Examples: 1) a marriage frustrated by social or property inequality, 2) a marriage frustrated by enemies or accidental circumstances, 3) a marriage frustrated by enmity between parents on both sides, 4) a marriage frustrated 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 one who loves the 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 murderer 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 adversary or rival, i.e., a counteracting person. Examples: 1) ambition, greed leading to crimes (“Macbeth” and “Richard 3” by Shakespeare, “The Rougon Career” and “Earth” by Zola), 2) ambition leading to rebellion, 3) ambition that is opposed by a loved one, friend, relative, own supporters, etc.
31. GORGEOUS(fight against god). Elements of the situation: 1) a person, 2) a god, 3) a reason or an object of struggle. Examples: 1) fighting with God, arguing with him, 2) fighting with those who are faithful to God (Julian the Apostate), etc.
32. UNCONSCIOUS JEYALY, ENVY. Elements of the situation: 1) jealous, envious, 2) the object of his jealousy and envy, 3) the alleged rival, applicant, 4) a reason for delusion or his culprit (traitor). Examples: 1) jealousy is caused by a traitor who is motivated by hatred (“Othello”) 2) a 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 error, 3) the subject of the error, 4) the true criminal Examples: 1) a judicial error provoked by an enemy (“The Womb of Paris” by Zola), 2) a judicial error provoked by a loved one, the brother of the victim (“Robbers” by Schiller), etc.
34. CONCUSES OF CONSCIENCE. Elements of the situation: 1) the guilty, 2) the victim of the guilty (or his mistake), 3) looking for the guilty, trying to expose him. Examples: 1) remorse of the killer (“Crime and Punishment”), 2) remorse due to a mistake of 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) deceased loved one, 2) lost loved one, 3) responsible for the death of a loved one. Examples: 1) powerless to do something (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) foresee the death of a loved one, 4) find out about the death of an ally, 5) in despair at the death of a loved one, lose all interest in life, sink, etc.
taken from kinocafe.ru