2/4/2015

Freytag's Pyramid

English250FictionUnit:Freytag'sPyramid
250 Fiction Terms Lit Analysis

Analyzingastory'splot:Freytag'sPyramid
Gustav Freytag was a Nineteenth
Century German novelist who saw
common patterns in the plots of
stories and novels and developed a
diagram to analyze them. He
diagrammed a story's plot using a
pyramidliketheoneshownhere:

Freytag'sPyramid
1.Exposition:settingthescene.Thewriterintroducesthe
charactersandsetting,providingdescriptionandbackground.
2.IncitingIncident:somethinghappenstobegintheaction.A
singleeventusuallysignalsthebeginningofthemainconflict.
Theincitingincidentissometimescalled'thecomplication'.
3.RisingAction:thestorybuildsandgetsmoreexciting.
4.Climax:themomentofgreatesttensioninastory.Thisis
oftenthemostexcitingevent.Itistheeventthattherising
actionbuildsuptoandthatthefallingactionfollows.

5.FallingAction:eventshappenasaresultoftheclimaxand
weknowthatthestorywillsoonend.
6.Resolution:thecharactersolvesthemainproblem/conflict
orsomeonesolvesitforhimorher.
7.Dnouement:(aFrenchterm,pronounced:daynoomoh)
theending.Atthispoint,anyremainingsecrets,questionsor
mysterieswhichremainaftertheresolutionaresolvedbythe
charactersorexplainedbytheauthor.Sometimestheauthor
leavesustothinkabouttheTHEMEorfuturepossibilitiesfor
thecharacters.
Youcanthinkofthednouementastheoppositeofthe
exposition:insteadofgettingreadytotellusthestoryby
introducingthesettingandcharacters,theauthorisgetting
readytoenditwithafinalexplanationofwhatactually
happenedandhowthecharactersthinkorfeelaboutit.This
canbethemostdifficultpartoftheplottoidentify,asitis
oftenverycloselytiedtotheresolution.

Adaptedfromhttp://users.aber.ac.uk/jpm/ellsa/ellsa_openboat3.html

http://www.ohio.edu/people/hartleyg/ref/fiction/freytag.html

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