The Seven Basic Plots
Immortalist
passing a model for life from generation to generation; that in
essence, all stories are archetypal family dramas, and that their core
message is that we must resist selfish evil (Booker doesn’t use this
term, preferring ‘ego-centred’, according to his Jungian framework).
-------------------------------------------
The Basic Meta-plot
-------------------------------------------
Most of the meta-plots are variations on the following pattern:
1. Anticipation Stage
The call to adventure, and the promise of what is to come.
2. Dream Stage
The heroine or hero experiences some initial success - everything
seems to be going well, sometimes with a dreamlike sense of
invincibility.
3. Frustration Stage
First confrontation with the real enemy. Things begin to go wrong.
4. Nightmare Stage
At the point of maximum dramatic tension, disaster has erupted and it
seems all hope is lost.
5. Resolution
The hero or heroine is eventually victorious, and may also be united
or reunited with their ‘other half’ (a romantic partner).
There are some parallels with Campbell’s Heroic Monomyth, but his
pattern is more applicable to mythology than to stories in general.
-------------------------------------------
Overcoming the Monster (and the Thrilling Escape from Death)
-------------------------------------------
Examples: Perseus, Theseus, Beowulf, Dracula, War of the Worlds,
Nicholas Nickleby, The Guns of Navarone, Seven Samurai/The Magnificent
Seven, James Bond, Star Wars: A New Hope.
Meta-plot structure:
1. Anticipation Stage (The Call)
2. Dream Stage (Initial Success)
3. Frustration Stage (Confrontation)
4. Nightmare Stage (Final Ordeal)
5. Miraculous Escape (Death of the Monster)
-------------------------------------------
Rags to Riches
-------------------------------------------
Examples: Cinderella, Aladdin, Jane Eyre, Great Expectations, David
Copperfield
Dark Version: Le Rouge et Le Noir (1831), What Makes Sammy Run? (1940)
Meta-plot structure:
1. Initial Wretchedness at Home (The Call)
2. Out into the World (Initial Success)
3. The Central Crisis
4. Independence (Final Ordeal)
5. Final Union, Completion and Fulfilment
-------------------------------------------
The Quest
-------------------------------------------
Examples: The Odyssey, Pilgrim’s Progress, King Solomon’s Mines,
Watership Down
Meta-plot structure:
1. The Call (Oppressed in the City of Destruction)
2. The Journey (Ordeals of the Hero/Heroine & Companions)
May include some or all of the following:
a. Monsters
b. Temptations
c. The Deadly Opposites
d. The Journey to the Underworld
3. Arrival and Frustration
4. The Final Ordeals
5. The Goal (Kingdom, Other Half or Elixir won)
-------------------------------------------
Voyage & Return
-------------------------------------------
Examples: Alice in Wonderland, Goldilocks and the Three Bears,
Orpheus, The Time Machine, Peter Rabbit, Brideshead Revisited, The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Gone with the Wind, The Third Man (1948)
Meta-plot structure:
1. Anticipation Stage (‘Fall’ into the Other World)
2. Initial Fascination (Dream Stage)
3. Frustration Stage
4. Nightmare Stage
5. Thrilling Escape and Return
-------------------------------------------
Comedy
-------------------------------------------
Comedy is dealt with by a less rigid structure. In essence, the comedy
meta-plot is about building an absurdly complex set of problems which
then miraculously resolve at the climax. There is much discussion of
how the comedy plot has developed over time:
Stage one: Aristophanes
Stage two: ‘The New Comedy’ (comedy becomes a love story)
Stage three: Shakespeare (plot fully developed)
Comedy as real life: Jane Austen
The plot disguised: Middlemarch, War and Peace
The plot burlesqued: Gilbert & Sullivan, Oscar Wilde
Meta-plot structure:
1. Under the Shadow
A little world in which people are under the shadow of confusion,
uncertainty and frustration and are shut up from one another.
2. Tightening the Knot
The confusion gets worse until the pressure of darkness is at its most
acute and everyone is in a nightmarish tangle.
3. Resolution
With the coming to light of things not previously recognised,
perceptions are dramatically changed. Shadows are dispelled, the
situation is miraculously transformed and the little world is brought
together in a state of joyful union.
-------------------------------------------
Tragedy
-------------------------------------------
Examples: Macbeth, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Carmen, Bonnie & Clyde,
Jules et Jim, Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, Julius Caesar
Meta-plot structure:
1. Anticipation Stage (Greed or Selfishness)
2. Dream Stage
3. Frustration Stage
4. Nightmare Stage
5. Destruction or Death Wish Stage
-------------------------------------------
Rebirth
-------------------------------------------
Examples: Sleeping Beauty, The Frog Prince, Beauty and the Beast, The
Snow Queen, A Christmas Carol, The Secret Garden, Peer Gynt
Meta-plot structure:
1. Under the Shadow
A young hero or heroine falls under the shadow of a dark power
2. The Threat Recedes
Everything seems to go well for a while - the threat appears to have
receded.
3. The Threat Returns
Eventually the threat approaches again in full force, until the hero
or heroine is seen imprisoned in a state of living death.
4. The Dark Power Triumphant
The state of living death continues for a long time when it seems the
dark power has completely triumphed.
5. Miraculous Redemption
If the imprisoned person is a heroine, redeemed by the hero; if a
hero, by a young woman or child.
Dark Versions
All of the above plots have dark versions, in which the ‘complete
happy ending’ is never achieved because of some problem. The only
exception is Tragedy, which is already the ‘dark’ version.
New Plots
Two additional plots are presented which are outside of the basic
seven listed above. Note that the existence of general patterns of
plot is not intended to mean that no other plots are possible.
Rebellion Against ‘The One’
A solitary hero/heroine finds themselves being drawn into a state of
resentful, mystified opposition to some immense power, which exercises
total sway over the world of the hero. Initially they feel they are
right and the mysterious power is at fault, but suddenly the hero/
heroine is confronted by the power in its awesome omnipotence. The
rebellious hero/heroine is crushed and forced to recognise that their
view had been based only on a very limited subjective perception of
reality. They accept the power’s rightful claim to rule.
Example: The Book of Job
Dark version: Brave New World, Nineteen Eighty-Four
-------------------------------------------
The Mystery
-------------------------------------------
Begins by posing a riddle, usually through the revelation that some
baffling crime has been committed. Central figure unravels the riddle.
Examples: Bel and the Dragon, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie
----------------------------------------------
Archetypes
In addition to patterns of plots, there is a pattern of characters
provided according to Jungian principles. These archetypal characters
are as follows:
Negative (centred on Jungian Ego i.e. "evil"):
Dark Father, Tyrant or Dark Magician
Dark Mother, Dark Queen or Hag
Dark Rival or Dark Alter-Ego
Dark Other Half or Temptress
Positive (centred on Jungian Self i.e. "good"):
Light Father, Good King or Wise Old Man
Light Mother, Good Queen or Wise Old Woman
Light Alter-Ego or Friend and Companion
Light Other Half (light anima/animus)
Note: Booker uses ‘witch’ where I use ‘hag’, for reasons that will be
apparent to most readers.
Three other archetypes are referenced:
The Child
The Animal Helper
The Trickster
Additional Concepts
The Complete Happy Ending
In the regular versions of the meta-plots, if all that is ego-centred
becomes centred instead on the Self (i.e. if all characters are
redeemed), the result is a 'complete happy ending'. In the dark
versions of the story, the ending is generally tragic and disasterous
- both are considered to be following the same meta-plot. It is also
possible for stories to contain elements of both approaches.
The Unrealised Value
The chief dark figure signals to us the shadowy, negative version of
precisely what the hero or heroine will eventually have to make fully
positive in themselves if they are to emerge victorious and attain
'the complete happy ending'. Therefore, the villain metaphorically
represents what the hero or heroine will conquor both within
themselves, and in the world of the story.
Above and Below the Line
In general, (and especially in comedy) there is a dividing line in
effect. Above the line is the established social order, and below the
line are the servants, ‘inferior’ or shadow elements. The problem
originates ‘above the line’ (e.g. with tyranny) but the road to
liberation always lies ‘below the line’ in the ‘inferior’ level.
Below the line can also be represented as a ‘shadow realm’, containing
the potential for wholeness. In the conclusion of the story, elements
may ‘emerge from the shadows’ to provide resolution.
The Seven Basic Plots is published by Continuum, ISBN-0-8264-5209-4.
http://onlyagame.typepad.com/only_a_game/2005/10/the_seven_basic.html
http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Basic-Plots-Tell-Stories/dp/0826480373
Ed Cryer
"Immortalist" <reanima...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:4d0e1d1c-ce3d-4b55...@f20g2000prn.googlegroups.com...
...[Christopher] Booker believes we tell stories as a mechanism of
passing a model for life from generation to generation; that in
************************************
I find the great heroic stories morally bracing for my own living life.
They give me strength, hope, support. When audiences gathered round
Homer to listen to tales of brave Achilles, or around an Anglosaxon bard
singing of Beowulf, I suspect they felt the same.
You can add music as well; triumphal symphonies from Beethoven onwards.
And modern super heroes like Spiderman and Batman.
They work on the living, and sum up and endorse the higher aspirations
of the living. As such they are means of self-affirming in the present.
Ed
Stratum101
> "Immortalist" <reanimater_2...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
I find Beowulf part of the Western canon that every bright
school kid should absorb. (No, make that every
*curious* school kid. Prescribed literature is punishment
for some kids.) But long, long after it was the
subject of the skald's tale-telling, it had one brilliant
offshoot. That is John Gardner's 1970s novel
_Grendel_, a retelling of the tale from the ogre's
perspective. It ends with his "disarming" encounter
with Beowulf and his self-pitying run to Mama.
Gardner's Grendel is the tale of a bully. It could
be Hitler's 12-year tale as bully.
In another hundred years no one but the well
read historian will remember Hitler's ally Vidkun
Quisling whose name became an eponym for
"traitor". But they'll remember Hitler and if 24th
century kids are reading Beowulf, I hope
their teachers will know to tell them that
for 20th century readers, Grendel was no
mere abstraction.
Of course between now and then, there
could be some other Hitler or two to add
to the heap.
--
_Grendel_ is one of my Desert Island
books.
Ed Cryer
"Stratum101" <j.co...@cross-comp.com> wrote in message
news:99c54da4-c22a-4480...@k17g2000yqh.googlegroups.com...
--
**************
I learned recently that Beowulf survives from one manuscript only. Which
puts me in mind of ancient Greek tragedy, so little of which survives.
Aeschylus - 7 from maybe 90.
Sophocles - 7 from a known 123 written.
Euripides - 18 from 90+
I notice that no Greek tragedy is mentioned in Immortalist's lists. Now,
that's something that needs explaining because they were very, very
widely staged in the ancient world, and stayed in fashion for centuries.
And they are prototypical retellings of myths, but not many happy
endings!
He includes mention of ancient comedy. Why not tragedy? Aristotle, for
example, held Sophocles' King Oedipus as the greatest and quotes from it
more than any other in his Poetics book.
Ed
Jack Tingle
> ...[Christopher] Booker believes we tell stories as a mechanism of
> passing a model for life from generation to generation; that in
> essence, all stories are archetypal family dramas, and that their core
> term, preferring �ego-centred�, according to his Jungian framework).
[snip fallacious lunacy]
> The Seven Basic Plots is published by Continuum, ISBN-0-8264-5209-4.
> http://onlyagame.typepad.com/only_a_game/2005/10/the_seven_basic.html
> http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Basic-Plots-Tell-Stories/dp/0826480373
BAH! Ignorant Peasant! Don't you know there are 36 basic plots?
http://www.rpglibrary.org/articles/storytelling/36plots.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Polti
The French have declared it!
Regards,
Jack Tingle
ZerkonXXXX
> The Basic Meta-plot
Conflict
Ed Cryer
"ZerkonXXXX" <Z...@erkonx.net> wrote in message
news:pan.2009.11...@erkonx.net...
> On Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:08:59 -0800, Immortalist wrote:
>
>> The Basic Meta-plot
>
> Conflict
Can you name any great work of literature that consists of just
conflict?
I think not. You need some resolution of the conflict; some goal, some
way out of the fighting.
Tolstoy analyses this in detail at the end of War and Peace. What
persists? What comes out of it all? What wins?
Ed
Francis A. Miniter
And there is nothing else I know of in literature to compare
to Aeschylus's Orestia for elucidation of the change from
private, ritual vengeance to a public sense of societal
justice, not to mention the sense of psychological guilt and
angst that Orestes experiences. Aeschylus's ability to
portray surreal psychological realities would make him fit
quite well into 20th century drama. It only took the world
2,400 years or so to catch up with him.
--
Francis A. Miniter
Oscuramente
libros, laminas, llaves
siguen mi suerte.
Jorge Luis Borges, La Cifra Haiku, 6
Shrikeback
> ...[Christopher] Booker believes we tell stories as a mechanism of
> passing a model for life from generation to generation; that in
> essence, all stories are archetypal family dramas, and that their core
> message is that we must resist selfish evil (Booker doesn’t use this
> term, preferring ‘ego-centred’, according to his Jungian framework).
In my framework, there are only three plots:
1. Man vs. Woman,
2. Man vs. Nature,
3. Man vs. the Empire Brain Building.
Patok
> On Nov 17, 6:08 pm, Immortalist <reanimater_2...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> ...[Christopher] Booker believes we tell stories as a mechanism of
>> passing a model for life from generation to generation; that in
>> essence, all stories are archetypal family dramas, and that their core
>> term, preferring �ego-centred�, according to his Jungian framework).
>
> In my framework, there are only three plots:
>
> 1. Man vs. Woman,
> 2. Man vs. Nature,
> 3. Man vs. the Empire Brain Building.
Heh. IMO, there is only one plot:
1. Woman.
--
You'd be crazy to e-mail me with the crazy. But leave the div alone.
ZerkonXXXX
I do not disagree with you here exactly but ....
Resolution needs a conflict. Resolution marks the end of the plot. To put
it dramatically, the death of the story
Plot conflict however does not need to be resolved for a plot to exist.
It may not make for a great work of literature but it trumps resolve as a
more essential plot element.
In tragedy, a classic resolve is death which presents a conflict with a
desired outcome even if the conflict of the plot is resolved. Resolve
many times being everyone in the conflict gets kabonged.
"Grapes Of Wrath" did not end with a way out of the fight. The resolve
presenting a victory of hope and human spirit to continue the struggle.
The conflict in "Moby Dick" was resolved by simply killing off "all save
one" who would do conflict. In "Lord Of The Flies" the conflict was only
resolved by the deus ex machina of the adults which heightened the nature
of the story's conflict. In "Romeo and Juliette", "Lear" and "Hamlet" the
only real resolve, other than body litter, is sorrow.
So I think in many great works the fact that conflict lingers after the
resolve is exactly why they have become great.
Ed Cryer
Point taken. Life goes on from generation to generation, and some basic
conflicts repeat.
It sounds very pessimistic, though, put like that. Most humans, I
believe, think the struggle gets somewhere. Which is perhaps why we
don't all live on a permanent war-footing like the ancient Spartans.
Tragedy has its aims as well. "Romeo and Juliet" doesn't urge us to stop
falling in love; on the contrary it glorifies young love, and points at
all the things that stand in its way. R & J are like "martyrs" to love;
sign-posts of the right way to heaven, and archetypes & encouragement
for the rest of us.
Even the church-fathers who compiled the books in the New Testament had
some view of this forward-looking optimism. You couldn't have it ending
with Jesus dead on the cross; nor even with Jesus ascended into heaven
and his Church being built on earth. No, they ended it with Revelations,
gruesome and very unchristian in spirit as it is, but Jesus triumphant
in time to come!
Ed
Walter Bushell
"Ed Cryer" <e...@somewhere.in.the.uk> wrote:
> Even the church-fathers who compiled the books in the New Testament had
> some view of this forward-looking optimism. You couldn't have it ending
> with Jesus dead on the cross; nor even with Jesus ascended into heaven
> and his Church being built on earth. No, they ended it with Revelations,
> gruesome and very unchristian in spirit as it is, but Jesus triumphant
> in time to come!
Revelation defines some parts of Christianity.
For here it is revealed that Jesus and Aphrodite are one and the same.
Jesus is the morning star and so is Aphrodite. Things equal to the same
thing are equal to each other.
--
A computer without Microsoft is like a chocolate cake without mustard.
Matt Hughes
> In my framework, there are only three plots:
>
> 1. Man vs. Woman,
> 2. Man vs. Nature,
> 3. Man vs. the Empire Brain Building.
More or less seriously, the three basics are:
Character vs character
Character vs the universe (or some elements thereof)
Character vs him/her/itself
Matt Hughes
http://www.archonate.com
Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)
Matt Hughes
> Conflict
Conflict is the fictioneer's indispensible tool. That's why all of
the three/seven/twenty-something basic plots are expressed as this
_versus_ that.
Without conflict, you have either a character sketch or travel
writing.
Matt Hughes
http://www.archonate.com