Lecture 10: Plotting with the Freytag Pyramid
z The denouement is the ending of the story, when order is restored. At
this stage, we are often shown the characters one more time so that we
can see what happened to them. In 7KH:L]DUGRI2]LW¶VWKH¿QDOVFHQH
in Dorothy’s bedroom, where she is reunited with Aunt Em and Uncle
Henry and the now-familiar farmhands.
o In some stories, the denouement simply shows that order has
been restored, and the world is now back the way it was. But
this isn’t usually the case, and it’s certainly not the case in 7KH
:L]DUGRI2].o Dorothy is back home, but everything is not back to the way it
was before she went to Oz. Dorothy’s understanding of herself
and her place in the world have profoundly changed.Pros and Cons of Traditional Structure
z The structure outlined by Freytag’s pyramid is sturdy, reliable, and
ubiquitous, but it can, at times, seem like a straightjacket. With many
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pages or even from the jacket copy. Sometimes we feel both reassured
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that the sparring lovers will eventually get together, but you might be
irritated if, at the end, they don’t really like each other and wind up with
other people. The predictable can be both seductive and disappointing at
the same time.z Even so, this particular narrative structure has proved to be surprisingly
adaptable, especially considering that it was originally conceived to
apply to stage tragedies. The plays Aristotle was familiar with usually
focused on the fate of a single central character, such as Oedipus or
Medea, not novels that incorporate numerous characters. Yet this
structure can be applied to everything from comedy to tragedy, thrillers
to love stories, and +DPOHW to 6WDU:DUV.z For writers who are just starting out, this narrative structure can be a
useful set of training wheels, especially if you’re uneasy about plotting.
It’s so common in our culture, in fact, than many writers adopt it
instinctively, without even thinking about it.