Complicating Traditional Plots
z Perhaps the Freytag pyramid seems so instinctive because, in its simplest
form, it is often the foundation for a ELQDU\SORW, that is, one in which an
either/or question is posed near the start of the narrative and answered at
the climax or resolution. Who is the murderer? Will the two lovers get
together? Will Dorothy ever get back to Kansas?
o In later lectures, we’ll explore many ways to complicate the
answers to those questions, but for now, it’s important to
emphasize that there are ways to complicate this kind of
plot long before you get to the end. A binary plot structured
according to the Freytag pyramid doesn’t have to be a
simplistic or unsophisticated one.
o You can scale up the story to encompass more time and
more characters by weaving together several binary plots or
Freytag pyramids into one larger narrative. In George Eliot’s
novel 0LGGOHPDUFK, for example, the central story is about
a love triangle, but there are also two other major romantic
relationships in the book, in addition to several other subplots,
each of which follows its own Freytag pyramid.z Using a IUDFWDOSORW is another way to complicate a traditional narrative
structure. A fractal is a kind of self-similar mathematical pattern,
meaning that it looks the same at a distance as it does up close.
o Trees are an excellent example: The limbs of a tree coming off
the trunk make the same basic pattern as the branches coming
off each limb; the twigs make the same pattern coming off each
branch; and so on.
o You can create the same effect with large-scale narratives, such
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George R. R. Martin’s $6RQJRI,FHDQG)LUH poses a single
binary question: Who will sit on the Iron Throne and be the
king or queen of Westeros? In Martin’s work, however, this
larger binary plot is made up of a vast number of smaller but no
less compelling binary plots at nearly every level.