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Unit 10.1 Plot Structure: Prof. Ana Garcia English 10 Grade

This document provides an overview of plot structure and key literary elements such as characters, setting, point of view, theme, and Freytag's pyramid. It defines plot as the series of events that make up a story and structure as the overall design. It discusses character types, the setting's importance, points of view, and how themes convey the story's message. Freytag's pyramid is presented as a model of plot with introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Romeo and Juliet is used to illustrate how this model applies in practice.

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42 views17 pages

Unit 10.1 Plot Structure: Prof. Ana Garcia English 10 Grade

This document provides an overview of plot structure and key literary elements such as characters, setting, point of view, theme, and Freytag's pyramid. It defines plot as the series of events that make up a story and structure as the overall design. It discusses character types, the setting's importance, points of view, and how themes convey the story's message. Freytag's pyramid is presented as a model of plot with introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Romeo and Juliet is used to illustrate how this model applies in practice.

Uploaded by

Tatiana Martinez
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Unit 10.

1
Plot Structure
Prof. Ana Garcia
English 10th grade
Vocabulary Words
internal point of
Characters diction tone
conflict view

external
voice Conflict mood setting
conflict

chronologic
flashback Plot themes
order
• Getting a solid grasp on the foundations of plot and
structure and learning to work in harmony with these
principles will take your stories to the next level.
Definition of Plot and Structure
• Plot is the series of events that make up your story,
including the order in which they occur and how they
relate to each other.
Introduction • Structure (also known as narrative structure), is the
overall design or layout of your story.
• While plot is specific to your story and the particular
events that make up that story, structure is more
abstract, and deals with the mechanics of the story—
how the chapters/scenes are broken up, what is the
conflict, what is the climax, what is the resolution, etc.
Characters & Setting

Characters Setting
• Static: does not go through any
kind of change
• Dynamic: goes through some
kind of change
• Flat: only 1 or 2 traits; often a
secondary character WHEN AND WHERE DOES THE USUALLY THE STORY MAY

• Round: complex, realistic


STORY TAKE PLACE. HAVE MORE THAN ONE
SETTING
character
• 1st – narrator tells the story (I & me)

• 2nd – narrator directly addresses the


Point of View reader (you)

• 3rd – narrator is not part of the story


(he, she, & they)
Theme

Message or What lesson


meaning of a should you learn
story from this story?
• Exposition — The opening of the story, including a
reader’s introduction to characters and settings.
• Rising Action — A series of events that complicates
matters for your characters, and results in increased
drama or suspense.
Freytag’s • Climax — The big showdown where your characters
encounter their opposition, and either win or lose.
pyramid • Falling Action — A series of events that unfold after
the climax and lead to the end of the story.
• Resolution — The end of the story, in which the
problems are resolved (or not resolved, depending
on the story.) Also called the denouement,
catastrophe, or revelation.
• Let’s break down how Freytag’s
Pyramid actually works using an Example of
example, in this case one that most
people are familiar with and
Freytag’s
Freytag himself used, Pyramid:
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet: Romeo and
Juliet
• We start by getting a sense of the rivalry
between the Montagues and the Capulets.
As Freytag says, “an open street, brawls and
the clatter of swords of hostile parties.”
• Then meet the important characters,
including Romeo who is getting over an
Introduction infatuation with another girl; Mercutio,
Romeo’s bestie; and Tybalt, the Capulet
attack dog and cousin to Juliet.
• We also meet Juliet, her parents, and her
nurse.
• Exciting force: Romeo and his posse decide
to attend the Capulets’ ball.
The introduction is pretty short, especially compared
to the rising movement.

A few notes
No major changes occur here until the exciting force.
about the
introduction:
The exciting force should be a major change, but
Freytag found it to not be strong enough in Romeo
and Juliet. He says, “If the exciting force is ever too
small and weak for him, as in Romeo and Juliet, he
understands how to strengthen it. Therefore, Romeo,
after his conclusion to intrude upon the Capulets,
must pronounce his gloomy forebodings before the
house.”
Rising
Movement: • The are four stages in the rising action:
The Couples • Stage One: The masked ball. Includes Juliet
preparing for the ball, Romeo with his posse
Meet, Get before sneaking into the ball, Tybalt’s anger at
the Montagues being present at the ball, Romeo
Married, Then first seeing Juliet, Romeo and Juliet’s first
conversation, and finally Juliet’s debrief with her
Get Into nurse.
Trouble • Stage Two: The garden scene. Includes Romeo’s
friends looking for him and Romeo and Juliet’s
conversation and decision to get married.
Rising • Stage Three: The marriage. This is when Friar
Movement: The Laurence is marrying the couple.
Couples Meet,
Get Married, • Stage Four: Tybalt’s death. Romeo runs into
Then Get Into Tybalt. They fight and Tybalt is killed.
Trouble (cont.)
Climax

• Juliet urges Rome to flee and Romeo says goodbye to Juliet.


• The climax is relatively short, with just one major scene.
• The climax occurs toward the middle of the play (slightly right, maybe ⅗ of
the way through the story).
• It’s not that climactic. We would call this the midpoint, a turning point
leading up to the end.
• This is when the counter-play begins. In the first half, the play, the lovers
unite. In the counter-play, the lovers separate, until ultimately, they are
separated by death.
• Romeo is in exile. Juliet’s parents
force her into an engagement with
Paris, and to avoid it, Friar Laurence
helps her fake her own death.
Believing his wife is dead, Romeo
Falling Action leaves exile after purchasing poison
to end his life from an apothecary.
• Romeo faces Paris in the graveyard
and kills him and enters Juliet’s
tomb. Friar Laurence enters the
graveyard behind him.
Resolution

• Rome discovers Juliet, apparently dead, and gives a final speech before he
kills himself with poison. As he is dying Juliet wakes up from her pretend
death to discover Romeo dying. They share a final kiss. Juliet ends her life
with Romeo’s dagger.
• Friar Laurence arrives too late to save them. Then the Prince, the
Montagues, and the Capulets join them and the Prince condemns their
rivalry and calls for a final peace.
Thank You!

01 02 03
This is all in this Start looking up the Have a great Day!!!
presentation. vocabulary words (you
DO NOT have to send
me evidence of your
work)

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