Each literary work obeys the laws of the genre. Failure to do so results in a disruption of the composition. The climax is the most exciting moment in a story. It is very important for every reader, and especially a writer, to understand what it is.

The main elements of the composition of a literary plot work

To story genres include short stories, novellas, and novels. The works that make up this group are necessarily built around the conflict that develops throughout the description.

Then it reaches the highest point of tension. The climax is the very moment when the denouement is inevitable.

Thus, there are four main plot element. These are the “4 whales” on which the composition of a literary work of this genre is based.

Exposition - a description of the time, place, character of the characters.

The plot is an event that served to exacerbate the contradiction or became the starting point of the storyline.

The climax is the moment of critical tension of the situation.

The denouement is the event that served as the resolution of the conflict, the final touch in the description.

An example of a composition in a work

Turning to the work of Mark Twain, you can consider the storyline of the episode with the painting of the fence. The plot of the story is that Tom Sawyer was punished by his aunt.

Then a clever thought visits the head of a smart boy: he decides to "sell" the opportunity to pick up a brush! This is where the culmination comes - this is the most exciting moment in the episode, because the reader does not know how the hero's new adventure will end, his interest is warmed up enough.

And here is the denouement - the guys vying with each other offer in exchange for this the most precious things that they own. A few minutes later, the fence is painted, and Tom himself becomes a real "rich man", having received "countless gifts": boxes and broken toys, a dead cat and an apple core.

Place of climax in a literary work

A look at the composition of a literary work is strictly individual. The writer does not have to classic version when exposition, plot, climax, denouement appear in his creation in a given order. Often the author completely omits the exposition, leaving the reader to get acquainted with the characters in the course of reading. Sometimes a climax is placed at the very beginning of an action-packed work. The denouement comes at the very end, stimulating you to read the work to the end. The climax at the very beginning immediately captures the reader's attention and arouses interest.

“Hands ached. From somewhere on top of his head dripped vile cold drops. Opening his eyes with difficulty, Mikhail saw the gloomy walls of the basement. And in the opposite corner, a terrible huge rat brazenly crunched something.

Looking closer, Mikhail realized with horror that this was the same basement! And then he heard someone's steps, then turning the key in the keyhole ... The end was inevitable. But it shouldn't be like that. And Mikhail already knew what he would do in the next minute ... "

After reading such an opening, a lover of horror, detectives or thrillers will never put the book aside. Why is the hero in this position? What will he do next? Will he be able to be saved? Actually, this is only a part of the questions that will come to the mind of the reader.

Interchange, its place in the composition

It is worth noting that this element can also be at the beginning of the story as an intrigue. For example, in this form.

“Maria entered the hall and noticed with peripheral vision that all those present turned their heads in her direction. Conversations stopped for a moment. Delight in the eyes of males spilled into the soul with a wave of hatred and contempt. All this - both recognition and admiration - is just the hypnotic effect of diamonds, she knew that!

And then - a transition to the past, a reference to a hungry childhood, when that “hog with a fat double chin, today smiling ingratiatingly and obsequiously catching her gaze”, passing by them, sitting with their mother and praying for help, twisted his lips with disgust.

Offers several definitions of the concept of "plot". According to Ozhegov, the plot in literature is the order and connection of events. Ushakov's dictionary proposes to consider them a set of actions, the sequence and motivation for the deployment of what is happening in the work.

Relationship with the plot

In modern Russian criticism, the plot has a completely different definition. The plot in the literature is understood as the course of events, against which the confrontation is revealed. The plot is the main artistic conflict.

However, other points of view on this issue have existed and continue to exist in the past. Russian critics mid-nineteenth centuries, supported by Veselovsky and Gorky, considered the compositional side as the plot, that is, how exactly the author communicates the content of his work. And the plot in literature is, in their opinion, the actions and relationships of characters.

This interpretation is directly opposite to that in Ushakov's dictionary, in which the plot is the content of events in their sequential connection.

Finally, there is a third point of view. Those who adhere to it believe that the concept of "plot" independent value does not, and in the analysis it is quite sufficient to use the terms "plot", "composition" and "plot scheme".

Types and variants of product schemes

Modern analysts distinguish two main types of plot: chronicle and concentric. They differ from each other in the nature of the connections between events. The main factor, so to speak, - time. The chronic type reproduces its natural course. Concentric - focuses no longer on the physical, but on the mental.

The concentric plot in literature is detectives, thrillers, social and psychological novels, drama. Chronicle is more common in memoirs, sagas, adventure works.

Concentric plot and its features

In the case of this type of course of events, a clear causal relationship of episodes can be traced. The development of the plot in the literature of this type is consistent and logical. Here it is easy to distinguish the tie and the denouement. Previous actions are the causes of subsequent ones, all events seem to be pulled together into one node. The writer explores one conflict.

Moreover, the work can be both linear and multilinear - the causal relationship is preserved just as clearly, moreover, any new storylines appear as a result of past events. All parts of a detective, thriller or story are built on a clearly expressed conflict.

chronicle plot

It can be contrasted with concentric, although in fact there is not an opposite, but a completely different principle of construction. These types of plots in literature can interpenetrate each other, but most often either one or the other is decisive.

The change of events in a work built according to the chronicle principle is tied to time. There may be no pronounced plot, no strict logical causal relationship (or at least this relationship is not obvious).

In such a work, we can talk about many episodes, which have in common only that they happen in chronological order. chronicle plot in literature, it is a multi-conflict and multi-component canvas, where contradictions arise and go out, one is replaced by another.

Ending, climax, denouement

In works whose plot is based on conflict, it is essentially a scheme, a formula. It can be divided into constituent parts. Plot elements in literature include exposition, opening, conflict, rising action, crisis, climax, falling action, and denouement.

Of course, not all of these elements are present in every work. More often you can meet several of them, for example, the plot, the conflict, the development of the action, the crisis, the climax and the denouement. On the other hand, it matters how exactly the work is analyzed.

The exposition in this regard is the most static part. Her task is to introduce some of the characters and the setting of the action.

The opening describes one or more events that trigger the main action. Story development in literature goes through conflict, escalation, crisis to climax. She is also the peak of the work, playing a significant role in revealing the characters of the characters and in the development of the conflict. The denouement adds the finishing touches to the story told and to the characters. actors.

In the literature, a certain plot construction scheme has developed, psychologically justified from the point of view of influencing the reader. Each described element has its place and meaning.

If the story does not fit into the scheme, it seems sluggish, incomprehensible, illogical. In order for a work to be interesting, for readers to empathize with the characters and delve into what is happening to them, everything in it must have its place and develop according to these psychological laws.

Plots of Old Russian Literature

Ancient Russian literature, according to D.S. Likhachev, is “the literature of one theme and one plot.” World history and meaning human life- these are the main, deep motives and themes of the writers of those times.

Plots ancient Russian literature are revealed to us in lives, epistles, walks (descriptions of travel), chronicles. The names of the authors of most of them are unknown. According to the time interval, the Old Russian group includes works written in the 11th-17th centuries.

The diversity of modern literature

Attempts to classify and describe the plots used have been made more than once. In his book The Four Cycles, Jorge Luis Borges suggested that there are only four types of cycles in world literature:

• about the search;
• about the suicide of a god;
• about a long return;
• about the assault and defense of the fortified city.

Christopher Bookker identified seven: rags to riches (or vice versa), adventure, round trip (this is where Tolkien's The Hobbit comes to mind), comedy, tragedy, resurrection, and defeating the monster. Georges Polti reduced the entire experience of world literature to 36 plot collisions, and Kipling singled out 69 of their variants.

Even experts of a different profile did not remain indifferent to this issue. According to Jung, the famous Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology, the main plots of literature are archetypal, and there are only six of them - this is the shadow, anima, animus, mother, old man and child.

Folk tale index

Most of all, perhaps, the Aarne-Thompson-Uther system “allocated” opportunities to writers - it recognizes the existence of approximately 2500 options.

However, this is about folklore. This system is a directory, an index fairy tales, known to science at the time of the writing of this monumental work.

There is only one definition for the course of events. The plot in the literature of such a plan is as follows: “The persecuted stepdaughter is taken to the forest and thrown there. Baba Yaga, or Morozko, or Goblin, or 12 months, or Winter, test her and reward her. native daughter stepmother also wants to receive a gift, but does not pass the test and dies.

In fact, Aarne himself established no more than a thousand options for the development of events in a fairy tale, however, he allowed the possibility of the emergence of new ones and left a place for them in his original classification. It was the first pointer that came into scientific use and was recognized by the majority. Subsequently, scientists from many countries made their additions to it.

In 2004, an edition of the handbook appeared, in which the descriptions of fabulous types were updated and made more accurate. This version of the pointer contained 250 new types.

If in human life the causes and consequences of what is happening are not always clear and understandable, then in literary work All the actions of the characters are logically interconnected.

Any event is a consequence of the previous one, and all scenes that are not related to the action are cut off as unnecessary. The sequence of events depicted by the writers is object world literary work, or a plot that allows you to get acquainted with the life of the characters in its spatial and temporal changes.

What is a plot?

The plot is the basis of any literary work. It is he who reveals to the reader the chain of events described, the characters' characters, their relationship with each other. If we compare the plot with the construction of a house, then it can be presented in the form of a frame, which, as events unfold, is overgrown with scenes-bricks, and by the end of the work it acquires a roof-denouement.

Many literary works are built according to a single chronological scheme, in which all events occur one after another. These usually include adventure novels, sagas, memoirs. There are also those where the scenes are interconnected not by a temporary, but by a cause-and-effect relationship, that is, each new action of the characters is the cause of the previous one. The concentric scheme is usually found in detective stories, thrillers or dramas.


Being a complex whole, the plot consists of many elements, each of which carries certain functions. For example, the exposition includes information about the characters even before events begin to develop, but tells about what happened after everything described in the work.

Not every book contains all the elements of the plot, but in any of them there are at least three key points, called the beginning, the climax and the denouement.

What is a tie?

Under the plot is understood a certain event that occurs at the beginning of the work. It gives impetus to action and plays a significant role in revealing the characters' characters. In adventure novels, the plot is most often a scene that pushes characters to commit feats, in detective stories it is a description of a crime that will be subsequently revealed by detectives.

If considered on specific example, you can refer to the novel by Dumas "The Three Musketeers". The plot in it is the scene where d'Artagnan, upon arrival in Paris, meets with Cardinal Richelieu and realizes that he has a serious and powerful enemy.


It is this meeting that becomes the beginning of a consistent chain of events on which the author's work is built.

Climax - what is it?

The climax is one of the most interesting and significant events in the book, the point of highest tension, in which the hero either gives up or gains new strength for further struggle. This element of plot is found in all literary works, from short stories and ending with multi-volume novels.

Its presence in the plot is considered inevitable, because otherwise the reader may lose interest in what is written.

In small literary forms usually there is only one climactic episode. For example, in the fairy tale about Cinderella, the scene where evil stepmother learned about the stepdaughter's trip to the ball. AT great works there can be one or many climaxes, especially if there are several storylines running through the story.

If we talk about the "Three Musketeers", then the climax here is the tragic resolution of the story with the pendants, when Constance dies. But in the novel "The Master and Margarita" there are several climaxes, in particular, Margarita's trip to the ball and the meeting of Pontius Pilate with Yeshua.

What is a decoupling?

The denouement refers to the event in which the conflict between the heroes of the work is resolved. In it, the character can achieve his goal or be left with nothing and die.


Sometimes it happens that there is no denouement in the work - in this way the author leaves the reader room for reflection.

Returning to Dumas, the denouement can be called the scene last meeting d'Artagnan with the cardinal, in which Richelieu presented the brave hero with a patent for the rank of lieutenant of the musketeers.

[Dramaturgy] - lecture on lesson 5:
"Composition. Part 2. Narrative composition»

What is included in the plot composition?

Exposition - plot - development of action - climax - denouement - finale

All these moments are connected with the laws of the viewer's perception.

The first 10 minutes - you need to interest.
The next step is to keep his attention.
After increasing the tension, increase the attention of the viewer.
Then bring the tension to the limit.
And in the end - not to disappoint the viewer, to please the finale.

EXPOSURE

E x p o s and c and i- movie period
prior to the development of the conflict.

From the exposition the viewer must understand:

• Who are the heroes (who is who)
• What is the situation (where to act)
• What is the situation (which can turn into a conflict)
• What is the theme of the movie
• What genre of movie.

The exposition must be well written, it is one of the most important parts of the film.

Types of exposure:

• direct (representation of the hero "as is")
• delayed (for example, first a murder occurs, and only then we see what and how)

Remember Henry. Where is the exposition?

In a small block west of Washington Square - SETTINGS

Jonesy is a diminutive of Joanna. One came from Maine, the other from California. As a result, a common studio arose. - HEROES

In November, a surly stranger, whom the doctors call Pneumonia, walked invisibly through the colony. - SITUATION

When did the exposition end?
When Jonesy got sick.

Why did it end?
Because we got hooked.

STRING

Z a in i z to a- this is the starting point
main conflict action.

If the exposure is a time period, then the plot is a certain POINT from where everything starts.

Where is this point in O. Henry's story?

She has one chance… well, let's say against ten,” he said, shaking off the mercury in the thermometer. - And then, if she herself wants to live. Our whole pharmacopoeia loses its meaning when people start acting in the interests of the undertaker. Your little young lady decided that she would not get better. What is she thinking?

The very fact that she fell ill does not mean anything to the “viewer”. But the doctor's conclusion is already information that excites us!

Sometimes they say that there are several plots in films. This is true - there are also several conflicts in the film.

But the plot of the main conflict is ONE!

Often the opening is preceded by a "provoking event", that is, something that escalates the conflict just before the opening. Regarding Hamlet, for example, this is the appearance of the shadow of his father.

DEVELOPMENT OF ACTION:

Development of action- this is the biggest part of the film, escalating the conflict and leading to its climax.

That is, several times there is a forcing of the conflict.

Regarding O Henry, the characters talk twice, and the atmosphere is built up twice. Episodes with Berman are also added there.

You can increase the voltage

• sudden news
• the arrival of a new character
• memory
• and so on

CULMINATION

C u l m i n a t i o- moment
the highest tension of the conflict.

It's PIC! Moment! POINT OF HIGHEST VOLTAGE.

The climax is not something that has already happened.

And while waiting, what will happen?!

That is, not when a person was shot, but when he is waiting: will he shoot or not.

If you have determined that the climax has occurred, but after that the tension is still growing, then there is a mistake, you found the climax incorrectly.

Therefore, more complete definition climax looks like this:

C u l m i n a t i o- the moment of the highest and last
tensions of the main conflict.

Often, before the climax, usually, either the pace of the motion picture accelerates sharply, or it slows down sharply, which sharpens the audience's interest.

There are also two climaxes. But one of them is always more important, as in the case of the plot.

And finally, where is the climax in O Henry?

At the moment when the curtain is raised, and we are waiting to see if the leaf is hanging there or not. As if we hear "drumsticks", before the denouement suddenly overtakes us.

DENOUNCING

R o u t- the final segment of the development of the plot, its result.

The denouement, as a rule, comes immediately (!) After the climax.

For example, in Pulp Fiction when Jules lets the robbers go.

But sometimes, it's not. Sunset Boulevard, for example, begins with a denouement - the death of the protagonist.

Sometimes, instead of decoupling, you should:

C a t a s t r o f a- destructive event
untying all knots of conflict.

Let's say the action unfolded, and then we had, say, a volcanic eruption. Then the denouement is precisely in this eruption.

THE FINAL

The final- the final point of the picture,
revealing its meaning.

Often, it is the ending, not the climax and denouement, that defines the film. After all, it is in the finale that you can show the reaction of the hero to the events that have occurred and give the viewer the emotion that he wanted to see.

Types of finals:

Closed final.
There are no questions about the film. Good/evil has won, all conflicts are over.
For example, "Pulp Fiction".

Open Final
Questions still remain, and the action may continue. For example, Blade Runner.

Dual ending
A combination of the past two.
For example, "Nights of Cabiria"

The theme of the drama is its single action. The theme of Macbeth is ambition. Romeo and Juliet's theme is love. The theme, above all, forms the drama.

The plot is a theme in a more concrete design. The plot of "Macbeth": Macbeth seeks power and commits for the sake of this atrocity. The plot of "Romeo and Juliet": Romeo and Juliet love each other; The Montagues and the Capulets interfere with their love. – In other words, the plot determines the main line of the dramatic struggle.

The plot of a drama is a system of the most important circumstances and a sequence of the most significant events that determine the dramatic struggle. (When retelling the plot, one should note the “dramatic knot” and the most acute moments of the dramatic struggle)

An intrigue in a drama is sometimes referred to as consistent actions of one of the characters, subordinate to a conscious plan. For example, in Othello, Iago leads the intrigue. Sometimes the intrigue of the drama is called all the interactions of the participants in the drama, the relationship of individual intrigues. general view the plot is a kind of basic scheme of the work, including the sequence of actions taking place in the work and the totality of the relations of the characters existing in it. Usually the plot includes the following elements: exposition (Exposition (lat. expositio - parading, exposition) in literary criticism and folklore - a part of the work that precedes the start of the deployment of units of the structure of the work, in particular, part of the work in drama, epic, lyrics that precedes the beginning of the plot. The exposition is followed by the arrangement of characters, the circumstances are formed, the reasons that "trigger" the plot conflict are shown. The exposition can follow both before the plot and after. In folklore, it is also a part of a cumulative work that precedes the beginning of the deployment of cumulation elements.

The exposition is the beginning of the main events in the work), the tie (The tie is an event that is the beginning of the action. It either detects already existing contradictions, or itself creates ("ties up") conflicts.

So, in the tragedy of William Shakespeare "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" the plot is the meeting of Hamlet (the main character of the tragedy) with a ghost, and the decision that followed it to take revenge on the treacherous king for the murder of his father.

The plot is one of the key elements of the plot.), Development of the action, climax, denouement (The denouement of the plot is the outcome of events, the resolution of plot contradictions.) and post-position, as well as, in some works, the prologue and epilogue. The main prerequisite for the development of the plot is time, moreover, both in historical terms ( historical period action of the work), so in the physical (the passage of time in the course of the work).

Plot and plot. The concept of plot is closely related to the concept of the plot of a work. In modern Russian literary criticism (as well as in the practice of teaching literature at school), the term “plot” usually refers to the very course of events in a work, and the plot is understood as the main artistic conflict that develops in the course of these events. Historically, there have been and continue to exist other, different from the above, views on the relationship between plot and plot. For example:

Ushakov's explanatory dictionary defines the plot as "a set of actions, events in which the main content of a work of art is revealed", and the plot as "the content of the events depicted in a literary work, in their sequential connection." Thus, the plot, in contrast to the plot, is attributed to the obligatory presentation of the events of the work in their temporal sequence.

The previous interpretation was supported in the 1920s by representatives of OPOYAZ, who proposed to distinguish between two sides of the narrative: they called the development of events in the world of the work itself “plot”, and the way these events are depicted by the author - “plot”.

Another interpretation comes from Russian critics of the mid-19th century and was also supported by A. N. Veselovsky and M. Gorky: they called the plot the very development of the action of the work, adding to this the relationship of the characters, and under the plot they understood the compositional side of the work, that is, how exactly The author reports the content of the story. It is easy to see that the meanings of the terms "plot" and "plot" in given interpretation, compared to the previous one, are interchanged.

Finally, there is also a point of view that the concept of “plot” has no independent meaning, and for the analysis of a work it is quite enough to operate with the concepts of “plot”, “plot scheme” (that is, plot in the sense of the first two of the above options), “plot composition” (how events from the plot outline are presented by the author).

Typology of plots. Repeated attempts have been made to classify the plots of literary works, to separate them according to various criteria, to single out the most typical ones. The analysis made it possible, in particular, to single out large group so-called " wandering plots" - plots that are repeated many times in different design among different peoples and in different regions, for the most part- in folk art(fairy tales, myths, legends).

According to A.E. Nyamtsu, four main genetic groups can be distinguished from the whole variety of traditional plots: mythological, folklore, historical and literary.

As noted by prof. E. M. Meletinsky, “Most of the traditional plots in the West go back to biblical and ancient myths.”

There are several attempts to reduce all the variety of plots to a small, but at the same time, an exhaustive set of plot schemes. In the well-known short story The Four Cycles, Borges claims that all plots come down to just four options:

On the assault and defense of the fortified city (Troy)

About the long return (Odysseus)

About Search (Jason)

About God's Suicide (Odin, Attis)

PERIPETIA (Greek peripe’teia - “sudden turn”), as defined by Aristotle (“Poetics”, ch. XI) - “the transformation of an action into its opposite”, one of the essential elements of the complication of a tragic plot. Examples illustrating this definition (for example, in Oedipus Rex, the shepherd, who appears to reveal to Oedipus his origin and thereby dispel his fear, achieves the opposite effect by exposing him), allow us to compare the Aristotelian twists and turns with " tragic irony"of modern aesthetics, but, generally speaking, the term" ups and downs" is used by Aristotle more widely, denoting any unexpected turn in the development of the plot. Lessing and many other theorists of tragedy attributed to Aristotle an understanding of this term and themselves understood it in the sense of that turning point of a tragic action (and not a specific “action”, an act that Aristotle apparently had in mind), which determines the beginning downlink"junctions" (see).

In modern literary criticism, the term "P." applied sometimes and not to dramatic views verbal art, eg. to the development of the plot of the epic (see) and the novel (see).