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Freytag’s Pyramid/Plot Analysis, a la Shmoop.

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We all have our favorite kinds of stories. Some of us like mysteries… [Man discussing stories]

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…some of us like thrillers…

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…some of us like romances…

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…and some of us like books that are a combination of all of these things. But, no matter what [Goth woman appears]

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sorts of stories we prefer, the plots of most tales follow a specific pattern.

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Meet Gustav Freytag. He was a nineteenth century German writer who authored [Freytag typing]

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works with names like Soll und Haben and Bilder aus der deutschen

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Vergangenheit. Yeah. Easy for us to say.

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While we’re somewhat less likely to read Freytag’s works than we are to, say, scale

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El Cap without a rope… [Man scaling mountain]

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…Freytag did leave something behind that we’re all familiar with…

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…namely, Freytag’s Pyramid. And, no, that isn’t located in Egypt. [Pyramid appears and man lands on a camel]

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Freytag’s Pyramid is a generic diagram that can be applied to the plots of most stories.

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See, every time Freytag read a work of fiction, he noticed that many of the plots followed [Man discussing Freytags pyramid]

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a particular pattern…

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…a pattern that could be sketched out in the shape of a pyramid.

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Freytag postulated that there are seven different items just about every story possesses, and [Freytag reading a book]

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he placed these items on his pyramid. They include the exposition…

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…the inciting incident…

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...the rising action…

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…the climax…

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…the falling action…

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…the resolution…

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…and the dénouement. The first “e” in “dénouement” has an

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accent mark, by the way, because this word is all fancy and French. [Man discussing denouement]

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Let’s go over what each of these items involves in terms of plot, using Alexandre Dumas’

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The Count of Monte Cristo to illustrate.

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The “exposition” segment of a story occurs at the beginning of the tale… [Freytag walks from exposition point]

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…and it’s where the author sets the stage by showing us who the characters are and where

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the story takes place.

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In The Count of Monte Cristo, Dumas plops his readers down in the middle of Marseilles,

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France in 1815…

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…and then introduces us to the novel’s main character, Edmond Dantès. [Dantes appears on harbor]

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We also meet Edmond’s dad and girlfriend…

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…his boss…

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…the two guys who are out to screw him over…

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…and the one guy who screws him over but kind of didn’t mean to.

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The next step in the plot, as charted by Freytag’s Pyramid, is the inciting incident. Basically, [Freytag explodes]

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this is the event that sets the rest of the story in motion.

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In Edmond’s case, he is arrested at his own betrothal party for a treason he did not [Edmond at Eiffel Tower and officers arrest him]

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commit…

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…thanks to the plotting of the two amigos Danglars and Fernand. Since the arrest occurs

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at around page fifty…

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…and The Count of Monte Cristo is better than one thousand pages long…

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…it’s safe to assume that the rest of the book will be about Edmond kicking butt [Man with beard on an island]

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and taking names. The next stop on Freytag’s diagram is the

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rising action, which isn’t a specific event like the inciting incident… [Freytag walks to rising action point]

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…but rather a series of happenings where the story builds and we, the readers, get

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pulled along for the ride.

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The rising action in The Count of Monte Cristo spans years, countries… [Clock ticks forward]

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…the spending of a lot of money…

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…and Edmond’s…

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…er, we mean the Count’s…

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…fabulous machinations as he plots out the destruction of everyone who done him wrong

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prior to about page eighty. At the apex of Freytag’s Pyramid is the

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climax, or the most exciting part of the story. [Freytag at the climax point and fireworks appear]

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At the climax of The Count of Monte Cristo, everyone dies or is ruined…

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…and the Count gets his revenge, even though he starts to think maybe this whole revenge [Count holding a sword in the flames]

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thing wasn’t such a great idea.

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A little late for second thoughts, eh, Count? Then, we come to the falling action, or the

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events that occur in the story as a result of the climax. [Freytag falls down the pyramid]

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In this particular Dumas novel, the falling action involves a secondary character hanging

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around on the isle of Monte Cristo, eating hashish.

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The resolution section of Freytag’s Pyramid is all about, well, resolution. The problem [Man discussing resolution]

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or conflict at the heart of the story gets dealt with.

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In the resolution to The Count of Monte Cristo, the Count reunites two young people in love…

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…and accepts the love of the hot Albanian princess he rescued from slavery back in the [Man holding chains]

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day.

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Sure, the Count was responsible for the ruination and/or death of a lot of people…

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In the dénouement, any of the story’s outstanding business is tied up. Maybe the author explores

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a theme or two, or hints at a sequel. [Freytag typing on typewriter]

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Dumas has the Count sail off into the sunset with the hot Albanian princess…

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…and scene. While every story is different, Gustav Freytag’s

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contribution to literature was his observation that most works of fiction are constructed [Freytag reading big book]

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along similar lines…

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…and that this construction could be mapped out using Freytag’s handy-dandy patented

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pyramid technique.

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While this may not seem like a particularly interesting thing to be famous for… [Man discussing Freytag's pyramid]

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…it’s better than being remembered as that popular German author who hated Poles. [Pole lands on Freytag]

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