Copyright © 2023 Jerry Dunne
Before reading this article, you will need to read The play’s 3-act plot arc structure as we specifically cover some aspects from that article here below. It might also be a good idea to read Character is dramatic action.
This article explores the idea that the strong emotions the drama raises in the audience are not so much a result of character as they are of the plot arc. The idea comes from Aristotle’s Poetics and two lines in particular.The first is: Tragedy is not an imitation of persons, but of actions and of life. And the second is: The most important devices by which tragedy sways emotion are parts of the plot, i.e. reversals and recognitions (a change from ignorance to knowledge).
But before we go into this further, we must first of all think about the three basic building blocks of plot structure, which are dramatic action, dramatic conflict and dramatic climax or crisis. And, obviously, as they are a fundamental part of the plot structure this means that they are all very much plot related. So, any old action or conflict or crisis in a scene that is not plot related does not count; and, further, if it is not dramatic, we might even wonder what in fact it is doing in the scene at all.
Now let’s consider where the emotion of a scene is likely to occur, emotion that is obviously plot related. It is more than likely going to rise strongly in the action, the conflict or the crisis of the scene and very possibly in all three parts. The action will start off the process and then it will probably reach its zenith in the crisis (whether in the scene or the overall plot arc). In the scene, a crisis also has the scene’s turning point, where one character ‘wins’ or ‘loses’ in the scene’s ‘exchange’; so this poignant point is often going to be a highly emotional one.
This is interesting, as it suggests that in order to raise the emotional temperature of the story you don’t have to see it strictly from the perspective of character at all, but that, in fact, you can easily view it from the angle of the plot arc structure. When you think that character in a play boils down to dramatic action, anyway, that makes a lot of sense. Of course, our characters are the conduit through which the action arises and, so, the emotion must also arise through them, too, but it seems that through its twists and turns, its setbacks, its journey out of ignorance and into enlightenment (such eye-openers can often be painful), poignant points on the plot arc are really where the emotional level of the drama rises to its highest. And it is worth consciously realising and remembering this.
What we are talking about here is the ability to manipulate the emotions of our audience solely from the point of view of plot and not from the point of view of character. This seems like quite a bold and theoretical perspective to take but as you will soon see it is also a very simple and obvious one and can give us unexpected and delightful results.
What if we can actually sit down and plan out in each scene where we want the emotional highs to be. It isn’t necessary that we proceed in this almost cold and calculating way, but it is still a very handy thing to be aware of and to be able to do if we so desire. But even if we take the less calculating road and work solely off our instincts for our early creative drafts, we might still want to be able to check afterwards just where out emotional highs ought to be found. And as we can now consider the emotional level of the story being heightened through the movement of the plot arc, think how easy it will be to sketch out a simple map of it in order to help us spot where exactly on the arc the emotional level ought to be raised. In fact, this last point will serve another purpose, too. It will enable us to see whether or not we have sufficient dramatic action, conflict and climax/crisis in the plot arc. In other words, has our plot arc enough poignant moments, enough twists and turns, setbacks, journeys out of ignorance and into enlightenment so that we can embed within them a sufficient level of emotional temperature? Because we are looking for one thing that is closely connected to the other, if we can’t find the one, then our suspicions ought to be raised that the other may not be there either, or at least in sufficient amounts.
This brings us back to the 3-act plot arc structure. If we used it as a guide to put our plot together and we thought we had done a good job with it but we now find that we cannot find enough emotional highs in the story then we have to ask ourselves: is our plot arc structure really as good as it might be? We have to bear in mind, also, that we need rising stakes in the story to go alongside the rise in tension. The two work superbly well together. If the stakes and tension are not high enough there is a good chance that an emotional high is also lacking. So, for instance, suppose we see a man being held over the edge of a roof on a high building by another man, and we know that if he doesn’t fight him off he may fall to his death. This certainly creates tension and the stakes are high and an emotional high will probably also exist on the part of the audience. We are taking it for granted, of course, that the audience have followed this man for some time in the story and have got to know him quite well. But supposing we have seen him at death’s door in the story twice already. Now our emotional high at this new danger point will not be quite as high as it was, unless the stakes are raised. So let’s do that. His family are on the roof, too, held captive by the man who wants to kill him. Now, if the man is thrown off the roof, the killer will kill his family, also. This raises not only the stakes but the tension and the emotional temperature of the scene.
So now let’s use the tug of war example from the 3-act plot arc structure post to help us judge whether or not we might have enough of an emotional high in the most poignant parts of the plot arc. In that post, we checked for rising stakes to help the tension along, but now we are looking for rising emotion, as well, which we are deliberately going to add more of here, on the understanding that it is the plot arc’s job to encourage this and not that of character in and of itself. Remember, character is dramatic action! We will only look at Act 2, the middle act, the biggest one of the plot, where dramatic conflict runs through many of the play’s important crises (main plot points), and where, of course, the stakes keep rising and so therefore the tension along with it. This act has a high point and a darkest moment.
Go over the tug of war example in that post to make sure you understand what’s happening here.(Link)
We’ll give ourselves three poignant plot points to get through in this act, forcing the plot arc to raise its stakes and so its tension each time, and, also, of course, the emotional temperature.
First poignant plot point! A half minute after the game has got underway, on our protagonists’ side, one member falls down, screaming in pain, his back hurt. But he still hangs onto the rope. This raises the emotional level of the game in and of itself. We are concerned for his health. However, the other side are not. They take advantage of the moment and pull our team to the line, raising the emotional level more. One man is hurt and the game is about to be lost. And it is at this point that the stakes get raised because we hear over the tannoy that our protagonists will lose their championship position if they lose the match. Now our hurt man, through gritted teeth, manages to climb to his feet and valiantly pulls back on the rope. His teammates take a morale boost from this courageous act and all pull the other team back a little, saving themselves from losing in that moment. The brave recovery of the hurt man, the near loss and the rising stakes, all these together boost the emotional level of the drama. But because we are looking to raise the emotional level as high as possible here it is the hurt man that we threw in as an added twist that gave us that extra bit of an emotional surge.
Do you see how easy yet so profitable it is to check things over in this way? If we hadn’t had the hurt man, we could have easily created him when we realised we needed that extra bit of an emotional surge here.
Let’s move on! Second poignant moment! Our heroes dig in deep and pull the antagonists close to the line. Now surely our side are going to win. The opposition look exhausted. Our hurt man’s back looks perfect now. He’s even snarling with contempt at the opposition. They had their moment and they blew it. But just as our heroes are about to pull the opposing team very close to the line, our hurt man’s back blows up again and he buckles and collapses, screaming in pain once more. Now they are a man down. And just at this moment, we are informed over the tannoy system that our protagonists will be relegated if they lose this match. The stakes are raised further, the emotional level is high as we have one man down again, writhing about on the ground, but even so, reaching up and trying to grab hold of the rope and still do his bit for his team. Now his contempt has gone from his face. Has he learnt his lesson? Is he growing in character? Is the team? The crowd are roaring him on as his team is losing again. The emotional level rises even higherbecause of his second fall and because he is struggling so hard to rise again. What heart! But he cannot rise at that moment. The antagonists take full advantage of this fact and manage to pull their opponents closer to the line than they’ve ever been. But they refuse to be pulled over. They are still in the game.
Now for this next part we are really looking for a rise in the emotional level as we are also for the stakes and tension.
Third poignant moment! This includes the high point and the darkest moment. Someone in the opposing team slips and falls back on another team member and while both of them are struggling to gain their footing our team take full advantage of it and pull them quickly really really close to the line. So now the antagonists definitely look like they’re going to be beaten. Here we have the high point of the drama. Nothing can stop our heroes now. The emotion rises. However, the two slipped men on the other side are suddenly back on their feet and tugging on the rope again and help stave off disaster for their team. Then, once again, it is their team who gain the upper hand and pull back hard. Now comes the darkest moment for our protagonists. As they are being pulled to the line, with their courageous hurt man still on the ground, over the tannoy comes the announcement that they will lose all their sponsorship deals if they lose the match. The emotional level is high but to really ratchet it up alongside the stakes and the tension we are going to have the fallen man holding onto the rope and trying desperately to climb to his feet, desperate to get back into the game, even as his side is being pulled inexorably right to the white paint of the line. When the emotional level is really ratcheted up in this way, when our hurt man even manages to climb back onto his feet, he then collapses once more in a real paroxysm of agony.
And that is the end of this second act.
In the third act, we will have the climax where we want to ramp up the emotional level to its very highest. But we are not going to do that here because everyone by now has got the picture. The tug of war is a simple but effective metaphor for our use. We can see clearly that when the rise in tension and stakes are combined with a high emotional level, it gives this to-ing and fro-ing (physically quite repetitive) a feeling of big movement, rising urgency and a sense of a worthwhile goal. Just like in a real game of sport.
The other thing to stress is that although the tug of war metaphor is a very physical one, the principles outlined here hold true for any type of drama, no matter how low in physical activity and high in subtlety.
By the way, have you noticed anything else we can check here?
If character is action, this is also another way of ensuring that our character is experiencing growth throughout the plot arc. As they hit the poignant parts of the plot arc, they are hitting emotional high points which will only help them along this road to growth. A plot point may distract or retard their progress, it may confuse, dismay or terrify them, but it should always be changing them in some way. This internal change will force them to seek to carry out further plot-related action which will bring them again into another bump on the road, the next poignant plot point, and so the next emotional high point, also, and here they will go through the same process again of additional character growth.
Summary
As we can see from the above, ramping up the tension and stakes is one thing, but to really get the emotional juices flowing fully we need to go that bit further in our plot arc’s twists and turns. To really tug at those emotional strings we need to create as much poignancy in the plot arc as possible. However, we must not overdo it. Whatever we do must be credible within the world we have created. It must be reasonable, logical and consistent. Cause and effect must make sense. So, experiment away with plot twists and turns to see how much emotion they can garner, but don’t go overboard with it.
It might be a good idea to sketch out for someone the most emotive plot points of the story and check to see their reaction. But don’t tell them it’s yours. Just tell them it’s a story you heard or a play you saw or read. Otherwise, anyone close to you will tell you what they think you want to hear. They won’t want to upset or disappoint you. If they are left cold from the telling, if they feel no interest, pity or even horror at the events the characters find themselves enmeshed in, then you may have to reconsider these poignant plot points. On the other hand, if they are suitably impressed and react the way you believe your audience ought to, then you are probably heading in the right direction with your plot arc.
Links:
Character is dramatic action
The play’s 3-act plot arc structure
The scene’s plot arc structure
Inspiration from inside an empty matchbox
The plan: a bird’s eye view (for drama)
Sparking up character for the play
From stereotype to rounded character with speed and ease
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