One important thing to note about the shape of Freytag's pyramid is that it shows all parts of the story as having equal length, with climax at the very center of the diagram. Here's the pyramid as originally defined by Freytag: One of the first and most influential people to create a framework for analyzing plots was 19th-century German writer Gustav Freytag, who argued that all plots can be broken down into five stages:įreytag originally developed this theory as a way of describing the plots of plays at a time when most plays were divided into five acts, but his five-layered "pyramid" can also be used to analyze the plots of other forms of literature, including novels, short stories, films, and television shows. Some people would describe the rising action as the most important part of the plot because the climax and outcome of the story would not take place if the events of the rising action did not occur. For instance, if the climax of a mystery story is the unmasking of the villain, then the rising action is likely concerned with the crime committed and the discovery of different clues leading to the villain's identification. Since the climax dispels the tension that was built up during the rising action, the climax is directly concerned with the conflict or tension that drove the rising action. Therefore, one good way to identify a story's rising action is to identify the climax. Most of the tension and suspense that get built up over the course of the rising action are dispelled during the climax.
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