Everybody Dies in the End
In my last post I wrote about Aristotle’s Poetics, and the idea of the three-act story structure. Though this structure is still popular today, it has its drawbacks. One of these is the long second act, which sometimes seems to go on forever and where some writers tend to veer off track. For this reason, it is often called “the muddle in the middle.”
Perhaps aware of this problem Gustave Freytag went back to the books and came up with his famous pyramid which contains not three, but five acts and is based on Horace’s Ars Poetica (cir. 100BC).
Gustave Freytag was born in Silesia in 1816. He studied written and spoken language at Breslau and at Berlin. In his day he was a popular and prolific writer who published plays, novels, and histories. His novel Debit and Credit, published in 1855, was what today we would call a blockbuster, winning worldwide acclaim.
He also studied drama, particularly the tragedy, and wrote his seminal work The Technique of Drama, which contained his famous pyramid, in 1863. It is now considered a classic primer on writing and is particularly popular with screenwriting, and is still used today albeit wrongly, in many cases,
To get his five acts, called stages, Freytag split up the second act into three sections, with what he called the climax of the play occurring at the midpoint. This structure diagrams to a roughly pyramidal shape, which is why it’s called Freytag’s Pyramid.
As I stated, this is probably the most misunderstood and misused story structure in use today. For one thing, Freytag intended his pyramid to only be used for tragedies, (where the hero dies in the end) though it can be used for comedies, if the pyramid is inverted.
The Freytag Five Act Structure
I will outline Freytag’s five act structure below, using probably the most well-known tragedy, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The quotes are from The Technique of Drama.
Stage one (Act one) Exposition
The writer introduces the main character and gives background information, setting the stage for the drama. This corresponds to the first act in modern drama.
Romeo and Juliet
Juliet prepares to marry Paris. A banquet is planned by the Capulets. Romeo and his home boys plan to crash the party. Despite a fearful dream, and a feud between the two families, Romeo decides to go ahead.
Stage Two (Act two) Exciting Force
Called the “Inciting Incident” or “Call to action” in other story structures, this introduces the central problem to both the characters and the experiencer.
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo meets Juliet at the party, and they fall in love. Tybalt, a friend of Paris vows revenge.
Stage Three (Act three) Rising Movement
Sometimes called “Fun and games,” this encompasses the first half of act two in other structures. The hero sets out to solve the problem, supporting characters are introduced, the hero is in charge at this point and the opposition appears relatively weak.
Romeo and Juliet
The famous balcony scene. Through a series of secret machinations, Juliet and Romeo are married and expect to live happily ever after.
Stage Four (Act four) Climax
All modern stories have a climax, but usually it is toward the end of the play, in the third act. Freytag puts is right square in the middle. In some modern dramas this is called the “midpoint reversal.” If things were going good for the hero so far, they take a turn for the worse. If things have been going badly, they take a turn for the better. In Freytag’s pyramid, things always go downhill from here. While often in modern drama the midpoint reversal is only one scene, Freytag says it may contain several scenes.
“This middle, the climax of the play, is the most important place of the structure. Action rises to this; action falls away from this.”
Romeo and Juliet
Tybalt kills Mercurio, Romeo’s friend. Romeo kills Tybalt. And the feces impacts the axially rotating vanes.
Stage Four (Act Four) Falling Action
Things go from bad to worse for the hero. He is falling headlong to destruction. This encompasses the second half of act two in other structures.
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo is banished for his crime. He and Juliet have one night of bliss before he leaves. Lord Capulet sets the wedding date three days hence. Juliet tells him she will not marry Paris. Lord Capulet is furious. The Friar Lawrence comes up with a plan. He gives Juliet a sleeping potion that lasts 48 hrs. The news is sent in a letter to Romeo. Juliet’s marriage is pushed forward by one day. Juliet takes the potion and blacks out. Romeo hears Juliet is dead and buys poison. Friar John returns with Romeo’s letter undelivered.
But Freytag wants the audience to think there might be hope for the hero after all. He called this the “Force of Final Suspense.”
“It is an old, unpretentious poetic device to give the audience, for a few moments, a prospect of relief.”
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo comes to the tomb, meets Paris and kills him.
Stage Five (Act five)
The Hero meets his final doom.
“The poet should not be misled by modern tender-heartedness to spare the life of his hero on the stage.”
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo drinks the poison and dies; Juliet awakens, finds Romeo dead, and kills herself. Friar Lawrence and Romeo’s servant are arrested. All is revealed. The feud is ended.
Freytag vs modern structure
In modern structure the climax comes near the end vs. the middle. Other differences include:
Though the story may follow the pyramid structure writers either misconstrue Freytag’s theory or purposely modify it to fit their needs.
There is a “midpoint reversal” which may turn good or bad for the protagonist.
The climax is a “decision point” for the protagonist.
There may be many ups and down, vs a straight-line arc.
The end can be either catastrophe or triumph.
Below is a graphical representation of the pyramid from Freytag’s book
