English Literature / Unit 2 ENL 0122 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Plot, Exposition and Climax
Captions available
The idea
Plot is the arranged sequence of events. Gustav Freytag's nineteenth-century analysis divides a five-act drama into exposition, which sets out the situation; rising action; the climax, or turning point; falling action; and the resolution, or denouement. Later critics proposed other structures, but these terms remain standard.
In practice
Setup, rising, turn, falling, close.
Where people slip
The climax is the turning point, not the loudest scene.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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