The seven basic plots

Simplified as it may seem, there are really only seven basic plots unraveling through all the stories in the past 2000 years of recorded history. These plots have been sorted different ways, but I prefer Christopher Booker’s assignations, as put forth in The Seven Basic Plots: Why we tell stories (Continuum, 2004). Here they are in summary. Subsequent blogs will look at each one in greater detail.

1. Overcoming the Monster: Anticipation builds as news of an ominous threat pervades the realm. As the action develops, the evil and destructive power of a life-threatening monster is seen. As Harker against the supernatural Count Dracula, the hero/heroine seems pitted against an impossible foe. This foe can only be overcome when the hero/heroine discerns the monster’s blind spot.

2. Rags to Riches: A young, untried hero/heroine is thrust out into the world. Things may be dire until the hero/heroine discovers an opportunity to prove her worth. Initial external success is enjoyed (think Cinderella enjoying her dance with the prince at the ball), but the story is not complete until the hero/heroine proves her inner worth and that allows her to enjoy both external and internal wealth (the prince recognizes Cinderella's worth even in her rags).

3. The Quest: As Odyesseus in Homer's Odyssey, the hero/heroine is called to complete a specific quest. He sets out on the journey with companions. Together, they encounter hostile terrain and a series of life-threatening ordeals. The hero/heroine survives these threats by relying on help from magical items or helpful spirits. The goal comes in sight. At this point, external help retreats and the hero/heroine must succeed through the final ordeal by relying on his own wits, strength, courage, and other abilities. This final ordeal is often half of the entire story.

4. Voyage and Return: Like Alice falling down the rabbit hole, a hero/heroine begins an unexpected voyage when she enters a realm of strange behaviors and/or beings. The voyage begins with a certain fascination with this strange world, yet fascination turns to fear as the hero/heroine realizes that her life is threatened in this place (as when Alice hears the queen yell, "Off with her head"). Just when the threat becomes too much to bear, the hero/heroine is whisked away from certain destruction to apparent safety. Whether this safety is real or not depends upon whether the hero/heroine has undergone a transformation while away.

5. Comedy: Here we encounter the complete happy ending. In the beginning of a comedy, the characters are knotted together in a confused tangle of misunderstandings. Because of the misunderstandings, people are separated from one another in ways that cause them grief. The pressure increases as the tangle tightens. Finally, things come to light that transform the identity and understanding of all the players. As in Shakespeare's rightly named Comedy of Errors, or the recent movie depiction, "Shakespeare in Love," the difficulties are overcome in a final sweep at the end when the characters are brought together in a joyful state of union. This union typically entails a male and female uniting, along with the bestowal of a kingdom.

6. Tragedy: A tragedy moves through five predictable stages. First, the hero/heroine sets out on a course while in a reckless mood in which he inevitably overlooks something important. Second, all seems well for awhile as the hero/heroine successfully obtains the object of his desire. Third, the hero/heroine becomes ensnared in an obsession that slowly takes over his life. He experiences frustrations in obtaining his desires. Fourth, the frustrations accumulate into a nightmare of doom, in which the hero/heroine crosses the line in commiting an act that takes him beyond the help of innocence and reflects back on when a happy ending was still possible. Fifth, the helpless, trapped hero/heroine is utterly destroyed. (You can follow these five stages just as easily through Nicholas Cage's character Ben in "Leaving Los Vegas" as in Shakepeare's MacBeth).

7. Rebirth: A young hero/heroine falls under the shadow of a dark power. Although the dark power may seem to recede or diminish for awhile, it returns full force in time, imprisoning the hero/heroine in a type of frozen living death (remember little Kay in the grip of the icy Snow Queen?). All seems lost, until the hero/heroine experiences an insight that thaws the icy grip of the dark power and allows him to regain access to his own warm-hearted goodness. The dark power is overthrown, and we view the ordeal as a means of giving birth to a more complete, autonomous being.

How are these seven basic plots all related to a single transformational process? And how does this process serve our biological, psychological and evolutionary needs? Keep reading this blog to find out.