What is the plot of a fairy tale? Always be open and active

Each work of art contains a certain set of plot elements. Without these details, the author will not be able to hold the attention of readers. What is a plot in literature? What role does she play in the creation of the work?

Among the details in the plot there are mandatory and optional. The latter includes exposition, which is not found in all stories and tales. The tie is a mandatory element. It is impossible to exclude her from the plot. It is not difficult to understand what a plot is in literature. The term itself answers the question. The author tangles the plot thread, and then, gradually, unties it.

Definition

The plot in literature is an event that can be considered the beginning of an action. But this detail is not always at the beginning of the story. There may be a tie at the end.

Any work is based on a clash of views of the characters, two or more points of view. Every story, novella or novel has a conflict. What is a plot in literature? This is the origin, the discovery of conflict in the narrative. It can be at the beginning, middle or end of the story. The concept of a plot in literature is not familiar to everyone. But everyone who has read at least one book has come across this element.

You should not think that the plot is an exceptional event that excites the reader’s imagination. Such a detail could be some seemingly unremarkable dialogue between the characters. You can clearly identify the plot in works of the detective genre. Here, as a rule, events begin with a crime, the solution of which takes most of the narrative. This detail is hard to miss in a thriller. In works of other genres, the plot is not striking. But as already said, it is present in every book. It is thanks to this detail that the reader does not close the book on the first pages, but plunges into the world created by the writer.

Composition

Plot elements: exposition, beginning, development of action, climax, denouement, afterword. The first and last details are optional.

In order to understand what a plot is in literature, it is worth remembering the plot of your favorite book. Regardless of the genre, the narrative follows this pattern: the characters find themselves in a difficult situation, and then gradually get out of it.

The examples given below will give a clear idea of what a plot is in literature.

Features of the tie

This detail captivates the reader. He can forgive the author for a boring exposition. An uninteresting premise - not at all. This is an intrigue that arouses the reader's interest and forces him to read the book to the end. There is always a main character in the plot, at least he is related to the situation after which the main events begin.

"Master and Margarita"

The novel begins with a denouement, and an explicit one (there are also implicit ones). The third chapter ends with the death of Berlioz. But the main character is the Master, and he is not at the Patriarch’s Ponds that evening. He is at the Stravinsky Clinic. The main character of Bulgakov's novel is indeed absent from the denouement. But, as we remember, in the second chapter Woland reads a book written by the Master, after which the chairman of MASSOLIT suffers sudden death.

The plot fits harmoniously into the main storyline. It does not stand out from the background of other details; it is an organic part of the story. The plot is the basis of the author's intention, that is, the idea that the writer is trying to convey to the reader.

"Dog's heart"

Let us recall another work by Mikhail Bulgakov. Where is the connection here? In the first chapter, where Sharikov is picked up on a cold Moscow street by Professor Preobrazhensky? No, the plot of this work is an operation, after which the dog gradually turns into a human. And this process, which did not lead to anything good, illustrates the author’s main idea.

Chess novella

Very bright ties are present in works of short prose. A novella is not much different from a short story. Still, some literary scholars distinguish them. They claim that the storyline is brighter and more intriguing.

Stefan Zweig was a master at creating captivating stories. The plot in “The Chess Novella” will force even the most sluggish reader to read the work to the end. The main character, the narrator, meets an incredible person on the way. The unusual thing about this man is that he easily manages to beat a grandmaster at chess.

Who is he? Where did he learn to play so well? After all, no one has been able to beat the famous chess player for many years. And this weirdo, who came out of nowhere, manages to do it with ease. Why do this strange man’s eyes burn so painfully during the game? The author poses such questions to the hero. And to the reader. And then gradually reveals the story of a man overcome by chess fever.

An equally important detail in the plot is the denouement. The author must not only intrigue the reader, but also gradually reveal all the cards. At the same time, between the beginning and the end there is always a climax.

The plot is an element of the plot, the starting point in the development of the action of a literary work; the event from which the main conflict of the work grows and moves towards its final resolution. In a literary work, the actions of the characters are logically interconnected. Each event arises as a result of the previous one. The sequence of events in a story that influence other events based on cause and effect constitutes a single action and constitutes the plot of a work of fiction.

The plot reveals the characters, their relationships, as well as the series of events described. Since the plot is based on the emergence, growth, and resolution of a conflict, that is, a collision of opposing forces, the structure of a literary work includes several stages of its development.

The plot structure

The plot structure of a literary work includes the following elements:

exposition;
string;
action development;
climax;
denouement.

In the structure of the works there are also other plot elements, for example, an epilogue. Each element performs its own function. For example, the exposition provides information about the main participants in future events, time and place even before the development of the action, and the prologue tells about what happened before the events described in the work.

There are three essential elements of a plot: plot, plot. Every story uses a plot to build a narrative, even if it has an unconventional plot structure.

The plot is usually found at the beginning of the work, although sometimes it appears in the middle or at the end. For example, the reader learns about the decision of the hero of N.V. Gogol’s novel “Dead Souls” Chichikov to acquire dead souls at the end of the work.

In large-scale works (for example, in L.N. Tolstoy’s novel “Anna Karenina”) there are often several plots that begin different storylines. Each separate part of a work of art (part, chapter, action, etc.) has a separate plot, subordinate to the general one. The plot of a work is the starting point for the development of action.

Types of ties

The set-up usually begins after exposure (introduction). In this case, the story becomes motivated and consistent. However, some works begin with a sudden, unmotivated beginning, which gives them poignancy and secrecy. Such a plot contains intrigue (Latin inticare - to confuse, confuse), i.e. a way of organizing actions in a work by increasing tension, hidden intentions, and acute confrontation of interests. The presence of intrigue is characteristic mainly of action-packed adventure and adventurous works (for example,). In detective novels, the plot, as a rule, is a description of a crime that will soon be solved by detectives; in adventure novels, it is a scene that motivates the characters to exploits. An example of an intriguing plot is the beginning of N. G. Chernyshevsky’s novel “What is to be done?”

The meaning of the plot in the work

The plot is the event from which the development of action in the work begins. In the beginning, as a rule, the main conflict begins, a clash of forces occurs, which leads to the development of subsequent events in the work.

The plot is of great importance in revealing the characters' personalities. The opening usually shows the first clash of the antipodes, the emergence of tension between the characters, the emergence of a conflict situation that will develop further and deepen towards its final resolution. The plot determines the main lines of plot development, orients the reader in the division of forces, and specifies the theme and problems of the work.

The plot is often considered the most significant part of the plot, since the climax and resolution depend on the events described at the beginning of the story.

Examples of plots in works

The plot in literature is an event or group of events that directly lead to a conflict situation. In essence, this is the starting point in the unfolding of the plot, a kind of starting shot that sends the runners into the distance. The plot can be clearly, separately in the work, as a sovereign, independent element of the plot, or it can merge with the exposition or, more accurately, grow out of it without a visible signal. Of course, if a work has not one, but several plot lines, each of them has its own plot, which does not exclude the existence of a common plot.

For example, in Turgenev’s story “Mumu”, the conflict of which is the confrontation between the free will of the natural man Gerasim, symbolically generalizing the entire Russian people, and the inert force of serfdom paralyzing this will in the person of a nameless old landowner, two similar, reminiscent homogeneous members are lined up one after the other proposals, storylines: “Gerasim + Tatiana” and “Gerasim + Mumu”. Each has its own plot (the lady makes a decision - in the first case, to marry Tatyana to Kapiton, in the second case, to get rid of Mumu); they are both, however, preceded by the general plot of the work (Gerasim, regardless of his will and desires, is removed from his native village environment and placed in the atmosphere of the city that is alien to him).

Of particular artistic importance is the method of introducing a plot in literature, which can appear suddenly, immediately, without preliminary preparation, by reducing the exposition ("Mtsyri" by Lermontov) or by introducing it into it ("Mumu" by Turgenev, "The Bronze Horseman" by Pushkin), or we will be dealing with a plot of the opposite type - delayed, carefully prepared; These are mostly the plots in Ostrovsky's plays. Ostrovsky, as already noted, scrupulously substantiates the authenticity of all characters, gradually intensifying the dominant conflict confrontation and consistently bringing it to resolution. Thus, in the play “The Thunderstorm,” the lightning rod mentioned in Act I indirectly testifies to the tension accumulating in the atmosphere of the work. The “dead kingdom”, it turns out, is not sleeping at all, people, communicating with each other, almost sparkle - so much evil, menacing current has accumulated in them. The steep Volga bank, on which Kalinov is located, is also fraught with mortal danger. In Katerina’s famous monologue “Why don’t people fly like birds?.. When you stand on a mountain, you are drawn to fly...” in the general pre-storm atmosphere of the exhibition one can hear not only an indirect comparison of the heroine with a bird, emphasizing her moral and religious spirituality , but also the motive for the disastrous flight that she will finally make in Act V.

The ambiguity of the symbol in the title of the play determined its double plot: “Kuligin’s condemning words in Act I are the beginning of the social struggle, Katerina’s last words in Act II finally tied the line of individual struggle.

It is well known how long Tolstoy searched for the final version of the beginning of the Anna Karenina exhibition. Indirectly, he was “prompted”... by Pushkin. Re-reading a volume of Pushkin's prose, Tolstoy came across the opening phrase of the passage, “The guests were arriving at the dacha...”. “This is how you should write!” - he exclaimed, after which the famous “Everything was mixed up in the Oblonskys’ house” appeared.

The energetic (on the principle of “taking the bull by the horns!”) exposition required an equally decisive and clear beginning. In the original versions, it was more traditional and less expressive. Anna met Vronsky in St. Petersburg, in the salon of Princess Betsy. In the canonical text, the acquaintance is transferred to the station (at the same time, that old acquaintance, which remained without consequences, is dully mentioned). What seems to have changed? And the difference is cardinal: a “secular”, almost ritual, non-binding acquaintance in St. Petersburg and a truly fatal acquaintance at a train station in Moscow, and even against the backdrop of the tragic death of a railway conductor under the wheels of a train! Tolstoy, with deliberate significance, draws our attention to how emotionally, close to the heart, but each in his own way, both participants in the future love drama perceived this incident: Anna turned pale, almost fainted, and Vronsky, as if paying off in advance for his involuntary sin, found the station master and gave him money for the widow of the deceased. In the final version of the plot, the tragic denouement thus shines through (“Be happy. I’m crazy,” “A day later they found a body under the rails”). L. Tolstoy himself persistently emphasized: “This is one of the places on which the entire novel stands. If it is false, then everything is false.”

Undoubtedly, the plot of F. Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment” is an exposition of Raskolnikov’s theory. Initially, the main character expressed his “Napoleonic credo” himself at Razumikhin’s party. But then Dostoevsky puts it into the mouth of Porfiry Petrovich, who remembered a magazine article he had once read, written by law student Rodion Raskolnikov, as if he had deliberately found himself at a common table. The legal investigator summarizes the contents of the “article” in a poisonous, sarcastic tone, generously making mocking comments, clearly provoking the author, challenging him to argue, and easily gets his way! Of course, such a plot in literature is a means that has a special artistic effect.