The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations

[Assthetic]

Has anyone else ever heard of Polti’s Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations?

I’ll list some (straight from wikipedia lol):

Supplication

• a persecutor; a suppliant; a power in authority, whose decision is doubtful.

• The suppliant appeals to the power in authority for deliverance from the persecutor. The power in authority may be a distinct person or be merely an attribute of the persecutor, e.g. a weapon suspended in their hand. The suppliant may also be two persons, the Persecuted and the Intercessor, an example of which is Esther interceding to the king on behalf of the Jews for deliverance from the king’s chief advisor.

Deliverance

• an unfortunate; a threatener; a rescuer

• The unfortunate has caused a conflict, and the threatener is to carry out justice, but the rescuer saves the unfortunate. Examples: Ifigenia in Tauride, Deliverance

Crime pursued by vengeance

• a criminal; an avenger

• The criminal commits a crime that will not see justice, so the avenger seeks justice by punishing the criminal. Example: The Count of Monte Cristo

Vengeance taken for kin upon kin

• Guilty Kinsman; an Avenging Kinsman; remembrance of the Victim, a relative of both.
• Two entities, the Guilty and the Avenging Kinsmen, are put into conflict over wrongdoing to the Victim, who is allied to both. Example: Hamlet

Pursuit

• punishment; a fugitive
• the fugitive flees punishment for a misunderstood conflict. Example: Les Misérables, The Fugitive
  http://www.wcatyweb.org/library/documents/comics/poltis36.pdf

[AlexandraD]

nope. what exactly is that?

[Assthetic]

“Georges Polti was a 19th century French writer who speculated that there were 36 dramatic situations that could be found in, and that form the basis for, all stories.”

[Assthetic]

[AlexandraD]

ooh i see! i did not though that it was called that way. but almost most fantasy/ action stories are like that!

[Assthetic]

It can also be slice of life and drama just not as extreme