Examine individual changes

'{{short description|Book by Christopher Booker}} {{Infobox book | name = The Seven Basic Plots | author = [[Christopher Booker]] | language = [[English language|English]] | country = | genre = | published = 2004 | isbn = | image = The Seven Basic Plots, book cover.png | caption = | alt = | title_orig = | orig_lang_code = | title_working = | translator = | illustrator = | cover_artist = | series = | subject = | media_type = | pages = 736 | oclc = | dewey = | congress = | preceded_by = The Great Deception | followed_by = Scared to Death: From BSE to Global Warming | wikisource = }} '''''The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories''''' is a 2004 book by [[Christopher Booker]] containing a [[Jung]]-influenced analysis of stories and their psychological meaning. Booker worked on the book for thirty-four years.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/nov/21/fiction.features |title=Terminator 2 good, The Odyssey bad |date=2004-11-21 |access-date=2019-05-22 |work=The Guardian}}</ref> ==Summary== ===The meta-plot=== The meta-plot begins with the ''anticipation stage'', in which the hero is called to the adventure to come. This is followed by a ''dream stage'', in which the adventure begins, the hero has some success, and has an illusion of invincibility. However, this is then followed by a ''frustration stage'', in which the hero has his first confrontation with the enemy, and the illusion of invincibility is lost. This worsens in the ''nightmare stage'', which is the climax of the plot, where hope is apparently lost. Finally, in the ''resolution'', the hero overcomes his burden against the odds. The key thesis of the book: "However many characters may appear in a story, its real concern is with just one: its hero. It is the one whose fate we identify with, as we see them gradually developing towards that state of self-realization which marks the end of the story. Ultimately it is in relation to this central figure that all other characters in a story take on their significance. What each of the other characters represents is really only some aspect of the inner state of the hero himself." ===The plots=== ====Overcoming the monster==== Definition: The protagonist sets out to defeat an antagonistic force (often evil) that threatens the protagonist and/or protagonist's homeland. Examples: [[Perseus]], [[Theseus]], ''[[Beowulf]]'', ''[[Dracula]]'', ''[[The War of the Worlds]]'', ''[[Nicholas Nickleby]]'', ''[[The Guns of Navarone (novel)|The Guns of Navarone Hanaan was here]]'', ''[[Seven Samurai]]'' (''[[The Magnificent Seven]]''), [[James Bond]], ''[[Jaws (film)|Jaws]]'', ''[[Star Wars: A New Hope|Star Wars]]'', ''[[Naruto]]''. ====Rags to riches==== Definition: The poor protagonist acquires power, wealth, and/or a mate, loses it all and gains it back, growing as a person as a result. Examples: ''[[Cinderella]]'', ''[[Aladdin]]'', ''[[Jane Eyre]]'', ''[[A Little Princess]]'', ''[[Great Expectations]]'', ''[[David Copperfield]]'', ''[[Moll Flanders]]'', ''[[The Red and the Black]]'', ''[[The Prince and the Pauper]]'', ''[[The Ugly Duckling]]'', ''[[The Gold Rush]]'', ''[[The Jerk]]''. ====The quest==== Definition: The protagonist and companions set out to acquire an important object or to get to a location. They face temptations and other obstacles along the way. Examples: [[Iliad|''The Iliad'']], ''[[The Pilgrim's Progress]]'', ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', ''[[King Solomon's Mines]]'', ''[[The Divine Comedy]]'', ''[[Watership Down]]'', ''[[The Aeneid]]'', ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]]'', ''[[Monty Python and the Holy Grail]]''. ====Voyage and return==== Definition: The protagonist goes to a strange land and, after overcoming the threats it poses or learning important lessons unique to that location, they return with experience. Examples: ''[[Ramayana]]'', ''[[Odyssey]]'', ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]'', ''[[Goldilocks and the Three Bears]]'', [[Orpheus]], ''[[The Time Machine]]'', ''[[Peter Rabbit]]'', ''[[The Hobbit]]'', ''[[Brideshead Revisited]]'', ''[[The Rime of the Ancient Mariner]]'', ''[[Gone with the Wind (novel)|Gone with the Wind]]'', ''[[The Third Man]]'', ''[[The Lion King]]'', ''[[Back to the Future]]'', ''[[The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe]]'', ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'', ''[[Peter and Wendy|Peter Pan]]'', ''[[The Epic of Gilgamesh]]''. ====Comedy ==== Definition: Light and humorous character with a happy or cheerful ending; a dramatic work in which the central motif is the triumph over adverse circumstance, resulting in a successful or happy conclusion.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/comedy |title=the definition of comedy |website=Dictionary.com}}</ref> Booker stresses that comedy is more than humor. It refers to a pattern where the conflict becomes more and more confusing, but is at last made plain in a single clarifying event. The majority of romance films fall into this category. Examples: ''[[The Wasps]]'', ''[[The Pot of Gold|Aurularia]]'', ''[[Epitrepontes|The Arbitration]]'', ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'', ''[[Much Ado About Nothing]]'', ''[[Twelfth Night]]'', ''[[The Taming of the Shrew]]'', ''[[The Alchemist (play)|The Alchemist]]'', ''[[Bridget Jones's Diary]]'', ''[[Four Weddings and a Funeral]]'', ''[[The Big Lebowski]]''. ====Tragedy==== Definition: The protagonist is a hero with a major character flaw or great mistake which is ultimately their undoing. Their unfortunate end evokes pity at their folly and the fall of a fundamentally good character. Examples: ''[[Anna Karenina]]'', ''[[Bonnie and Clyde (film)|Bonnie and Clyde]]'', ''[[Carmen]]'', ''[[Citizen Kane]]'', ''[[John Dillinger]]'', ''[[Jules et Jim]]'', ''[[Julius Caesar (play)|Julius Caesar]]'', ''[[Macbeth]]'', ''[[Madame Bovary]]'', ''[[Oedipus Rex]]'', ''[[The Picture of Dorian Gray]]'', ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'', ''[[Hamilton (musical)|Hamilton]]'', ''[[The Great Gatsby]]''. ====Rebirth==== Definition: An event forces the main character to change their ways and often become a better individual. Examples: ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'', ''[[The Frog Prince (story)|The Frog Prince]]'', ''[[Beauty and the Beast]]'', ''[[The Snow Queen]]'', ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'', ''[[The Secret Garden]]'', ''[[Peer Gynt]]'', ''[[Groundhog Day (film)|Groundhog Day]]''. ===The Rule of Three=== {{seemain|Rule of three (writing)}} The third event in a series of events becomes "the final trigger for something important to happen." This pattern appears in childhood stories, like ''[[Goldilocks and the Three Bears]]'', ''[[Cinderella]]'', and ''[[Little Red Riding Hood]]''. In adult stories, [[Rule of three (writing)|the Rule of Three]] conveys the gradual resolution of a process that leads to transformation. This transformation can be downwards as well as upwards. Booker asserts that the ''Rule of Three'' is expressed in four ways{{Citation needed|date=April 2021}}: # The ''simple'', or ''cumulative'' three, for example, Cinderella's three visits to the ball. # The ''ascending'' three, where each event is of more significance than the preceding, for example, the hero must win first bronze, then silver, then gold objects. # The ''contrasting'' three, where only the third has positive value, for example, ''[[The Three Little Pigs]]'', two of whose houses are blown down by the [[Big Bad Wolf]]. # The ''final'' or ''dialectical'' form of three, where, as with Goldilocks and her bowls of porridge, the first is wrong in one way, the second in an opposite way, and the third is "just right".<ref>Christopher Booker, ''The Seven Basic Plots'', Continuum 2006, p 229-233</ref> ==Precursors== *William Foster-Harris' ''The Basic Patterns of Plot'' sets out a theory of three basic patterns of plot.<ref name="ipl2">{{cite web | title = The "Basic" Plots in Literature | url = http://www.ipl.org/div/farq/plotFARQ.html | accessdate = 2013-09-11 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150821080004/http://www.ipl.org/div/farq/plotFARQ.html | archive-date = 2015-08-21 | url-status = dead }}</ref> *Ronald B. Tobias set out a twenty-plot theory in his ''20 Master Plots''.<ref name="ipl2" /> *Georges Polti's ''[[The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations]]''.<ref name="ipl2"/> * Several of these plots are similar to [[Joseph Campbell]]'s work on the quest and return in ''[[The Hero with a Thousand Faces]]'' (see [[Hero's journey]]). ==Reception== ''The Seven Basic Plots'' has received mixed responses from scholars and journalists. Some have celebrated the book's audacity and breadth; for example, the author and essayist [[Fay Weldon]] wrote the following: "This is the most extraordinary, exhilarating book. It always seemed to me that 'the story' was God's way of giving meaning to crude creation. Booker now interprets the mind of God, and analyzes not just the novel – which will never to me be quite the same again – but puts the narrative of contemporary human affairs into a new perspective. If it took its author a lifetime to write, one can only feel gratitude that he did it."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-seven-basic-plots-9780826452092/ |title=The Seven Basic Plots |publisher=Bloomsbury |date= |accessdate=2013-03-19}}</ref> [[Beryl Bainbridge]], [[Richard Adams]], [[Ronald Harwood]], and [[John Bayley (writer)|John Bayley]] also spoke positively of the work, while philosopher [[Roger Scruton]] described it as a "brilliant summary of story-telling".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/wagner-moralist-or-monster-1235 |title=Wagner: moralist or monster? |first=Roger |last=Scruton |author-link=Roger Scruton |publisher=The New Criterion |date=February 2005 |accessdate=19 March 2013}}</ref> Others have dismissed the book on grounds that Booker is too rigid in fitting works of art to the plot types above. For example, novelist and literary critic [[Adam Mars-Jones]] wrote, "[Booker] sets up criteria for art, and ends up condemning ''[[Rigoletto]]'', ''[[The Cherry Orchard]]'', [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]], [[Marcel Proust|Proust]], [[James Joyce|Joyce]], [[Franz Kafka|Kafka]] and [[D.H. Lawrence|Lawrence]]—the list goes on—while praising ''[[Crocodile Dundee]]'', ''[[E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial|E.T.]]'' and ''[[Terminator 2]]''".<ref>Adam Mars-Jones [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/nov/21/fiction.features "Terminator 2 Good, The Odyssey Bad"], ''[[The Observer]]'', November 21, 2004, retrieved September 1, 2011.</ref> Similarly, [[Michiko Kakutani]] in ''[[The New York Times]]'' writes, "Mr. Booker evaluates works of art on the basis of how closely they adhere to the archetypes he has so laboriously described; the ones that deviate from those classic patterns are dismissed as flawed or perverse – symptoms of what has gone wrong with modern art and the modern world."<ref>{{cite web | last = Kakutani | first = Michiko | title = The Plot Thins, or Are No Stories New? | work = The New York Times | date = 2005-04-15 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/15/books/15book.html?pagewanted=2 | accessdate = 2013-09-11 }}</ref> ==See also== * [[Analytical psychology]] * [[Heroine's journey]] * [[Monomyth]] * [[Plot (narrative)]] ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== * [https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Seven_Basic_Plots.html?id=qHJj9gOl0j8C Google Books] * [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3632074/Everything-ever-written-boiled-down-to-seven-plots.html "Everything ever written boiled down to seven plots", review by Kasia Boddy, ''The Telegraph'', 2004-11-21] * [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/nov/21/fiction.features "Terminator 2 good, The Odyssey bad", review by Adam Mars-Jones, ''The Observer'', 2004-11-21] * [https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/15/books/15book.html "The Plot Thins, or Are No Stories New?", review by Michiko Kakutani, ''The New York Times'', 2005-04-15] * [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/05/AR2005050501385.html "Once Upon a Time", review by Denis Dutton, ''The Washington Post'', 2005-05-08] * [http://www.workersliberty.org/node/5432 "The Seven Basic Plots", review by Clive Bradley, ''Workers' Liberty'', 2005-12-25] * [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2366/what-are-the-seven-basic-literary-plots "What are the seven basic literary plots?", Cecil Adams, The Straight Dope, 2000-12-24] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20150821080004/http://www.ipl.org/div/farq/plotFARQ.html 'The "Basic" Plots in Literature', IPL2] {{DEFAULTSORT:Seven Basic Plots, The}} [[Category:Books about literature]] [[Category:Books by Christopher Booker]] [[Category:2004 non-fiction books]]'