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The Seven Basic Plots
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The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories
Author Christopher Booker
Language English
Published 2004
Pages 736
Preceded by The Great Deception
Followed by Scared to Death: From BSE to Global Warming
The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories is a 2004 book by Christopher Booker, a Jungian-influenced analysis of stories and their psychological meaning. Booker worked on the book for 34 years.[1]
Contents [hide]
1 Summary
1.1 The meta-plot
1.2 The Seven Basic Plots
1.2.1 Overcoming the Monster
1.2.2 Rags to Riches
1.2.3 The Quest
1.2.4 Voyage and Return
1.2.5 Comedy
1.2.6 Tragedy
1.2.7 Rebirth
2 Prior work
3 Reception
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
Summary[edit]
The meta-plot[edit]
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 their 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 their burden against the odds.[2]
The key thesis of the book: "However many characters may appear in a story, its real concern is with just one: its hero or heroine. It is he or she with whose fate we identify, 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 or heroine themselves."
The Seven Basic Plots[edit]
This section requires expansion. (September 2013)
Overcoming the Monster[edit]
The protagonist sets out to defeat an antagonistic force which threatens the protagonist and/or protagonist's homeland.
Examples: Perseus, Theseus, Beowulf, Dracula, War of the Worlds, Nicholas Nickleby, The Guns of Navarone, Seven Samurai and its Western-style remake The Magnificent Seven, James Bond, Star Wars: A New Hope, "Hunger Games" and "Shrek".[2]
Rags to Riches[edit]
The poor protagonist acquires things such as power, wealth, and a mate, before losing it all and gaining it back upon growing as a person.
Examples: Cinderella, Aladdin, Jane Eyre, A Little Princess, Great Expectations, David Copperfield.[2]
The Quest[edit]
The protagonist and some companions set out to acquire an important object or to get to a location, facing many obstacles and temptations along the way.
Examples: Iliad, The Pilgrim's Progress, King Solomon's Mines, Watership Down.[2] The Wizard of Oz, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Land Before Time, One Piece, Indiana Jones,
Voyage and Return[edit]
The protagonist goes to a strange land and, after overcoming the threats it poses to him/her, returns with nothing but experience.
Examples: Odyssey, Alice 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, The Third Man,[2] Chronicles of Narnia, Apollo 13, Labyrinth, Finding Nemo, Gulliver's Travels, Spirited Away
Comedy[edit]
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.[3]
Examples: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, Bridget Jones Diary, Music and Lyrics, Sliding Doors, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Mr Bean
Tragedy[edit]
The protagonist is a villain who falls from grace and whose death is a happy ending.
Examples: Macbeth, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Carmen, Bonnie and Clyde, Jules et Jim, Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, John Dillinger, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar,[2] Death Note, Breaking Bad
Rebirth[edit]
The protagonist is a villain or otherwise unlikable character who redeems him/herself over the course of the story.
Examples: Sleeping Beauty, The Frog Prince, Beauty and the Beast, The Snow Queen, A Christmas Carol, The Secret Garden, Peer Gynt[2], Life Is a Dream, Despicable Me, Machine Gun Preacher
Prior work[edit]
Arthur Quiller-Couch possibly originally formulated seven basic plots as a series of conflicts: Human vs. Human, Human vs. Nature, Human against God, Human vs. Society, Human in the Middle, Woman & Man, Human vs. Himself.[4][citation needed]
William Foster-Harris' The Basic Patterns of Plot sets out a theory of three basic patterns of plot.[5]
Ronald B. Tobias set out a twenty-plot theory in his 20 Master Plots.[5]
Georges Polti's The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations.[5]
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