Self Sacrificing for an Ideal: Georg Polti Plots or Storylines - The 36 Dramatic or Tragic Situations
Abstract
Four situations follow concerned with self-sacrifice and so have common elements. The ideal here may be political or religious, honor or piety, etc. It requires the sacrifice of all! If you have been intending to start that novel or screenplay but felt short of ideas, here is the Wise Women’s synopsis of plot to give you a few ideas. May the Goddess inspire you. Saviour Shirlie.
The next four situations are concerned with self-sacrifice and so have common elements. The forces involved are:
passion (vice, etc)
pure affection (for friends, parents, benefactors, and particularly devotion to their honor, their happines, their interests)
reasons of state (will to live, cupidity, ambition, avarice, vanity)
honor (truthfulness,feminine chastity, promises to god, filial piety).
To generate alternative scenarios oppose these two by two and study the ensuing conflicts. Some will be those covered here. Others might include:
a passion or vice destroying interests of state (even in Antony and Cleopatra the emphasis is on the two lovers rather than the peril of their peoples)
egoism (in the form of, say, ambition) struggling with faith, a frequent case in religious wars
egoism (like ambition) overcoming natural affection eg by denying or sacrificing father, mother, friend, etc
a conflict between personal honor and reasons of state.
Then oppose the various nuances to each other eg the hero caught between his faith and the honor of his people, etc. Myriads of subjects will emerge. The ideal may be political or religious, honor or piety, etc. It requires the sacrifice of all!
Elements
A hero
An ideal
A “creditor” or
A person or thing sacrificed
Themes
Sacrifice of life
for the sake of one’s word
for the success of one’s people
in filial piety
for the sake of one’s faith
Love (and life) sacrificed
for one’s faith
to a cause
to interests of state
Sacrifice of well-being to duty
The ideal of “honor” sacrificed to the ideal of “faith”
A prolix preacher arrived at a chapel where he was to preach a special sermon by invitation. The minister of the chapel knowing his prolixity was anxious to give him a hint about the length of his sermon. “Tell me” he said, “what subject do you intend to speak upon?” “On the milk of human kindness”, came the reply. “Good, good”, said the minister, “condensed, I hope?”
Support independent publishers and writers snubbed by big retailers. Ask your public library to order these books.
Available through all good bookshops
Permission to copy for personal use is granted. Teachers and small group facilitators may also make copies for their students and group members, providing that attribution is properly given. When quoting, suggested attribution format:
Adding the date accessed also will help future searches when the website no longer exists and has to be accessed from archives… for example…
Dr M D Magee, AskWhy! Publications Website, “Sun Gods as Atoning Saviours” Updated: Monday, May 07, 2001, www.askwhy .co .uk / christianity / 0310sungod .php (accessed 5 August, 2007)
Electronic websites please link to us at http://www.askwhy.co.uk or to major contents pages, if preferred, but we might remove or rename individual pages. Pages may be redisplayed on the web as long as the original source is clear. For commercial permissions apply to AskWhy! Publications.
