Flight: Georg Polti Plots or Storylines - The 36 Dramatic or Tragic Situations
Abstract
This is a translation of Vengeance (and any in which danger pursues a character) into the passive. The major distinction is that in Flight the avenging elements are less important or may be even invisible or abstract. 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.
This is a translation of Vengeance (and any in which danger pursues a character) into the passive. The major distinction is that in Flight the avenging elements are less important or may be even invisible or abstract. The interest is in the fugitive alone; sometimes innocent—always excusable, for the fault (if there was one) seems to have been inevitable—ordained. We, the audience, do not blame it or inquire after it but sympathetically suffer the consequences with the hero, who, whatever his past faults is now a fellow man in danger. We are all of us capable of committing any crime, so we feel ourselves accomplices in even the worst. Drama allows us to get experience of error and catastrophe in a less costly way than in reality. The sense of isolation which characterises this situation gives a parculiar unity to the action, and a clear field for psychological observation. Famous TV series, The Fugitive.
Elements
The Punishment
A Fugitive
Themes
Fleeing justice
for murder, brigandage, etc
for political offences, rebellion, etc
Fleeing for fault of love
A hero fleeing a power (seeking injustice) The Death of Hector; Troilus and Cressida, Shakespeare
In a 1991 case in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, a teenager, Nicole Althaus, encouraged by a teacher and a social worker, accused her father of having sexualIy abused her, resulting in his arrest. Nicole also reported that she had given birth to three children, who her relatives had killed, that she had been raped in a crowded restaurant, and that her grandmother flew about on a broom. Nicole recanted all this the following year, and all charges against her father were dropped. Nicole and her parents brought a civil suit against the therapist and psychiatric clinic to whom Nicole had been referred shortly after she began making her accusations. The jury found that the doctor and the clinic had been negligent and awarded almost a quarter of a million dollars to Nicole and her parents. There are increasing numbers of cases of this sort. But what if Nicole had not recanted. Remember Salem.
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