The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations

This weekend, between attending my cousin's wedding, driving to and from Kerrville, and eating too much, I took some time to read one of my favorite film blogs Film School Rejects. One "project" on the site is a film retrospective based upon a nineteenth century work by Georges Polti called The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations. In this work, Polti asserts that dramatic works can be assigned to one of thirty six plot categories. Each posting of this project takes one of Polti's categories and examines a film that they believe epitomizes that category.

I thought that was a brilliant idea, so I am incorporating it into this week's blog posting assignment.
The assignment is to take ONE category, choose ONE dramatic work (literature, cinema, or theater) and tell me how that work fits that category.

I've taken the list from the Wikipedia site so there are links to some of the concepts.

So, for your education, here they are...

The 36 Dramatic Situations

 (Polti, Georges (1921) [1916]. The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations. Franklin, Ohio: James Knapp Reeve.)

1.              Supplication

A Persecutor; a Supplicant; a Power in authority, whose decision is doubtful.

2.              Deliverance

An Unfortunate; a threatener; a Rescuer

3.              Crime pursued by vengeance

A Criminal; an Avenger

4.              Vengeance taken for kin upon kin

Guilty Kinsman; an Avenging Kinsman; remembrance of the Victim, a relative of both

5.              Pursuit

Punishment; a Fugitive

6.              Disaster

A Vanquished Power; a Victorious Enemy or a Messenger

7.              Falling prey to cruelty/misfortune

An Unfortunate; a Master or a Misfortune

8.              Revolt

A Tyrant; a Conspirator

9.     Daring enterprise

A Bold Leader; an Object; an Adversary

10.           Abduction

An Abductor; the Abducted; a Guardian

11.           The enigma

A Problem; an Interrogator; a Seeker

12.           Obtaining

(A Solicitor & an Adversary who is refusing) or (an Arbitrator & Opposing Parties)

13.           Enmity of kin

A Malevolent Kinsman; a Hated or a reciprocally-hating Kinsman

14.           Rivalry of kin

The Preferred Kinsman; the Rejected Kinsman; the Object of Rivalry

15.           Murderous adultery

Two Adulterers; a Betrayed Spouse

16.           Madness

A Madman; a Victim

17.           Fatal imprudence

The Imprudent; a Victim or an Object Lost

18.           Involuntary crimes of love

A Lover; a Beloved; a Revealer

19.           Slaying of kin unrecognized

The Slayer; an Unrecognized Victim

20.           Self-sacrifice for an ideal

A Hero; an Ideal; a Creditor or a Person/Thing sacrificed

21.           Self-sacrifice for kin

A Hero; a Kinsman; a Creditor or a Person/Thing sacrificed

22.           All sacrificed for passion

A Lover; an Object of fatal Passion; the Person/Thing sacrificed

23.           Necessity of sacrificing loved ones

A Hero; a Beloved Victim; the Necessity for the Sacrifice

24.           Rivalry of superior vs. inferior

A Superior Rival; an Inferior Rival; the Object of Rivalry

25.           Adultery

Two Adulterers; a Deceived Spouse

26.           Crimes of love

A Lover; the Beloved

27.           Discovery of the dishonor of a loved one

A Discoverer; the Guilty One

28.           Obstacles to love

Two Lovers; an Obstacle

29.           An enemy loved

A Lover; the Beloved Enemy; the Hater

30.           Ambition

An Ambitious Person; a Thing Coveted; an Adversary

31.           Conflict with a god

A Mortal; an Immortal

32.           Mistaken jealousy

A Jealous One; an Object of whose Possession He is Jealous; a Supposed Accomplice; a Cause or an Author of the Mistake

33.           Erroneous judgment

A Mistaken One; a Victim of the Mistake; a Cause or Author of the Mistake; the Guilty One

34.           Remorse

A Culprit; a Victim or the Sin; an Interrogator

35.           Recovery of a lost one

A Seeker; the One Found

36.           Loss of loved ones

                  A Kinsman Slain; a Kinsman Spectator; an Executioner