Customer Reviews

The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations (1917)

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Legend has it that Georges Polti heard that there were 36 possible plots, and set about creating a list of plots to match the 36. He claims that this number isn't special, and there may be other classifications a bit higher, or a bit lower. He also says that these correspond to the 36 basic emotions people have, which I honestly don't see.

Some of the dramatic situations seem to be stretched a bit thin where several of them have similar parts but in sleightly different context.For example: Twentieth Situation: Self-Sacrifice for an Ideal, Twenty First Situation: Self-Sacrifice for Kindred.

If someone proposed that there are only 36 plots (someone who the author holds in high recard) I would be tempted to say that with such a number as 36 - divisible by 1, 2, 3, 4 and all higher multiples thereof, that really what he meant was variations on a handful of plots. For example the 3 basic plots of Person v. Person, Person v. Nature (God), Person v. Herself. If I could think of 3 permutations on each of those, and 4 variations of each, then I too would have 36 plots.

Here it seems that Polti just started listing plots until he got to 36. I do recommend this book, along with Games People Play by Eric Berne (which falls under the psychology/self help section) as a good resource for when you're stuck for an idea. Eric Berne was a psychologist, concerned with figuring out what the basic transactions between people are (games) and what are reasons are for playing them. The difference here is that Eric Berne acknowledges that his list is a work in progress, and more games will be recognized as time goes on.

As far as more classical plotting, Aristotle's Poetics, The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri (see my review), and The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell are great resources. I'd also add The Hero by Lord Raglan (available in In Quest of the Hero by Otto Rank). These books make up the canonical library every writer should have.

Aristotle laid down the fundamentals of drama over 2,000 years ago, and they are followed to this day. Probably his closest modern rival is Lajos Egri, and you'll see that many of the writing software packages out there are either Aristotle, Egri, or Campbell based.

Another reviewer mentioned Star Wars. George Lucas was highly influenced by Joseph Campbell, and the famed Bill Moyers interviews were conducted on Skywalker Ranch. I think analyzing Star Wars from the point of view of The 36 Dramatic Situations is like analyzing soup from the point of view of it's ingredients: "I noticed Celery, and Potatoes, and..." without getting a feel for the arc of the story, or that the soup is a Stew. Star Wars is a myth, and follows the basic mythic structure.

Lord Raglan identifies 22 common traits of heros, such as: His father is a king, he is raised by foster parents, we're told nothing of his childhood, etc. Everyone from Oedipus to Moses to King Arthur to Jesus to Luke Skywalker to Robin Hood to Neo follow this scale to one degree or another, and he gives examples of each.

I'd also encourage the curious to learn more about the Hollywood formula, 7 point plots, and the all important turnaround.

This text comes highly recommended as a classic by far too many creative writing and screenwriting teachers.

Want to know if this book is for you? Read this passage:

"In the second, by means of a contraction analogous to that which abbreviates a syllogism to an enthymeme, this undecided power is but an attribute of the persecutor himself."

The entire book reads this way, so if that works for ya, you'll love this book. If it doesn't, you'll need to look elsewhere.

George Polti's book tells you about the inner workings of the thirty-six dramatic situations he claims to have found. According to him, the possible plots can be reduced to one of these situations or to a variation on them. Additionally, he offers specific sub-types to each one of the plots, so that it is easier to precise which elements will make a distinct kind of plot. At the end of the book, you will also find useful information on how every element of a plot can vary. The classical avenger archetypical figure, for example, can be split into several characters for a different effect; the object of a passion can be a man or a woman, but it can be an addiction too! A book that would-be writers should not miss, "The Thirty-six Dramatic Situations" will make a good reading even for those only interested in getting a better grasp of the plot of, say, a movie they have seen. It is, simply, a work of art.

The elevated language of this nearly 100-year-old reference book makes the writing disconcerting to read at first, but as you leaf through situations ("Supplication," "Enmity of Kinsmen," "Vengance Taken for Kindred Upon Kindred"), you'll find yourself thinking of modern examples. An example: how many of these named plot devices are in the first "Star Wars" film? Well, for starters, there's Pursuit, Deliverance, Disaster, Revolt, Daring Enterprise, The Enigma ("Use the Force, Luke!" -- "Luke, I am your father!") and probably a few more that I didn't see. So if you're stumped for plots and conflict, this book will give you a good kick-start.

This book is famous mostly among people who have only heard of it. People who have actually read it are less gushy with their praise.

Most folks think of this as a book of all the different plots and their variations. But personally, I prefer to look at the title itself, which speaks not of "plots" but of "dramatic situations".

Picture a story as if it were a play. When the curtain rises, the actors are all on stage and frozen in a tableau that displays their roles and inter-relationships. It is Polti's contention that these tableaus, or "dramatic situations", amount to no more than 36 in number.

How does this differ from 36 plots? Well, there may be only a limited number of relationships among the characters when the curtain first rises, but there are a zillion different ways in which those relationships can play themselves out. In Polti's sub-headings he goes through a wide range of different variations.

So if you're looking for a one-size-fits-all set of plotlines so that you can write your blockbuster, forget it. If you want a densely written analysis of the 36 Dramatic Situations, this is your book. The book will help writers think about their craft, but it's still not as simple as people make it sound when they describe the book over a beer.

One problem that I ran into was Polti's era and nationality. He was a Frenchman writing almost a hundred years ago. As a result, his voluminous notations describing a plethora of literary examples was mainly lost on me. Unless you're an expert on 19th Century French theatre, you may find yourself in the same boat.

My bottom line: this is a good book. I'm glad I've got it and I occasionaslly pull it off the shelf and re-read sections. But is it a masterpiece, the Holy Grail of plot-writers? No.

An explanation of each dramatic situation would have been helpful. However, the author only gives a list of works that a situation can be found in. The book was not what I was looking for. I wanted something to help me write conflict and plot. Maybe it would be helpful if I shifted through the massive reading list the author provides. Over all, I was not satisfied with this.

I found Polti's "Les trente-six situations dramatiques" with another classic of his, "L'art d'inventer les personnages" reprinted by Éditions d'aujourd'hui in a serie called "Les introuvables" and I can assure you that both books are very difficult to find as genuine originals. Now Lucille Ray has made a tour de force and Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations is available to English speaking readers. Polti claims that all dramatic situations boil down to only 36 basic situations. You can believe him or not but much what he says makes sense and he supports his claim by giving examples from classic literature. He also refers to novels and stories which may be difficult to find but the point is that somebody has used the dramatic situation in question and there may be others. This is the true value of Polti, if you truly want to offer your readers something new and don't want to copy your ideas from published novels. The other side of the coin is that certain dramatic situations can be safely used over and over again because the public wants you to play the same old song again and again. I like to read Polti's ideas just for fun and only regret that many of the books he refers to are difficult to find. Some of them are also available only in French. There must be some well-read amateur who could write an English version of Polti's book and give examples based on English texts. I guarantee a huge success. The same goes for The Art Of Inventing Characters. Anybody for the money and fame? OK, what about the moneyThe Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations?

I don't quite understand how Polti came to classify the plots in this book the way he did. It made little sense to me. Nevertheless, I do see it as a useful reference for writers stuck for ideas. For my own part, I was able to think of some ideas which Polti did not seem to cover, even when I thought of his classifications as 'general categories', umbrellas under which every conceivable plot could fall.

If you wish to remain in that happy blissful world of suspended disbelief, where fairy stories continue to charm and inspire, and heroes are held sacred, then by all means never read this book.

"He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and applied the clay to his eyes, and said to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which is translated, Sent). So he went away and washed, and came back seeing." Gospel of John: 9: 6-7.

The intended audience of this work: the permanently cynical (me), writers, and English Literature undergraduates. For undergrads: after mentioning Foucault you quote Polti's structural plot diagnostic in some obfuscated sentence in about your third paragraph of any lit paper and you're on your way to graduating with honors. Heck, you professor won't even read any further and just slap an "A" on the darn thing. For writers: if you are stuck, reading this will send you screaming back to your alphanumeric clavichord faster than a Mustang with a tank full of white lightening and jet fuel.

One of the horrible things about reviewing is you start to think about what you've seen and read. Given man's continued Aristotelian imperative to classify, we also begin to classify written and visual literature. Soon this is distilled to an essence, and soon you read the essence instead of the story. Or the familiar story is re-written in a disguised way, and with such excellent selection of language, you don't care.

Georges Polti made things even worse than Aristotle did, and now there are no new stories under the sun. Instead of a Novel-O-Matic or "Mad-Lib: The Novel" we have Polti's "The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations." Read this and you need never read again, but will always just flip to this most essential of the "Master Plots."

Why 36? Why not. Nice factoring on that handy number, sounds plausible, and didn't Jesus die at 36 years old? Or was it 33? Aren't there "Form Critics" and deconstructionists who hold the Gospels out to be the first novels? Polti hesitates not.