The struggle in a plot may be either comical or tragic. Mr. Botts
ludicrously fights against a black-hand enemy--who proves to be his
mischievous small son. Plump and fussy Mrs. Jellifer lays deep but
always transparent plans to outwit her daughter's suitor and is
finally entrapped into so laughable a situation that she yields
gracefully in the end.
And so on indefinitely. Hamlet wars against his hesitating nature.
Macbeth struggles with his conscience that reincarnates the murdered
Banquo. Sentimental Tommy fights his own play-actor character. Tito
Melema goes down beneath the weight of his accumulated insincerities.
Sometimes light shines in the end, sometimes the hero wins only to
die. To be sure, these struggles suggest merely a single idea, whereas
plots often become very elaborate and contain even sub-plots,
counter-plots, and added complications of all sorts. But the basis is
the same, and always in some form _struggle_ pervades the drama;
always this struggle ranges the subordinate characters for or against
protagonist and antagonist, and the outcome is vitally part and
substance of all that goes before--the end was sown when the seeds of
the beginning were planted. This touches upon the third element:
_(c) The Denouement_, or disclosure of the plot just before its close,
is one of its most vital parts.
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