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Booker's Seven Plot Types 367441 Views


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Description:

Who knew every book ever written could be slotted into one of seven plot types? Christopher Booker, that's who. J.R.R. Tolkien probably has a few things to say about the theory—but what do you think?

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English Language

Transcript

00:00

Thank you We sneak Bookers Seven plot types a lot

00:08

in jenny's opinion there's no book in the world that

00:11

could possibly compare to jane eyre So imagine how surprised

00:14

jenny would be if she were to learn that charlotte

00:16

bronte's masterpiece actually has a lot in common with other

00:19

rags to riches stories Well it goes like this According

00:22

to author and journalist christopher booker there are seven basic

00:25

plot types that a story could follow Overcoming the monster

00:30

rags to riches the quest voyage in return comedy tragedy

00:38

and rebirth Now this whole seven basic plot thing may

00:42

seem totally incredible Think of all the books ever written

00:45

in the world than all the stories ever told Can

00:48

we really some every plot ever conceived in one of

00:52

seven simple ways Well let's break it down in the

00:56

overcoming the monster plot the protagonist sets out to defeat

00:59

the bad guy or girl or thing that's threatening the

01:03

protagonist protagonist home protectionist hot date You get the idea

01:08

An excellent example of the overcoming the monster plot in

01:12

literature is the tale of dayal where a scandinavian hero

01:15

does the king of the danes a huge favor by

01:18

killing the monstrous grendel Then they will help the brother

01:21

out again by killing grendel's mother well in the rags

01:26

to riches plot the penniless protagonist gets everything here She

01:30

has ever wanted money fame maybe a nose job before

01:33

losing it all growing as a person and then gaining

01:37

everything back in jane eyre After our heroine comes within

01:42

And i do of getting hitched to a wealthy big

01:45

amiss she takes off and proved she doesn't need a

01:47

man or even a miraculously obtained fortune to make it

01:51

on her own Mr rochester changes for the better too

01:54

it's kind of required of him After all he does

01:56

lose his house his eyesight His hand is crazy for

02:00

why and his beloved fiance all because he tries to

02:03

marry jane when he still got bertha in the attic

02:07

So everyone loses everyone grows and everyone ends up happy

02:11

Except bertha Because she's dead right in the quest plot

02:15

the protagonist and his or her buddies set out to

02:18

find any important object or reach a certain place facing

02:22

grave peril along the way Take the odyssey Odysseus just

02:27

wants to get home to his loving wife But first

02:30

he has to survive A cyclops and the wrath of

02:33

the cyclops dad and cannibals and some very dangerous women

02:37

All in all it takes odysseus years to get home

02:40

but what a story he has to tell when he

02:42

reaches ithaca Of course the suitors don't get to hear

02:45

it because they're all dead then there's the voyage in

02:49

return plot where the protagonist goes somewhere exotic survived everything

02:53

thrown at him or her and comes home wiser for

02:56

the experience in lewis carroll's adventures in wonderland alice follows

03:01

the white rabbit down a hole into a world populated

03:04

by talking creatures You talking to me things that cause

03:07

alice to change size multiple times on a homicidal point

03:11

of hearts At the end of this story alice awakens

03:14

and realizes that her journey in tow wonderland was actually

03:17

a dream The comedy plot follows protagonist destined for love

03:22

although they have to overcome a lot of obstacles before

03:24

they get their happy ending in shakespeare's twelfth night for

03:28

example viola disguises herself as a dude knew corsino sends

03:32

a hell of a guy to talk to the woman

03:34

he wants to marry olivia into getting hitched Olivia however

03:39

falls for violet the guy while viola falls for the

03:42

duke we haven't even touched on violas presumed dead twin

03:46

brother sebastian Eventually the play ends happily once all the

03:50

cases of mistaken identity or cleared up But of course

03:53

we expected this because twelfth night follows the comedy plot

03:57

The tragedy plot on the other hand doesn't have a

04:00

happy and instead the protagonist is a villain who bites

04:03

it In the finale shakespeare's macbeth involves a protagonist who

04:08

takes some really bad advice from his power hungry wife

04:11

macbeth consequently murders a monarch and becomes king of scotland

04:15

Not that rains for long after everyone figures out he's

04:18

a regicide well he loses his head and yeah he

04:21

totally deserved it The rebirth plot features a protagonist who

04:26

is kind of a jerk but redeems him or herself

04:28

over the course of the story on charles dickens A

04:31

tale of two cities Way meet sydney carton and english

04:35

barrister sydney's hard to like Well he drinks a lot

04:38

he's really depressed and cynical and he's in love with

04:41

lucie manette who we all know belongs with sydney's doppelganger

04:45

charles darnay At the end of the novel however sydney

04:48

brakes charles out of a french prison and is executed

04:51

in charles place thus proving that sydney is in fact

04:55

the king of all that is awesome So here we

04:58

have it seven basic plots to describe every story in

05:01

existence now it's entirely possible for an author to take

05:04

elements of these seven basic plots and mix him up

05:07

a little For example think of the lord of the

05:10

rings trilogy There are multiple monsters overcome chief of which

05:14

is sorrow on there's an overarching quest to destroy the

05:17

ring and the hobbits undertake avoids that leads them all

05:20

over the map before they eventually return to the shire

05:24

Or what about victor hugo's les miserables You see the

05:27

rebirth plot type in the story arc of jeeva and

05:30

a thief turned nice guy overcoming the munster plot type

05:33

in val jean's eventual triumph over his nemesis java and

05:38

the comedy plot type in the romance between cosette and

05:41

marius Of course benin doesn't get a happily ever after

05:46

because she's dead and that's the story of booker's seven

05:49

plot types Now that jenny's learned something new she's going

05:52

to re read jane eyre for the millionth time and

05:55

see how many plot types she confined You better watch

05:58

out for overcoming the monster with bertha mason though jenning

06:01

that lady's a firebug Good luck with that You talking 00:06:11.562 --> [endTime] to me

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