Christopher Booker is a scholar who wrote that every story falls into one of seven basic plot structures: Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, the Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy, and Rebirth. Shmoop explores which of these structures fits this story like Cinderella’s slipper.
Plot Type : Tragedy
Anticipation Stage
The Duke is looking love, and so is Vittoria, while Flamineo is jonesin' for a step up in the world. These characters are all possessed by desire in one way or another—and that's exactly what will destroy them in the end. We can see Flamineo as the main anticipator, the guy who instigates this chain of events out of intense ambition: the world is before him, and he's really got a chance to rise out of poverty. After snapping Camillo's neck, he's got everything to look forward to (although he almost gets arrested, and his sister's trial puts him at risk, as well).
Dream Stage
Flamineo evades arrest and fakes insanity in order to throw people off his trail, and apparently this works. Things are going wrong for Vittoria—but she gets a break when she escapes imprisonment and heads to Padua with the Duke, where Flamineo joins them. Everything seems peachy—they "got away with it." Except that they didn't…
Frustration Stage
Things start to go off the rails once the disguised avengers (Francisco, Lodovico, and Gasparo) arrive in Brachiano's court. Flamineo rashly murders his own brother, Marcello, after they argue about Flamineo's relationship with Zanche. Brachiano pardons Flamineo for the murder, but says that he needs to earn the pardon anew every day, or else hang. Then Brachiano gets murdered, and Flamineo encounters a "shadow figure" in the form of Brachiano's ghost—who holds out a bowl of lilies with a skull set in it, foretelling his doom.
Nightmare Stage
At this point, Flamineo tries to convince his sister to commit suicide with him—though, in reality, it's just a ploy to test her loyalty. Nevertheless, Flamineo's fake death scene becomes a kind of nightmare predicting his own imminent doom. He's trying to outwit death—but death is gaining on him at every minute.
Destruction Stage
In the final "destruction stage," everyone important (no surprise) gets destroyed. Lodovico and Gasparo stab Flamineo and Vittoria, leaving them to speak their cautionary last words to the audience. This is the classic end to the revenge tragedy—lots of blood, and the hero-villain's (Flamineo's) death.