Disaster

Disciplines > Storytelling > Plots > Polti's Situations > Disaster

Description | Discussion | See also

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Description

Elements

• A vanquished power,
• A victorious enemy,
• Or a messenger

Summary

A calamitous event occurs.

Variants

A

1. Defeat suffered
2. A fatherland destroyed
3. The fall of humanity
4. A natural catastrophe

B

1. A monarch overthrown

C

1. Ingratitude suffered
2. The suffering of unjust punishment or enmity
3. An outrage suffered

D

1. Abandonment by a lover or a husband
2. Children lost by their parents

Discussion

Disaster can take many forms, whether caused by malignant others, accident, fate or the environment. The bottom line is that harm is caused. No matter the cause, it provides a classic base for human stories where the protagonist recovers and fights back, perhaps for survival, perhaps to save others and perhaps for vengeance. In such circumstances are heroes born.

In watching disasters and their aftermath, we feel grateful that such calamity has not happened to use. We may also gain an increase in general tension that disaster could also happen to us. As we identify with the protagonist and watch their response, we feel hopeful that we also could survive a disaster and perhaps learn some of the things to avoid.

'Disaster' is the 6th of Georges Polti's 36 Dramatic Situations.

See also