Involuntary crimes of love

Disciplines > Storytelling > Plots > Polti's Situations > Involuntary crimes of love

Description | Discussion | See also

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Next: Slaying of a kinsman unrecognised

Description

Elements

The Lover
The Beloved
The Revealer

Summary

The Lover performs acts of love with the Beloved, only to find (via the Revealer) that the Beloved is a close relative.

Variants

Discovery that one has married one's mother
discovery that one has a sibling as a lover

Discovery that one has married one's sibling
Discovery that one has married one's sibling, in which the crime has been villainously planned by a third person
Being on the point of taking a sibling, unknowingly, as a lover

Being upon the point of violating, unknowingly, a child

Being upon the point of committing an adultery unknowingly
Adultery committed unknowingly

Discussion

Crimes of love are amongst the most socially shocking in the way they break very strong rules against incestuous relationships. The children of incest, of course, can easily be genetically damaged, and hence such relationships are strongly banned in all cultures.

However, when this act is accidental, then a confusing conflict is set up in the viewer, who is both disgusted by the crime and sympathetic to the lover who themselves will be feeling even more internal conflict. The result is a powerful emotional dilemma which pulls on the heart strings and provides a strong story element.

'Involuntary crimes of love' is the 18th of Georges Polti's 36 Dramatic Situations.