The seven basic plots : why we tell stories
[This book] provides [an] answer to the age-old riddle of whether there are only a small number of "basic stories" in the world. Using ... examples, from ancient myths and folk tales, via the plays and novels of great literature to the popular movies and TV soap operas of today, it shows that there are seven archetypal themes which recur throughout every kind of storytelling.-Dust jacket
Print Book, English, 2005, ©2004
Pbk. ed View all formats and editions
Continuum, London, 2005, ©2004
Stories, plots, etc
viii, 728 pages ; 24 cm
9780826480378, 0826480373
754850016
pt. 1: The seven gateways to the underworld. Prologue to part one
Overcoming the monster
The monster (II) and the thrilling escape from death
Rags to riches
The quest
Voyage and return
Comedy
Comedy (II) : the plot disguised
Tragedy (I) : the five stages
Tragedy (II) : the divided self
Tragedy (III) : the hero as monster
Rebirth
The dark power : from shadow into light
Epilogue to part 1 : the rule of three (the role played in stories by numbers)
pt. 2: The complete happy ending. Prologue to part two
The dark figures
Seeing whole : the feminine and masculine values
The perfect balance
The unrealised value
The archetypal family drama (continued)
The light figures
Reaching the goal
The fatal flaw
pt. 3: Missing the mark. The ego takes over (I) : enter the dark inversion
The ego takes over (II) : the dark and sentimental versions
The ego takes over (III) : quest, voyage and return, comedy
The ego takes over (IV) : tragedy and rebirth
Losing the plot : Thomas Hardy, a case history
Going nowhere : the passive ego : the twentieth-century dead end, from Chekhov to Close encounters
Why sex and violence? : the active ego : the twentieth-century obsession : from de Sade to The terminator
Rebellion against "the one" : from Job to Nineteen eighty-four
The mystery
The riddle of the sphinx : Oedipus and Hamlet
pt. 4: Why we tell stories. Telling us who we are : ego versus instinct
Into the real world : the ruling consciousness
Of gods and men : reconnecting with "the one"
The age of Loki : the dismantling of the self
Epilogue : the light and the shadows on the wall
Author's personal note
Glossary of terms