Well, isn't it said that there are only a certain number of plots, and every story is just a variation on those?<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Polti, Georges. The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations. trans. Lucille Ray.<br/><br/>Polti claims to be trying to reconstruct the 36 plots that Goethe alleges someone named [Carlo] Gozzi came up with. (In the following list, the words in parentheses are our annotations to try to explain some of the less helpful titles.):<br/><br/>   1. Supplication (in which the Supplicant must beg something from Power in authority)<br/>   2. Deliverance<br/>   3. Crime Pursued by Vengeance<br/>   4. Vengeance taken for kindred upon kindred<br/>   5. Pursuit<br/>   6. Disaster<br/>   7. Falling Prey to Cruelty of Misfortune<br/>   8. Revolt<br/>   9. Daring Enterprise<br/>  10. Abduction<br/>  11. The Enigma (temptation or a riddle)<br/>  12. Obtaining<br/>  13. Enmity of Kinsmen<br/>  14. Rivalry of Kinsmen<br/>  15. Murderous Adultery<br/>  16. Madness<br/>  17. Fatal Imprudence<br/>  18. Involuntary Crimes of Love (example: discovery that one has married one’s mother, sister, etc.)<br/>  19. Slaying of a Kinsman Unrecognized<br/>  20. Self-Sacrificing for an Ideal<br/>  21. Self-Sacrifice for Kindred<br/>  22. All Sacrificed for Passion<br/>  23. Necessity of Sacrificing Loved Ones<br/>  24. Rivalry of Superior and Inferior<br/>  25. Adultery<br/>  26. Crimes of Love<br/>  27. Discovery of the Dishonor of a Loved One<br/>  28. Obstacles to Love<br/>  29. An Enemy Loved<br/>  30. Ambition<br/>  31. Conflict with a God<br/>  32. Mistaken Jealousy<br/>  33. Erroneous Judgement<br/>  34. Remorse<br/>  35. Recovery of a Lost One<br/>  36. Loss of Loved Ones.<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div>