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Falling prey to cruelty or misfortune
Disciplines > Storytelling > Plots > Polti's Situations > Falling prey to cruelty or misfortune
Description | Discussion | See also
Previous: Disaster
Next: Revolt
Description
Elements
- An Unfortunate
- A Master or a Misfortune
Summary
The innocent Unfortunate is harmed by accidental Misfortune or by a deliberate Master who should know better.
Variants
A
- The innocent made the victim of ambitious intrigue
B
- The innocent despoiled by those who should protect
C
- The powerful dispossessed or wretched
- A favorite or an intimate finds himself forgotten
D
- The unfortunate robbed of their hope
Discussion
Innocents are common in stories and echo the position of the child whose naivety leads them into danger and harm. Harming innocents thus creates emotion of outrage and horror.
Those who harm children are subject to something along the lines of vengeance taken for kindred upon kindred, and so those who harm the innocent may befall the same fate, giving the viewer the satisfaction of revenge.
The loss of hope that misfortune can bring can send us into a deep despair, from which we can find wonderful relief as we claw our way out or are rescued.
'Falling prey to cruelty or misfortune' is the 7th of Georges Polti's 36 Dramatic Situations.