{"id":228,"date":"2017-06-14T12:04:22","date_gmt":"2017-06-14T11:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/licor.hivolda.no\/?page_id=228"},"modified":"2017-08-20T10:46:33","modified_gmt":"2017-08-20T09:46:33","slug":"open-and-closed-plots","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/licor.hivolda.no\/?page_id=228","title":{"rendered":"Open and closed plots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A closed plot is one that has a clearly identifiable end. It can have a clearly identifiable beginning as well, but this is not strictly necessary \u2013 it can just as well begin\u00a0<em>in medias res<\/em>, \u2018in the middle of things,\u2019 instead. The end, though, needs to represent precisely that: an end.\u00a0By the time we reach the final pages or scenes, that is, the battle has been won or lost, the mystery solved, the lovers re-united (often in marriage), and so on. In an open plot, by contrast, much remains amorphous and incomplete: the battle is inconclusive and possibly ongoing, the mystery remains, the lovers are still pining after one another in a state of abject limbo.<\/p>\n<p>In very general, terms, then, the worldview a\u00a0narrative expresses is conveyed\u00a0in part by whether that plot is open or closed. An open plot, for instance, can help transmit the sense that the world is large and manifold \u2013 that every event or sequence of events, no matter how earth-shattering or seemingly all-encompassing, is ultimately just an episode in the much larger story of humanity and the universe; alternatively, it can present us with a world of uncertainly and fluidity, in which nothing is solid or ever fully and finally resolved. A closed plot, on the other hand, can convey the exact opposite: a sense, for instance, that some actions\u00a0do reach a conclusion and can be understood in their totality; this is a world, in short, that contains at least some sense of order and comprehensibility.<\/p>\n<p>Some narratologists argue that beginnings and ends are in many respects the most important part of any narrative \u2013 and especially the ends. Beginnings are important, they suggest, because they set up the action, grab our attention and\u00a0tune\u00a0the strings of our thoughts and feelings to such a pitch that the narrative\u00a0can continue to play whatever emotional and intellectual notes on those strings it wishes (of surprise, sadness, joy, or whatever). Ends are important, meanwhile, because they often help determine what we retrospectively come to regard as the overall meaning of the narrative. It makes a difference to the way we judge Prospero and his seemingly callous actions in William Shakespeare\u2019s play\u00a0<em>The Tempest<\/em>, for instance, if we judge that his plan to drive his adversaries to forgiveness has succeeded by the end or not.<\/p>\n<p>We recommend, then, that you test your analysis of how a narrative works and what it means as a whole by paying particularly close attention to its beginning and end.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Return to <a href=\"https:\/\/licor.hivolda.no\/?page_id=220\">Plot structure<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A closed plot is one that has a clearly identifiable end. It can have a clearly identifiable beginning as well, but this is not strictly necessary \u2013 it can just as well begin\u00a0in medias res, \u2018in the middle of things,\u2019 instead. The end, though, needs to represent precisely that: an end.\u00a0By the time we reach [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":220,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-228","page","type-page","status-publish","czr-hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/licor.hivolda.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/licor.hivolda.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/licor.hivolda.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/licor.hivolda.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/licor.hivolda.no\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=228"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/licor.hivolda.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1703,"href":"https:\/\/licor.hivolda.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/228\/revisions\/1703"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/licor.hivolda.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/licor.hivolda.no\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}