Wise Women Discuss—Plot!

The 36 Tragic Situations

Though women have been starved of creative opportunities over the centuries of patriarchal bullying, they have proved in one important field that they are not creatively inferior to men—in writing. Adelphiasophists are keen that all people should be creative and that their efforts should be appreciated. If you have been intending to start that novel or screenplay but felt short of ideas, here is the Wise Women's synopsis of plot to give you a few ideas. May the Goddess inspire you. Saviour Shirlie.

1.Supplication

Little use is made of this situation in modern theatre. Yet it can be used to explore the vicissitudes of power (arbitral, tyrannical, overthrown), the superstitions which may accompany doubt and indecision, the sudden turns of popular opinion and the anxiety of waiting, despair and blasphemy, hope hanging on to the last, the blind brutality of fate.

Elements

1. A persecutor—One or many, voluntary or unconscious, greedy or revengeful, spreading the subtle network of diplomacy, or revealing himself beneath formidable pomp of the greatest contemporary powers.
2. A suppliant—Artless or eloquent, virtuous or guilty, humble or great.
3. A power in authority—Neutral or partial to one side or the other, perhaps inferior in strength to the persecutor; surrounded by his own kindred who fear danger; perhaps deceived by a semblence of right or justice; perhaps obliged to sacrifice a high ideal; sometimes severely logical, sometimes emotionally susceptible, or even overcome by a Dostoevsky-like conversion, and as a final thunderbolt abandoning the errors which he believes to be the truth, if not indeed the truth which he believed to be error!
4. An intercessor (sometimes)

Themes

1. The power is a person—Should he yield to the menaces of the persecutor or the appeal of the persecuted?
• Fugitives...imploring the powerful for help against their enemies. King John, Shakespeare
• Assistance...implored for the performance of a pious duty which has been forbidden.
• Appeals...for a refuge in which to die
2. The persecutor and power are the same—Shall anger or pity determine his course
• Hospitality besought by the shipwrecked
• Charity entreated by those cast off by their own people, whom they have disgraced
• The seeking of pardon, healing or deliverance
• The surrender of a corpse or of a relic solicited
3. An intercessor pleads for the suppliant
• ...for those dear to the suppliant
• ...to a relative on behalf of another relative
• ...to a mother's lover on her behalf