The Application of Different Variations of Gustav Freytags Pyramid in the Select American Novels

Abstract

To appreciate any literature in a better way, we need an understanding of visual arts. The more we comprehend visual arts and aesthetics, we realize the nuances of literary creations. According to a German scholar, Gustav Freytag (1893), the dramatic elements are regarded as the building blocks of a narrative structure. These elements consisting of five acts (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and denouement) can be visualized as a pyramid diagram, hence the name Freytag s pyramid. Freytag has applied this design to five- act tragedies of William Shakespeare to analyze the dramatic structure. This research focuses on these techniques to analyze the dramatic aspects and narrative structure of select novels from American Literature that include: The Awakening by Kate Chopin, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, Nathaniel Hawthorne s The Scarlet Letter, Airport by Hailey, and William Faulkner s As I Lay Dying. This work also explores the underlying structures in the select American novels to help the readers have a better grasp of the story and understand the writers intentions more accurately. Thus, the aim of this research is to show how different pyramidal variations are formed using Gustav Freytag s Pyramid to understand the literary works through visual book blurb. newline