Types of Plot in Novel

 TYPES OF PLOT IN NOVEL

Plot is the heart and soul of any work of art. It is through the art of plot construction only that the novelist narrates the story of the protagonist. A good plot makes the novel interesting, appealing and successful. 

Plot is a series of actions logically connected with one another. A plot must have following five stages:

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STORY & PLOT:

A story is the timeline of events present in any narrative. A plot expresses rationale and informs the reader why specific events belong together.

E. M. Forster in his collected lectures, ‘Aspects of the Novel’, explains the difference between a story and a plot:

“The king died and then the queen died." is a story. 

“The king died, and then the queen died of grief." is a plot.”

When reading a story, Forster explains, we wonder “and then?” When evaluating a plot, we ask “why?”

TYPES OF PLOT: 

There are two types of novels – the novels with a loose plot and the novels of organic plot. 

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NOVELS WITH LOOSE PLOT:

The novels of loose plot have detached incidents and the unity of the narrative depends upon the central person or the hero. Thus, in the novel of a loose plot, the story is composed of a number of incidents with or without connection. In such cases, the unity depends upon the personality of the hero, such a novel is rather a history of different adventures, which befall on the individual. For example, in Thackeray’s novels, we mark many a loose plot, which is merely episodic. In them, one scene leads to another, the characters cross and re-cross and the novel does not have unity of design. Among the novels of loose plots, we can name ‘Robinson Crusoe’, ‘Joseph Andrews’, ‘Vanity Fair’, ‘Pickwick Papers’ etc. In such novels, the novelist has considered the plan, arranged the characters and events and laid down the lines to bring about the catastrophe. 

NOVELS WITH ORGANIC PLOT:

In the novels of organic plot, the incidents are connected with each other and the plot forms a definite pattern. The writer has a plan to work along the plot. ‘Tom Jones’ (1749) by Henry Fielding and ‘The Woman in White’ (1859) by Willkie Collins are the best examples of novels with organic plot. Sometimes, we have the plot unification that is in a loose plot, we may have some organic incidents and in an organic plot, we may have loose incidents. Thus, the principle of unity in plot construction becomes more important than the types of the plot. 

TYPES OF PLOT:

Aristotle classified plots into three types while discussing tragedy. The same is applied to novel too. They are:

1. Simple Plot: A novel which runs on a single line story is called the novel with simple plot.

2. Complex Plot: A novel with one main story and one or more than subsidiary stories is called to have complex plot. Here, the subsidiary stories help the main story develop faster and make it more interesting. This is called the best types of plot in novel. For example, in ‘Bleak House’ (1852) by Charles Dickens, there are three stories and they are very cleverly and artistically interwoven with one another.

3. Episodic Plot: When the events of the life of the hero are presented in a haphazard manner having no logical connection among them, it is called a novel with episodic plot. This is the worst kind of a plot.