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The Three-Act Structure Analysis

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‘’Classic narrative is basically linear. It is like a river which has a source in an inland spring’’ (Potter, 1990). The three-act structure was derived from Aristotle, he claimed that a linear narrative follows a straight line, it starts at the beginning proceeds to the middle and moves to the end (Dancyger, 2013). It is presented in a logical form by showing what happens from one point of time to another without including the use of flashbacks or flashforwards (McKee, 1999). Linear stories are generally told in the three-act structure as it portrays a more clear and concise story that is more digestible for an audience. The three-act structure can be broken down into different categories. Act one is for establishing the story, act two is where the development of the story happens and act three concludes the story and wraps up any subplots that were evident within the narrative (Dancyger & Rush, 1991). It is said that Syd Field first came up with the theory of the three-act structure. …show more content…

The set-up is vital as it tells us information about the story and how it is going to start. It is within the set up that the story is outlined, the protagonist and the world they live in is built and the genre is formed. For example, in the movie Wild Child, we see Poppy our protagonist played by Emma Roberts, lying in bed in the opening scene. We get a glimpse of her room in this scene to see that it is decorated in bright girly colours. She is also dresses in pink satin pyjamas and has long blonde locks. This scene unravels an issue that Poppy is dealing with, her dads girlfriend. Poppy is shown to be destroying all of her father’s girlfriend’s clothes. Poppy gets caught by her father and from this the inciting incident is introduced, this incident leads us into the main aim or objective of the story (Field,

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