Plot: Definition, Importance, & Examples
- Melchior Antoine
- Oct 10, 2025
- 8 min read
Updated: Nov 8, 2025
Plot is essential to the success of a story. It can determine if your story is a snore fest or a compelling read that inspires readers to keep turning these pages. Now, this doesn’t mean that stories that focus more on other elements such as characterization and theme, are no good. It just means that an effective plot goes a long way in making your story work, especially in combination with other elements like setting and characterization.
A badly planned plot often leads to an unsatisfying ending for a movie. This can be seen in War of the Worlds (2005), a movie directed by Steven Spielberg and which in turn was based on H. G. Wells’ 1898 novel, The War of the Worlds. In the movie, the main character, Ray Ferrier, has to protect his family from an alien invasion, only for the aliens to die off from a lack of immunity to earth’s microbes.
In short, the evil aliens die of the flu,a pretty anti-climatic ending for an otherwise interesting movie. The plot fails because there is no link between the protagonist, conflict, and resolution. The story is resolved by chance, not by the actions of the character. This type of plot device is known as deus ex machina. In this article, we look at how narrative plots work and its importance in terms of understanding a story, with several examples, including Macbeth and Hamlet.
What is a narrative plot?
Narrative plots are relevant to any work of literary art that tells a story. This includes short stories, novels, plays, and long poems or epics. It more or less gives the order of the things that happen to move the story along.
Here is a formal description of the term:
The plot of a narrative refers to the sequence of events that tell the story.
A plot plays a major role in defining the themes and overall meaning of a story. It has to be coherent in terms of how it relates to the characterization and themes of the play. It also has to be logical and must have verisimilitude. Verismilitude refers to the idea of a story being convincing or believable, and this is true in terms of how it relates to a character or even our experiences in real life.
This sort of standard is as true for works of science fiction as it is for more realistic dramatic works. Let’s take the example from Macbeth. This play is a weird and fascinating mixture of realistic dramatization based on convincing character analysis and a sort of magical fantasy involving witches and apparitions.
One of the major themes of Macbeth is that evil sows the seeds of its own destruction. Another theme is that the nature of evil is deceptive. How does the plot reflect that? We see this in the adversarial relationship between Macbeth and Macduff. Macbeth commits to evil and decides to kill both the son and wife of Macduff, who has not even declared any hostility towards Macbeth.
This was an unnecessary act, which Macbeth commits because power has made him paranoid and bloodthirsty. He is also inspired by the fact that the witches (symbols of evil) warn him though an apparition: “Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth, beware Macduff” (Act 4, Scene 1). He also receives false confidence from these witches when he is told through another apparition in the same scene:
Be bloody, bold, and resolute. Laugh to scorn
The power of man, for none of woman born
Shall harm Macbeth.
This prophecy turns out to be more rhetorical than literal. Macduff, who Macbeth makes into a mortal enemy by killing his family, was not born of a woman. He was born via cesarean section, and the play ends after he lops off the head of Macbeth in man-to-man mortal combat.
The plot here is a perfect example of a proper blend between themes, cause, and effect. Had Macbeth not murdered Macduff’s family, he would not have made a mortal enemy out of him causing him to forge an alliance with others who had common cause against Macbeth.
This fulfills the concept of logical cause and effect, as well as the theme of evil sowing the seeds of its own destruction. The fact that the witches prophecy of Macbeth being unbeatable by any man born of woman turning out to be bunk also shows how empty the promises made by evil are and thus reflects the theme of evil being deceptive.
Parts of the plot
The various parts of the plot constitute what is referred to as the narrative arc. It includes five key elements of a story's structure: 1. Exposition, 2. Rising Action, 3. Climax, 4. Falling Action, and 5. Resolution. Let’s quickly explain them. Exposition refers to an introduction to the setting and characters. Rising Action is the aspect of the plot that introduces conflicts and tension and moves the story forward.
The Climax is the turning point of the story where the fate of the hero is decided, especially in tragedy. Falling Action occurs after the Climax and the story winds down to its Resolution. The Resolutions refers to how the problem is solved and is often referred to as the Denouement of a story.
We can take the example of Hamlet to explain this. Hamlet, is the Shakespearean play that tells the tale of the Danish prince, Prince Hamlet, who struggles about how to avenge his father — King Hamlet, who has been killed by his own brother King Claudius, who steals both King Hamlet’s throne and wife, Queen Gertrude, Prince Hamlet’s mother.
The table below gives the definition for each part of the narrative arc and how it plays out in Hamlet:
Narrative Arc Element | Definition | Example from Hamlet |
Exposition | The introduction of the setting, main characters, and central conflict. | The play begins with the appearance of King Hamlet’s ghost on the battlements of Elsinore Castle, who reveals that he was murdered by his brother Claudius, who coveted his throne and queen. Thus, the central conflict of Hamlet’s quest for revenge is set up. (Act 1, Scenes 1–5) |
Rising Action | A series of events that build tension and develop the conflict. | Hamlet carries out the play within a play or "Mousetrap" to elicit proof of King Claudius’s guilt. (Act 3, Scene 2)within a |
Climax | The turning point where the hero’s fate is sealed. | Hamlet kills Polonius behind the arras, thinking it is Claudius. This act leads directly to his downfall and shifts the play from uncertainty to inevitable tragedy. (Act 3, Scene 4) |
Falling Action | Events that unfold as a result of the climax; complications begin to resolve. | Claudius sends Hamlet to England with secret message for Hamlet to be executed, which fails. Laertes returns seeking revenge and plots with Claudius. (Act 4, Scenes 1–7) |
Resolution (Denouement) | The conflict is resolved, and the story concludes, often with a sense of closure. | In the final duel, Gertrude, Laertes, Claudius, and Hamlet all die, with Hamlet killing Claudius.(Act 5, Scene 2) |
Hamlet is informed of the means of his father’s death via mystical means: the ghost of King Hamlet informs him. However, this isn’t enough proof for him. He comes up with a plan to confirm his suspicions, which is carried out in Act 3, also known as the Mousetrap Scene. He puts on a farce of a play in Scene 2 that shows a character being killed as his father was allegedly killed by King Claudius. Claudius’ reaction to the play confirms his guilt.
Later, Hamlet in what is called the Prayer Scene (Act 3, Scene 3), catches King Claudius praying and decides to kill him then and there, but changes his mind. Later, there’s another scene, usually called the Closet Scene (Act 3, Scene 4), where Queen Gertrude and Claudius plot to find out what Hamlet is thinking or up to by having Polonius eavesdrop on a conversation between Hamlet and Gertrude. Hamlet mistakes Polonius for Claudius and kills him.
King Claudius banishes Hamlet to England and arranges for him to be killed by the king of England, a plot which Hamlet escapes. Hamlet returns but Claudius comes up with a poison plot with the help of Laertes, the son of Polonius to poison Hamlet via a poisoned drink and a poisoned rapier. It backfires when Queen Gertrude accidentally drinks from the poisoned cup. Laertes is killed, Queen Gertrude dies, and Hamlet dies, but not before he kills King Claudius.
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The importance of plot
The importance of plot can be seen in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It is often argued that the play can only be understood through characterization. Hamlet is the reluctant prince who can’t make up his mind because of his peculiar character according to this view.
In short, his character is predisposed to overthinking and inaction. Coleridge puts it succinctly in his famous essay, Lecture on Hamlet, where he describes the imbalance between Hamlet’s contemplative capacity and his ability to consider the world objectively and act:
In Hamlet this balance is disturbed: his thoughts, and the images of his fancy, are far more vivid than his actual perceptions, and his very perceptions, instantly passing through the medium of his contemplations, acquire, as they pass, a form and a colour not naturally their own. Hence we see a great, an almost enormous, intellectual activity, and a proportionate aversion to real action consequent upon it, with all its symptoms and accompanying qualities.
However, Fredson Bowers has a different view. In his article, “Dramatic Structure and Criticism: Plot in Hamlet,” he points out that plot is more important than anything else in understanding Hamlet. Hamlet’s disastrous fate, where he ends up dead in a messy conspiracy after he is poisoned by his own uncle in a fencing match, is not due to his hesitation to act and avenge his father’s death.
It is his killing of Polonius. This is the climax of the play. The death of Polonius by the hands of Hamlet forces Laertes to conspire with King Claudius, sealing the tragic fate of Hamlet. This plot is also related to the major themes and motifs of the play, which is the price to be paid for moral corruption. Hamlet is fairly innocent, although his family is mired in moral corruption.
His uncle commits fratricide, regicide, and incest by killing his own brother and king. His mother takes part in the incest. In the Medieval and premodern world that Shakespeare belonged to, the king was appointed on earth by God, and killing a king was a crime that affected the whole country or body politic. This is what is meant by the famous line “There is something rotten in the state of Denmark” (Act 1, Scene 4).
Hamlet’s job is to cure the land of this moral rot. He partly fails this test by killing an innocent man, Polonius, in the climax of the plot. However, he makes up for it by allowing himself to be used as a vessel of righteous retribution against King Claudius, even if it means dying. He says as much himself after killing Polonius:
I do repent: but heaven hath pleased it so,
To punish me with this and this with me,
That I must be their scourge and minister (Act 3, Scene 4)
This reasoning can help explain why he chooses to participate in the fencing match where he is poisoned, even though it means certain death. In the Christian moral logic of the Elizabethan era, a scourge is an immoral man condemned by God and used as an instrument to punish the “wicked” through extrajudicial means. A minister, on the other hand, is a righteous man, who works through lawful institutions of the state ordained by heaven to carry out justice on earth.
Hamlet sees himself as both a scourge (because he kills an innocent man, namely Polonius) and a minister, as he is obligated to avenge his father and rid the land of the moral rot that Claudius represents. The chiasmus or order reversal used in the quote (i.e., “To punish me with this and this with me”) means that Hamlet accepts the sword fight as both an opportunity to pay the price of killing an innocent man with his own death and to avenge his father’s death and cure the body politic.
References
Bowers, F. (1964). Dramatic Structure and Criticism: Plot in Hamlet. Shakespeare Quarterly, 15(2), 207-218. https://doi.org/10.2307/2867892
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2025, October 10). Plot: Definition, Importance, & Examples. EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/_plot |
