Plot Spikes and Pulses

Explain to students that an exposition sets the scene; complication is where the life or lives of the principle characters are complicated in some way; climax is where things are at their most difficult, dangerous or threatening.  The resolution is the way that the story ends.  This can be shown on a diagram as an inverted V- The exposition is in the bottom left hand corner of the page and builds to the apex of the inverted V with the climax.  Ask students to identify these key features of plot.  They should identify the acts and scenes in which these events occur and be prepared to say why they are key to the plot.

Develop the thread with a plot pulse.  Discuss the ways in which soap operas keep their audiences by ensuring that there are cliffhangers leaving the audience wanting more- the points where the pulse races.  Model this with a diagram of your own to illustrate the point. You can also use films such as Harry Potter and Twilight where there is a gap between films- what makes the audience come back for more? Discuss also the way in which Shakespeare wrote his plays to be performed in front of the kind of audeinces who threw things if they got bored.

Either ask the students to draw and label their own pulse line for the play they are studying showing the key events in the plot- or provide them with a pre-printed pulse line and ask them to identify the key events indicated by the different rates of pulse.  Again, it is useful if they identify event, act and scene.  You may wish students to supply an appropriate quote from the text. 

An alternative is to provide a group of students with a pre-printed pulse line and a set of post-it notes.  Each note contains an event from the play.  Students have to sort them into the right order and then decide where they fit onto the plot pulse.  More able students should be supplied with red herrings and choices to encourage discussion.

The plenary should include a discussion about the way in which Shakespeare heightens tension by placing a relatively mundane event next to something of high drama to increase the tension or significance of the event because of what came before- the audience is either shocked by events or makes comparisons.  More able students may well spot that Shakespeare sometimes uses anticlimax to add to suspense rather than destroy it.  For example after the murder of Duncan there is the interchange with the porter- all the time this exchance is occuring the audience knows that Duncan has been murdered and that his death will soon be discovered.  Shakespeare uses anticlimax for comic purposes elsewhere.  Again, these are techniques used by film makers and the directors of soap operas.  You could ask students to give examples from films and television programmes that they have watched- so that they can begin to see the entertainment value of Shakespeare rather than simply regardng it as a text to be studied for an exam.

If you don't like the idea of a plot pulse line then change it to a 'plot rollercoaster' and use flip chart paper  or the whiteboard so that the whole class is involved in placing key events.  Ask the class to agree and make any changes to the placing of events or 'angle' of the rollercoaster.  Again, students should justify their decisions.