Literature (2) – Rising Action

 

The rising action of a plot refers to the events that provoke conflict, build tension, and generate interest. It adds that edge-of-your-seat element that motivates you to keep reading until you reach the story climax.

You can find rising action in many stories, from a complex novel to a simple children’s book. For example, the rising action in “The Three Little Pigs” takes place as the pigs set out and begin to make their own decisions.

You can surmise that two of the pigs are asking for trouble when they choose flimsy materials to build their houses. Little suspicions such as these (along with the wolf lurking in the background) build suspense: with each page, readers come to understand that these characters are headed for disaster. Things get more and more exciting and tense each time the wolf blows down a house. The action builds to the ultimate showdown between pig and wolf.

In literature, the rising action encompasses the decisions, background circumstances, and character flaws that lead a story from the opening exposition through the drama and run-up to the climax. The primary conflict can be an external one, such as a clash between two men trying to exert their dominance at work, or it can be internal, as in the case of a college student who realizes she wants to leave school but cringes at the thought of telling her parents.

Examples of Setting in Literature

Example 1

Rising Action in Romeo and Juliet:
People have differing opinions about where the climax occurs in Romeo and Juliet, and there are therefore two competing views of where the rising action ends. Most can agree that the inciting incident or complication is when Romeo sees Juliet at the masquerade ball and falls in love with her, but discovers shortly after kissing her that she belongs to the Montague family, with which his own family is locked in a bitter rivalry; therefore, their love seems doomed from the outset. The action continues to rise as Romeo and Juliet meet in secret later that night, and are married the next day, also in secret.

Some would argue that the rising action comes to an end the following day, when Romeo kills a Capulet (Juliet’s cousin Tybalt) and must flee the city to avoid execution. In this analysis, the remainder of the play (in which Juliet fakes her own death in order to avoid having to marry another man, and Romeo, thinking Juliet dead, actually kills himself) would be considered falling action. But others would argue that the rising action only comes to an end when Romeo kills himself after learning, incorrectly, that Juliet has died. These interpretations are quite different, but neither is wrong. As you can see, how readers define the rising action often depends entirely on where they interpret the climax to occur.

In short:

• Inciting incident: Romeo kisses Juliet and discovers she’s a Capulet.
• Climax: (Option 1) Romeo kills Tybalt, or (Option 2) Romeo kills himself.
• Rising action: Everything in between.

Example 2

Rising Action in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner:
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner tells the story of a Mariner who shoots an albatross (a large sea bird) out of the sky after it has been following his ship for several days. Shortly after the albatross dies, the wind disappears and the mariner’s ship becomes stranded in the arctic. The Mariner’s shipmates hang the albatross around his neck as a punishment. Unable to move without wind, the men on the ship grow so thirsty that they cannot even speak. When the Mariner sees what he believes is a ship approaching, he must bite his arm and drink his own blood so that he is able to alert the crew, who all grin with joy. But the joy fades as the ghostly ship, which sails without wind, approaches. On its deck, Death and Life-in-Death gamble with dice for the lives of the sailors and the Mariner. After Life-in-Death wins the soul of the Mariner, the other sailors begin to die of thirst, falling to the deck one by one, each staring at the Mariner in reproach. The Mariner himself, however, doesn’t die; he is cursed to live among the dead crew.

By the time the last of the crew has died, it seems as though it could not get much worse for the Mariner. The sense of tension has ballooned around the question of what his fate will be, and whether he’ll ever be free of the albatross around his neck. But then comes the climax: the Mariner has an epiphany in which he realizes the value of all life, and as a consequence the albatross falls from his neck and the Mariner is, at least partially, released from his curse.

In short:

• Inciting incident: The Mariner shoots and kills the albatross.
• Climax: The Mariner realizes that life is precious and the albatross falls from his neck.
• Rising action: Everything in between.

The Function of Rising Action in Literature

Virtually every story can be said to use rising action to build the narrative. It serves the following purposes:

• It builds suspense and increases the feeling of tension surrounding the central conflict or question of the story.
• It moves the plot forward, bringing it to the point of climax, which enables the story to reach a resolution.
• It reveals essential information about the characters through their responses to various plot developments, making them more complex, relatable, and lifelike.
• It “pulls the reader in.” The rising action is the part of the story where writers either win their reader’s attention or fail to build a compelling narrative and lose their audience as a result.

The Importance of Setting

Setting gives context to the characters’ actions in a story line. It can also create the mood (how the reader or viewer feels). It’s easier to understand why the characters in the story are doing what they’re doing when we know where the they are. The time of day, time of year, and ages of the characters will also affect how they act and what they say.

All forms of literature will have some form of setting; even backdrop settings have an age range of the characters, which is part of time, and a location, either indoors or out, for example. Without a setting, readers and viewers cannot follow a story plot.

Conclusion

The rising action is really the “meat” of any story, in which most of the important action occurs. Generally speaking, any work of writing that has a plot can be said to have rising action.