by Will Dunne
Matilde agrees to kill Ana with a joke
In act two, scene 12, Ana asks Matilde to free her from the pain in her bones: “I would like you to kill me with a joke.” The unusual request is the result of knowing that Matilde is a comedian and that her mother died from laughing. Matilde agrees to help and becomes an active participant in Ana’s death. Ana is freed from pain. Lane performs an act of love and washes Ana’s body. Virginia helps the others say farewell to the friend who brought them together.
ANALYZING YOUR STORY
Explore the key twists in the dramatic journey between the inciting event and the climax.
REVERSALS
• After the quest has begun, what are the major turning points in the dramatic journey?
• Where and when in the story does each of these reversals occur?
• How similar or distinct are these reversals?
• If any reversals feel too similar, what changes would add more variety to the throughline?
• Is there enough playing time between reversals to show the full effects each has on the world of the story? If not, what plot changes might you make?
• If your play has two acts (or more), look at each end-of-act reversal. Is the change big enough to create a new act with a different focus or direction?
FOR EACH REVERSAL . . .
• What triggered this development?
• How does it affect the main character physically and emotionally?
• Right or wrong, how does the character view this turning point?
• What new actions does the character take as a result of this change?
• Who else, if anyone, is affected by this experience, and how?
• What are the most important results of this event in the short term? In the long term?
CRISIS DECISION
The heart and soul of a dramatic story is the crisis that the main character faces near the end of the journey. This is usually when the character must make the most difficult decision of the story and it is the ultimate test of his or her commitment to the quest.
In Bryony Lavery’s Frozen, a middle-aged, middle-class woman has been emotionally paralyzed with grief and anger for twenty years due to the murder of her young daughter by a serial killer. The mother’s dramatic journey ultimately brings her to a decision point where she faces two unthinkable alternatives. One is to remain emotionally frozen with no hope of ever changing. The other is to meet the killer, who is now in prison, and forgive him so that she can move on with her life.
A decision like this is a “crisis decision” because it is not a choice between good and evil. Such a choice would be easy, since characters always choose what they perceive to be good at the time, even if their perception is incorrect or short-lived. Rather, a crisis decision forces the character to choose between two evils that cannot both be eliminated (by choosing one, you enable the other) or between two goods that cannot coexist (by choosing one, you lose the other). The task of the story is to bring the character to this point with compelling reasons to choose either way, so that the decision will be neither simple nor predictable.
■ DOUBT: A PARABLE
Aloysius’s crisis decision: Lesser of two evils
Sister Aloysius must make many difficult decisions in her struggle to protect the children of St. Nicholas from Father Flynn. The most difficult occurs in scene 8, during her final showdown with the priest. Despite her efforts to extract a confession and force his resignation, he continues to profess his innocence and threatens to use his influence with the monsignor to have her removed from the school. She now faces a decision between two evils:
ALOYSIUS’S CRISIS DECISION
Option Why do this Why not do this
Admit defeat and end her campaign against Flynn
She might save her job and thus protect the school from further harm
She would fail to honor her duties as principal and an evildoer would go unpunished
Use deception to scare Flynn away
She might succeed in forcing him to resign
By telling a lie, she would be taking a step away from God
Final decision. Aloysius chooses to lie. This shows that she is willing to do anything, even risk being “damned to Hell,” to fulfill her duties as a guardian of students.
■ TOPDOG/UNDERDOG
The most difficult decisions for Lincoln and Booth occur in scene 6, when they play a high-stakes game of three-card monte. At risk for Lincoln is the $500 he won tonight on the street by throwing the cards. At risk for Booth is the $500 he inherited two decades ago from his mother.
Lincoln’s crisis decision: Greater of two goods
As a card hustler, Lincoln knows how to use sleight of hand and hypnotic patter to control who wins the game. When he plays three-card monte with his brother in the final scene, therefore, he faces a decision between two irreconcilable goods:
LINCOLN’S CRISIS DECISION
Option Why do this Why not do this
Win the game and prove that he is still a master dealer
He would protect his topdog status and net an easy $500
He might sever his relationship with his last remaining family member
Cheer up his brother by letting him win
He would safeguard his family ties and living situation
He could be subjected to further humiliation from Booth, who has been taunting him about his lost job and failed marriage
Final decision. Lincoln opts for the win. This shows that, after losing his dream of honest employment, his need to be topdog outweighs his need for family and his love for his brother. His decision also displays a selfishness that has often influenced his approach to the world.
Booth’s crisis decision: Lesser of two evils
Booth’s most difficult decision occurs after he has lost his prize possession: the money stocking he has guarded since his mother’s departure and never opened. With Lincoln now threatening to look inside the stocking to see if it really does contain cash, Booth faces a choice between two evils:
BOOTH’S CRISIS DECISION
Option Why do this Why not do this
Accept his loss and let Lincoln cut open the stocking
He would preserve his relationship with Lincoln, on whom he relies for rent money, card hustling advice, and companionship
He might discover that his mother lied and that there has never been any money inside the stocking
Shoot Lincoln
He could reclaim his inheritance and keep the stocking intact
His brother could suffer serious injury or death
Final decision. Booth impulsively chooses to shoot Lincoln. This shows that, after losing his inheritance as well as his dream of reuniting with Grace, he feels he has nothing left. He will commit murder to vent his rage and avoid the possibility that his mother lied to him.
■ THE CLEAN HOUSE
All three protagonists must make difficult decisions as they pursue their individual goals. Each character’s most difficult decision occurs at a separate point in the story.
Lane’s crisis decision: Lesser of two evils
Lane’s most difficult decision occurs at the end of act two, scene 9, when it becomes clear that the dying Ana needs a doctor but won’t go to the hospital. Lane faces a choice between two evils:
LANE’S CRISIS DECISION
Option Why Do This Why Not Do This
Make a house call to the woman who ruined her marriage
Lane could stay true to her physician’s oath to care for the sick
It would be an emotional ordeal she might not be able to handle
Let Ana suffer the consequences of refusing to go to a hospital
It would free Lane from the messiness of caring for her husband’s lover
She would be abandoning a dying cancer patient in need
Final decision. Lane chooses to make the house call. This shows that, despite the devastating setback of a failed marriage, her moral principles remain i
ntact. She wants to do the right thing even if it is painful.
Matilde’s crisis decision: Greater of two goods
Matilde’s most difficult decision occurs in act two, scene 12, when Ana asks Matilde to tell her a joke that will literally make her die laughing. Matilde faces a choice between two irreconcilable goods:
MATILDE’S CRISIS DECISION
Option Why Do This Why Not Do This
Tell Ana a cosmic joke
Matilde could free a dying friend from unbearable pain
Telling the joke could make her a participant in Ana’s death and endanger her own life as well
Retreat to her peaceful inner world
She could avoid life’s messes and cling to idyllic memories of her parents
She would be denying a dying friend her last wish
Final decision. Matilde chooses to tell the joke. This shows that she has become more involved in the real world and that she likes Ana enough to risk life-threatening danger to help her.
Virginia’s crisis decision: Lesser of two evils
Virginia’s most difficult decision occurs in act two, scene 9, after Lane has accused her of having a “weird obsessive dirt fetish” when Virginia was only trying to help. She faces a choice between two evils:
VIRGINIA’S CRISIS DECISION
Option Why Do This Why Not Do This
Submit to Lane’s insults as usual
It would help keep the peace and preserve their tenuous sisterhood
It would be another humiliating defeat at the hands of a thankless sibling
Fight back and make a mess
It would enable Virginia to reclaim her dignity
It would be difficult to stand up to her domineering sister
Final decision. Virginia chooses to fight back. This shows that she has reached the end of her rope and gained enough strength from her friendship with Matilde to do what she really wants.
ANALYZING YOUR STORY
Explore the most difficult decision your main character(s) must make.
CRISIS DECISION
• Ideally the crisis decision occurs near the end of the story. Where in the script does your character’s most difficult decision occur? Does it need to happen later?
• Where and when in the world of the characters does this crisis occur? How does this place and time affect the crisis?
• Who else, if anyone, is here now? How does their presence affect the crisis?
• What specific alternatives are available to your character?
• Is this a choice primarily between two goods or two evils?
• If it is a choice between goods: Why can’t the character have both? What makes these goods irreconcilable?
• If it is a choice between evils: Why can’t they both be eliminated? How does eliminating one enable the other?
• From your character’s perspective, right or wrong, what are the most compelling reasons to choose each alternative? To not choose it?
MAKING THE CHOICE
• Which alternative does your character choose?
• How easy is this choice from your character’s perspective?
• How predictable is this choice from the audience’s perspective?
• If the crisis decision is too easy or too predictable, there is no suspense surrounding it. What changes in the character, the story, or the decision itself would make the choice more difficult for the character or less predictable for the audience?
• What does this choice reveal about your character?
• How has your character changed since the quest began?
• In what important ways has your character not changed?
CLIMAX AND RESOLUTION
The climax is the most intense part of the dramatic journey. It’s when a man facing the gallows for witchcraft risks his survival by refusing the court’s order to incriminate others (The Crucible by Arthur Miller). It’s when a father disowns his son and throws him out of the house in a confrontation that leads to physical violence (Fences by August Wilson). It’s when a brilliant but coldhearted academic in the final stages of ovarian cancer reaches her last chance to permit kindness into her life (Wit by Margaret Edson).
Traditionally defined as the peak of action, the climax is typically triggered by the crisis decision and leads to the end of the quest, where the character finally succeeds or fails. In most plays, the climax is followed by a resolution, in which final outcomes are shown and loose ends wrapped up. Such elucidations tend to be brief, since the dramatic journey has essentially ended and the intensity of the action is now in decline.
In some plays, there is no resolution, as in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, which ends with the climactic action of a migrant worker euthanizing his mentally disabled partner, who has accidentally killed someone and now has a lynch mob after him.
■ DOUBT: A PARABLE
Climax: Aloysius vs. Flynn
Sister Aloysius’s decision, in scene 8, to fabricate evidence against Father Flynn fuels the final showdown between them. The civility that governed their earlier meeting is gone. Threats, insults, and demands fly back and forth. During this battle, Aloysius threatens to do whatever is necessary to bring Flynn down: “I will step outside the Church if that’s what needs to be done, though the door should shut behind me! I will do what needs to be done, Father, if it means I’m damned to Hell!”
The result of this climactic action is that her tactics partially succeed. Though she does not elicit a confession of wrongdoing, she does convince Flynn to request a transfer from St. Nicholas. The scene ends with him calling the bishop’s office. The final stage direction is “Lights fade.” It is one of the few times that the script specifies a fade-out at the end of a scene. The visual effect of light falling into darkness suggests that a conclusion has been reached. Indeed it is the final onstage moment of Aloysius’s campaign against Flynn.
Resolution: Aloysius vs. Aloysius
Doubt ends with a short scene in which we learn through exposition the aftermath of Flynn’s phone call. He has left St. Nicholas but he has been promoted to pastor of another parish. We also learn that Aloysius went to the monsignor and tried unsuccessfully to stop the promotion. With Flynn gone, the only demons left for her to battle are her own. By the time Sister James finds her in the garden, Aloysius is profoundly unsettled. Either she has enabled a child molester to seize greater power in another community, or she has damaged the reputation of an innocent man and run him out of his job, home, and community.
Either outcome would signal a failure of the belief system that has governed her life. Regardless of which is true, she has committed the sin of lying and violated her vow of obedience to the Church. We never learn what questions flood her mind as she admits to James that she is overwhelmed with doubts. We know only that she feels unsure and that, for the first time in the play, she is making a personal connection with someone else. It is a display of the bond that Flynn described in his opening sermon: “Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty.”
■ TOPDOG/UNDERDOG
Climax: Fratricide
The climax of the play occurs when Booth, holding his gun to the left side of Lincoln’s neck, pulls the trigger and kills him. This action is the result of each brother’s crisis, with Lincoln’s decision to con Booth out of his inheritance leading to Booth’s decision to retaliate. The murder echoes Lincoln’s earlier description of his job at the arcade, where his “Best Customer” would always stand behind him and shoot on the left. That description of a fake shooting, in scene 3, foreshadows the real shooting, in scene 6: “The gun is always cold. Winter or summer thuh gun is always cold. And when the gun touches me he can feel that Im warm and he knows Im alive. And if Im alive then he can shoot me dead.”
Resolution: A contest with no winner
The climactic killing of Lincoln is followed by two opposing beats, or units of dramatic action. Booth’s first response is to justify what he has done. As he paces beside the
body, he rages at his dead brother: “You stole my inheritance, man. That aint right. That aint right and you know it.” His anger fuels his renewed pledge to become a three-card monte dealer named 3-Card and, in a last declaration of jealousy, to be as well known as his brother for his skill at throwing the cards: “And 3-Cards gonna be in everybodys head and in everybodys mouth like Link was.”
Booth’s second response to the murder is catastrophic grief. The transition occurs when he retrieves the money-filled stocking that triggered the shooting, but lets go of it so that he can reach out to his brother instead. The stage directions state, “Booth holds Lincoln’s body, hugging him close. He sobs.” His final action is a loud wail, which ends the play. It is the conclusion of a long-standing competition in which neither brother was able to rise above the sins of the past to be topdog.
■ THE CLEAN HOUSE
Each of the three protagonists’ journeys has a separate climax and resolution. These outcomes affect one another and contribute to the play’s climax—Ana’s death by laughter—and the resolution of Matilde coming to terms with her parents’ death. In the end, each woman is able to bond with the others and heal from her problems by accepting that life is not perfect.
