Plot device
A narrative technique that advances the story.
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A plot device is any narrative technique that advances the story. If it feels clichéd, it can irritate readers. If it seems forced or random, it may break their immersion. But when a device is skillfully crafted or arises naturally from the story's world or characters, audiences often accept it without complaint, or may not even notice it.
Stories using plot devices
In fantasy stories, it is common to find a powerful magical object like a crown, sword, or jewel. The plot often revolves around a hero who must locate this item and use it for good before a villain can turn it to evil. Sometimes the object has been broken by the villains, forcing the hero to collect each piece from different antagonists to restore it.
If the object is inherently evil, the goal becomes its destruction, which in some cases also destroys the villain. The Indiana Jones films follow this pattern, with Jones hunting for mystical artifacts: in Raiders of the Lost Ark, he seeks the Ark of the Covenant, and in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, he pursues the Holy Grail. The same device appears in the Arabian Nights story "The City of Brass," where explorers cross the Sahara to find a brass vessel used by Solomon to imprison a jinn. Several Harry Potter books also center on a search for a special object.
In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry learns of a magical stone at Hogwarts that Lord Voldemort needs to regain his body; Harry races to find it first to stop Voldemort. The One Ring from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is often called a plot device because the quest to destroy it drives the entire story. However, British Classical scholar Nick Lowe noted that Tolkien largely avoids the trick feeling arbitrary by focusing less on the ring's plot power and more on how its influence shapes the character of its bearer, and vice versa.
Examples
The phrase deus ex machina describes a story’s ending where an unlikely event suddenly solves every problem, often leading to a happy outcome. Its Latin name comes from ancient Greek theater, where a crane called a mechane would lower an actor playing a god onto the stage at the play’s close. The playwright Euripides is well known for leaning on this trick to get out of impossible situations.
In his play Alcestis, the title character trades her life to Death so her husband Admetus can live. Admetus later regrets this, overwhelmed by guilt and sorrow, but then Heracles appears, snatches Alcestis from Death, and brings her back to life. A modern example is Gandalf in The Hobbit, who uses seemingly endless magical powers to rescue the main characters from various dangers.
Similarly, the eagles in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings show up unexpectedly to save the day, acting as both a sudden happy turn and a force of redemption. The earliest known critic of this device was Aristotle, who wrote in his Poetics that a plot’s resolution should come naturally from the story’s own events, not from an outside intervention. Another common plot mechanism, especially in romances and dramas, is the love triangle, where two characters vie for the affection of a third.
More in Narrative Techniques & Genres
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Plot device (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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