ations (mostly out of
sight, in the manner of a good builder) so that your building may be
solid and steady--so that your story may not fall because the
groundwork of the plot does not appeal to the spectator as being
_natural, convincing, interesting, fresh, and vivid_; these words bear
reiteration.

_(b) The complication_, or struggle, including all its immediately
surrounding events, must be (usually) surprising, of deep concern to
the chief character, and arouse the anxiety of the spectator as to how
the hero will overcome the obstacles. Jack discovers that the girl he
has just learned to love is the well-loved sister of his college
enemy. How will this complication work out? An interesting series of
movements and counter-movements immediately becomes possible, and any
number of amusing or pathetic circumstances may arise to bring about
the denouement--which simply means the untying of the knot.

The struggle in a plot may be either comical or tragic. Mr. Botts
ludicrously fights against a black-hand enemy--who proves to be his
mischievous small son. Plump and fussy Mrs. Jellifer lays deep but
always transparent plans to outwit her daughter's suitor and is
finally entrapped into so laughable a situation that she yields
gracefully in the end.

And so on indefinitely. Hamlet wars against his hesitating nature.
Macbeth struggles with his conscience that reincarnates the murdered
Banquo. Sentimental Tommy fights his own play-actor character. Tito
Melema goes down beneath the weight of his accumulated insincerities.
Sometimes light shines in the end, sometimes the hero wins only to
die. To be sure, these struggles suggest merely a single idea, whereas
plots often become very elaborate and contain even sub-plots,
counter-plots, and added complications of all sorts. But the basis is
the same, and always in some form _struggle_ pervades the drama;
always this struggle ranges the subordinate characters for or against
protagonist and antagonist, and the outcome is vitally part and
substance of all that goes before--the end was sown when the seeds of
the beginning were planted. This touches upon the third element:

_(c) The Denouement_, or disclosure of the plot just before its close,
is one of its most vital parts.

"Novelty and interest in the situations throughout the story, with an
_increasing_ interest in the denouement, are the essential demands of
a plot."[12]

[Footnote 12: Evelyn May Albright, _The Short Story