Exciting moment

The exciting force is a dramaturgical means in the course of action of a drama . It serves to build up the dramatic conflict and arouse the tension. It is triggered by an action by the protagonist or the antagonist , which determines the further course of the action.

Gustav Freytag located in his drama theory the exciting moment between the exposition and the subsequent escalation heading towards the climax of the drama and described: “The moving action takes place at the point of the drama where a feeling or desire arises in the soul of the hero which is the cause of the following action, or where the counterplay decides to set the hero in motion with its levers. ”The exciting moment can appear in various forms. “It may fill an executed scene, it may be summed up in a few words. [...] But it always forms the transition from the introduction to the ascending action ”.

Freytag cited the following examples:

• Julius Caesar (I, 2): The conversation between Cassius and Brutus, in which the latter is won over to the plan to kill Caesar.
• Othello (I, 10): The plan between Iago and Rodrigo to divide Othello and Desdemona.
• Richard III (I, 1): Richard's plan revealed from the beginning.
• Romeo and Juliet (I, 2): The invitation to the mask festival and Romeo's intention to attend it.
• Emilia Galotti (I, 6): The news of the upcoming marriage of Emilia Galotti.
• Maria Stuart (I. 6): Mortimer's confession to Maria.
• Faust : Mephistus enters Faust's study.

The mirror image of the exciting moment in the classic rule drama is the moment of the last tension or the retarding moment at the end of the drama.

In the film , too , one sometimes speaks of an exciting moment as the starting point of the action. The term is closely linked to the initial plot point .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Exposure, increase, climax / turning point, retarding moment, catastrophe in LiGo - basic literary terms online .
2. ↑ Quoted from Gustav Freytag: Die Technik des Dramas ( Memento of the original from March 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the homepage of Jürgen Matoni.  
3. ↑ Manfred Pfister : Information and Synthesis, Volume 3: The Drama. Theory and analysis. P. 320 Online
4. ↑ -inspiring moment in the lexicon of film terms of the University of Kiel .