POIĒTIKĒ · the grammar beneath the story · kept by THE POET

FREYTAG’S PYRAMID ◧ 2D · ◍ 3D · ◆ 4D · ◐ shadow · 👶 TAP

A drama is a shape you can feel: a slow setup, a climb, one high turning point, then the fall to an ending. Gustav Freytag drew it as a pyramid in 1863, and it still frames every screenplay. Walk the story (or tap) and watch the tension crest and break.

◆ LIT▲ AMBER
◧ THE MEASURE · 2D
◍ THE TENSION · 3D · the rise to the single peak
◆ THE FOURTH · 4D · a tesseract turns
◐ THE SHADOW · one dimension down
👶 THE TODDLER CORNER — one fat tap
stage
tension
climax at
≈ 62%
reading

◆ LIT — exact / checkable

Freytag's dramatic arc (Die Technik des Dramas, 1863). Five stages: EXPOSITION (the setup), RISING ACTION (complication builds), CLIMAX (the single turning point — the peak of tension), FALLING ACTION (consequences unfold), and DÉNOUEMENT / catastrophe (resolution). Tension rises to exactly ONE maximum at the climax (Freytag placed it past the middle, near ~62%) and falls after — an asymmetric peak, not a symmetric hill. The tension(position) curve and the current stage are computed live. A fail-loud self-check throws unless the curve has a single maximum located at the climax and the five stages partition the story.

▲ AMBER — the figure

A single-peak model with the climax at a fixed ~62% (Freytag analysed five-act tragedy; modern three-act and TV structures place turns differently). The single-maximum property and the stage boundaries are exact.

POIĒTIKĒ: every story is an old shape wearing new words.  — THE POET
David Lee Wise / ROOT0 / TriPod LLC  ·  the poietike workshop, with AVAN