Dramatica Theory Book

Chapter 13: Domain Descriptions (Continued)

All four of the Classes of problem (Universe - a situation, Mind - a fixed attitude, Physics - an activity, and Psychology - a manner of thinking) will show up in a complete story. As it turns out, one will represent the way the Objective Story view sees the problem, one the Main Character's view of it, one the Obstacle Character's view, and the remaining Class will tell us how the problem looks from the Subjective Story view.

The first key, then, to creating thematic perspectives in a story is to assign each of the four throughlines to the four Classes in the structure. Once this is accomplished, the most broad stroke foundations of the author's biases on the story's issues have been laid.

As an example, objectively, the problem in a particular story might seem to be a situation. This means that the Objective Story point of view and the Universe Class would be matched or linked in such a story. When we assign a point of view to a Class, we say that Class is the point of view's Domain. In other words, all that we see in our hypothetical story from the Objective Story view can be found in the Universe Class, so the Universe Class is the Objective Story Domain.

Assigning a point of view to a Class creates the perspective, and therefore changes the way dramatic items in that Class appear.

For example, if Universe is the Objective Story Domain, the story at large would be about a situation that affects all the characters in the story to some degree. Such a story might be about people in a post-nuclear holocaust world, prisoners of war in a concentration camp, or two teenagers from rival gang families who have fallen in love. In each case, the external situation is the cause of the story's problems, when we see them objectively. Also in each case, all of the characters in the story will be affected by the same situation, which is the definition of the problem when seen from the "they" point of view, like that of the general on the hill watching the battle. The audience will want to see what the problem looks like from this point of view to feel that the issues of the story have been fully explored.

In contrast, if the Main Character point of view were assigned to the Universe Class, the Universe Class would become the Main Character Domain. In a different hypothetical story with this arrangement, only the Main Character would be in the situation; the other characters would be involved in one of the remaining Classes. In such a story where Universe is the Main Character Domain, the situation might be that the Main Character is second in command on a battleship, has a physical deformity like The Elephant Man, or particular race or sex. In other words, the Main Character will be best described as a result of his personal situation, which will be some external condition that is causing difficulties only for that character. Quite a difference from an Objective Story situation that affects all the characters in a story (including the Main Character).

Before we move to the Type, Variation, and Element levels, let's take a brief look at each of the sixteen Class/throughline combinations that might be created.