By Debra Bruch
Published in Apollo's Voice vol. 10, no. 2 March 2003: 3-6
The
inciting incident is a plot element and arrives near the beginning of the drama.
It can be long or short and connects the situation that the characters find
themselves at the beginning or before the play begins to the end of the play.
It begins the action and also sets up the main question (Motivating Question)
that the audience wants the play to answer. The focus, therefore, is both on
the character and audience suspense.
Sometimes a playwright will place the inciting incident precisely at the beginning
of the drama. For instance, Death of a Salesman opens with Willy coming
home. Linda says, "Willy!" Willy replies with, "It's all right.
I came back." Linda then says, "Why? What happened? Did something
happen Willy?" (Repetition is a good way to help the audience notice an
important question.) This opening dialogue is the beginning of the inciting
incident. It sets up the main suspense question in the audience: "What's
wrong?"
This
suspense question not only addresses the immediate "What's wrong? What
happened?" that is answered by Willy – that he is all right, that
he's tired, he couldn't drive any more, he came home early – but also raises
the overall question in the drama: "What's wrong?" I call this kind
of question the Motivating Question. The Motivating Question sustains the drama
by creating suspense within the audience member throughout the drama. Various
versions of this question may be answered several times during the drama, but
this specific question will continue to be asked throughout. For instance, the
Motivating Question in Death of a Salesman is "What's wrong –
with Willy?" Often, the Motivating Question will be qualified during the
course of the play. For instance, a Motivating Question in Macbeth, "Will
Macbeth be king?" is qualified. The beginning qualifier,"Will Macbeth
gain the crown?" is answered by the end of Act II. Then, another qualifier
of the Motivating Question is posed, "Will he keep the crown?" which
carries to the end of the play.
In Script Analysis, Grote parallels the definition of Motivating Question
when he explains expectation and gratification.(1) His explanation of a "larger
expectation" equates with Motivating Question. Grote defines expectation
as "the process of looking toward a specific future."(2) He defines
gratification as "the process by which an expectation is completed or satisfied
in the course of the play."(3) He also explains "larger expectations"
when he writes,
Gratifications are often separated from the point where the expectations are aroused by many events and activities. In Act I of Othello, Iago tells the audience of his sworn vow to destroy Othello, but the expectations concerning that vow are not gratified until Act V. . . . Such gratifications help to define the conclusion of a performance: The audience knows that the play is finished because the major expectation or expectations have been gratified and there are no future activities to look forward to. (4)
Other common suspense questions are often posed throughout the course of a drama. A well written drama, however, will answer the other common suspense questions in such a way that the Motivating Question will either be partly answered, qualified, or will be regenerated by the conclusions of the other suspense questions. For instance, in Death of a Salesman, Willy talks to his boss about his job and ends up being fired. The common suspense question at the beginning of this scene is "Will Willy be allowed to work in New York?" Because of the outcome of this scene, the common suspense question is answered ("no"), and the outcome regenerates the Motivating Question, "What's wrong – with Willy?"
The inciting incident not only poses the Motivating Question, but also begins
the action. At the beginning of Death of a Salesman, after generating
the common suspense question as well as the Motivating Question, Miller takes
some lines to answer the common suspense question. Linda then says, "Willy,
dear. Talk to them again. There's no reason why you can't work in New York."
Willy blocks, and Linda says, "Why don't you go down to the place tomorrow
and tell Howard you've simply got to work in New York?" Willy blocks again,
and Linda replies, "Why don't you tell those things to Howard, dear?"
Finally, Willy accepts, "I will, I definitely will. Is there any cheese?"
Once a character accepts a course of action, then the inciting incident ends.
Also, a common suspense question is posed, "Will Willy be allowed to work
in New York?" Miller repeats and clarifies the common suspense question
at the end of Act I when Linda says, "Will you ask Howard to let you work
in New York?" and Willy replies, "First thing in the morning. Everything'll
be all right." In between the inciting incident, Miller offers exposition
and also deepens the Motivating Question by portraying relationships between
Willy and his sons.
Preparing for the inciting incident
The inciting incident connects the story before the play begins to the story
told on stage. This is usually called the point of attack. One of the questions
a playwright asks is "What happens before the play begins?" A playwright
may offer exposition before the inciting incident, or, as in Death of a Salesman,
after the inciting incident. In Script Analysis, David Grote offers a
definition of exposition. He writes that in many playscripts, exposition is
"an initial section of activity devoted to establishing first impressions
of characters and situations for the audience, explaining some factors in the
character's pasts and establishing the first expectations."(5) The next
definition of exposition is more common. In Play Production, Barnard
Hewitt explains:
Whenever the play's point of attack is later than the beginning of the story, the preceding events must be explained to the audience, and the later the point of attack the more there is to be explained. Sometimes events essential to the story occur during the time of the play, but offstage, and so have to be reported to the audience. The presentation of such essential information is called exposition. (6)
The main reason to offer any kind of exposition at the beginning of a play is to help the audience know two aspects of the story: (1) the situation in which the characters find themselves, and (2) the stimulus for the inciting incident.
Situation is the circumstances in which characters live at the beginning of
the play. To create a situation is to know the history behind the circumstances
in such a way that action is taken. Something happens at the beginning of the
drama, or before the drama begins, that works as a catalyst for the inciting
incident.
The situation has ties to both past events and future action. By connecting
situation to character as a unit of experience, Otis Lee asserts that situation
resides in the present, but has ties to both past and future.(7) In Sophocles'
Oedipus Rex, Oedpius is faced with a situation of which his subjects
plead for him to change. A blight lies on the land. His subject's crops are
withering and their herds are dying. Their women are barren, and the plague
is killing them, so that the only growing things in the country are graves.
Not only does the situation have ties to the past, but also to the future by
stimulating the inciting incident. Oedipus promises to save his subjects, whom
he calls his children, by doing all he can to find those who slew King Laius,
and his proclamation ends the inciting incident.
While
the situation stimulates the inciting incident, the playwright often uses the
characters to signal the consequent action generated by the inciting incident.
A key question a playwright asks is "What does the character want?"
"What is the superobjective of the character?" One way a playwright
works the inciting incident to signal action is by a character's indecision
concerning what alternatives to choose. That is, a character is unable to make
a choice or a decision about something, which itself is a kind of action. For
instance, in Odets' Golden Boy, Joe is unable to decide between playing
the violin or prize fighting. At the beginning of the drama, Joe takes advantage
of an opportunity to fight and tells his family that he has quit playing the
violin for a while. However, he is reluctant to punch and perhaps hurt his hands.
Moody says, "Joe's mind ain't made up that he fist is mightier than the
fiddle." While the situation helps clarify the inciting incident, the inciting
incident connects to action by Joe's indecision, for not only Joe, but also
his family and trainer are affected by the situation in which Joe has placed
them.
A second way contradicts the first. A character accepts a course of action.
For instance, in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, the sponger Sir Toby Belch
cajoles the preposterous knight, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, into an effort to gain
Olivia's hand. To his own horror, Sir Andrew agrees to challenge Cesario (Viola)
to a duel.
Other times, a character will choose inaction. A character chooses to do nothing,
or the character says he will do something and then does not. In Chekhov's The
Cherry Orchard, Lyubov returns home to discover the mortgage unpaid and
the family without money. Lopahin offers a solution to the problem that includes
cutting down the cherry orchard, but because she cannot see the orchard destroyed,
Lyubov rejects his proposal but she cannot offer one of her own. She chooses
inaction.
Another way that action is signaled in the inciting incident is by potentiality.(8)
Something needs to happen in the future. For instance, a character wants something
to change. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth want Macbeth's status changed and they
take action to make changes. Another example is in Ibsen's Ghosts. Engstrand
wants Regina to change her station in life as well as his own, that signals
the consequent action in the inciting incident.
Potentiality is also signaled by the absence of something that needs to be added.
In Hauptmann's The Weavers, characters need food and better working conditions.
Also, at the beginning of Brecht's Galileo, Galileo needs money to continue
his studies. The senate denies his request for a stipend, so Galileo "invents"
the telescope. The senate accepts his invention and promises him money. Galileo's
need for money creates the inciting incident and then responds in action by
sending for specific lenses.
Conversely, the playwright cues the action in the inciting incident by the presence
of something that needs to be eliminated. For instance, a woman is dying in
Maeterlinck's The Intruder, and her concerned family gathers together.
According to the characters, she married her cousin and had a baby. Unfortunately,
the mother has been ill since the birth. While waiting, the characters feel
the presence of someone entering their home. Characters are uneasy and want
the unknown person to leave. Their fear signals the inciting incident more clearly
than the situation in the drama, for characters seem to fear more for themselves
than for the dying woman.
Finally, action in the inciting incident is signaled by the threat of something
that needs to be blocked. In Tolstoy's The Power of Darkness, Nikita's
preparations to marry threatens Anisya, who plans to block the event.
In summary, the inciting incident resides at or near the beginning of the play
and ties situation to character action as well as generates the Motivating Question.
Some questions for a playwright to ask are:
1. What is the character's superobjective? What does a character want?
2. What Motivating Question does the inciting incident generate in the audience member?
3. How does the Motivating Question tie to what happens in the play?
4. What is the situation in the drama that ties past to inciting incident to future?
5. Who makes a decision to take action?
6. What does that character do after making the decision to take action?
7. How do other characters react emotionally and/or intellectually to the character's actions?
(1) David Grote, Script Analysis: Reading and Understanding the Playscript for Production (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1985), 149-151.
(2) Grote, 149.
(3) Grote, 150.
(4) Grote, 150-151.
(5) Grote, 235.
(6) Barnard Hewitt, V.F. Foster, and Muriel Sibell Wolle, Play Production: Theory and Practice (Chicago: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1952), p. 72.
(7) Otis Lee, "Value and the Situation," Journal of Philosophy 41 (June 1944): 359.
(8) Lee 358.