Storytelling

Catharsis is the biggest emotional and physical trigger of them all. We may get it in small doses from almost every drama
or story we see, but the big catharsis, a whole-body emotional and physical spasm
that cleans out your entire system of toxins or triggers a complete change of orientation,
is pretty rare. You wouldn't want to go through that disruption every day, for
a catharsis usually means a radical reorganization of priorities and belief systems.
But it does still happen now and then, when the story and the listener are lined up
just right, and it's the thing that makes so many people want to go into show business
and the arts. They've felt it. In the presence of work that is beautiful and true,
honest and real, something smashes you like a hammer striking glass and allows you
to suddenly put your own experience into proper new perspective. You might have
experienced that deep shudder of realization, a moment of profound connection
with your family, your country, your humanity, with the divine, or the things you
believe in. A story, once in a great while, can touch us at the deepest level, giving
us a new view of the world or a new reason to live, perhaps when we are ready for
that particular story to speak its truth to us. No wonder some people want to be
artists and storytellers, to participate in that mystery, and create the possibility of
that experience for others.
We enjoy stories that are polarized by a struggle between two strong
characters, like The African Queen or Driving Miss Daisy, but we are also entertained by
stories polarized by great principles of living that tug the characters in two directions
at once, so they are torn between duty and love, for example, or between revenge
and forgiveness. Many a show-business tale like The Buddy Holly Story is polarized
by loyalty and ambition; loyalty to the group that the hero grew up with versus the
demands of ambition that require ditching those people when the hero moves to a
new level of success.

As the polarized nature of magnetic fields can be used to generate electrical energy,
polarity in a story seems to be an engine that generates tension and movement in the
characters and a stirring of emotions in the audience.

In a well-constructed story these repeated reversals (ups and downs) accumulate power, adding up to the emotional impact that Aristotle claimed was the point of it all: catharsis, an explosive and physical release of emotion, be it tears of pity, shudders of terror, or bursts of laughter. By Aristotle's theory,
these drumbeats were supposed to accumulate tension in the bodies of the audience
members until the biggest beat of all, at the climax of the play, released a pleasurable
shudder of emotion that was believed to cleanse the spirit of poisonous thoughts
and feelings. Stories retain their power to release cathartic emotions which is still a
profound human need.

Here is a partial list of
possible polarities within a relationship. Entire stories could be built around each of
these pairs of opposites. I'm sure you can think of many more.
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THE WRITER'S JOURNEY ~ THIRD EDITION
Christopher Vôgler
Sloppy vs. neat
Brave vs. cowardly
Feminine vs. masculine
Open vs. closed
Suspicious vs. trusting
Optimistic vs. pessimistic
Planned vs. spontaneous
Passive vs. active
Low-key vs. dramatic
Talkative vs. taciturn
Living in the past vs. forward-looking
Conservative vs. liberal
Underhanded vs. principled
Honest vs. dishonest
Literal vs. poetic
Clumsy vs. graceful
Lucky vs. unlucky
Calculated vs. intuitive
Introvert vs. extrovert
Happy vs. sad
Materialistic vs. spiritual
Polite V5. rude
Controlling vs. impulsive
Sacred vs. profane
Nature vs. nurture

When a situation is extremely polarized, when the two sides have been driven out
to their most extreme positions, there is a tendency for the polarity to reverse
itself.

In many polarized relationships, one person is more experienced
and has already made a fool of himself in long-ago experiments, so now he knows
precisely how to handle women, cards, guns, cars, or money. To the inexperienced
person it's all new, so we get to watch him or her making the beginner's hilarious
mistakes.

They
reverse polarity in order to experiment with behavior that is outside of their normal
comfort zone. However, rarely is this the end of the story. There is usually at least
one more reversal, as the characters recover from the temporary insanity imposed by
the story and return to their true natures. It is a very strong rule in drama, and in life,
that people remain true to their basic natures. They change, and their change is essential
for drama, but typically they only change a little, taking a single step towards
integrating a forgotten or rejected quality into their natures.
Complete and permanent reversals of polarity are
rare in stories and in life.

BALANCED APPROACH

In most cases it's not desirable or realistic to end up exacdy in the middle of the two positions.
Most stories end with the characters back more or less on the side of the
polarity where they started, but several steps closer to the center and the opposite
side.

The characters' range of possible behavior now avoids the extreme positions and
overlaps a little into the territory of the opposite side, producing a more balanced
personality that leaves room for the formerly unexpressed quality. This is a good
place to end up, because from this position the character can retreat to his or her
old comfort zone if threatened, but still reach across to experience something of the
opposite side.

THIRD OPTION
We could say the protagonist's point of view or style of living is the thesis of
the story. The anti-thesis is the antagonist's opposing viewpoint and style. The synthesis
is whatever resolves the polarized conflict at the end. It may be a restatement
of the protagonist's wishes or world-view, incorporating new learning or strength
gained from the clash with the antagonist. It may be a radical new approach to life
that the hero finds, or it may be a return to the hero's original position, but even then
it will always be shifted a little by the polarized struggle the hero has been through.
Typically heroes learn something from their polar opposites and incorporate this
into their new pattern of behavior.
The resolution of some polarized stories could be the realization that the
polarization itself was false, based on a misunderstanding, or that it was totally
unnecessary if the seemingly opposed parties had simply communicated better in

Catharsis
In your writing, remember that the purpose of everything you're doing is to bring
about some kind of emotional reaction in your reader or viewer. It may not
always be the full-blown explosive reaction of catharsis, but it should have its effect
on the organs of the body, stimulating them through repeated blows of conflict and
setback for your hero. You are always raising and lowering the tension, pumping
energy into your story and characters until some kind of emotional release is
inevitable, in the form of laughter, tears, shudders, or a warm glow of understanding.
People still need catharsis, and a good story is one of the most reliable and

entertaining ways of bringing it about.

the beginning. Polarized romantic comedies can be built entirely around misunderstandings
to show the difficulty of male-female communication, but might end with

the lovers realizing they had been saying the same thing all along.