The structure of the Faust characters
The structure of the Faust characters, their narrated fate and their end is completely different in all adaptations. What unites them is the Faust material: A literary work only becomes innovative when it illuminates and presents the material in an original way.
Events
The events, which follow each other like a chain or come apart, form the narrative – analogies helper . The author places them in a meaningful context and combines them into a logically linked story with a beginning and an end.
Storyline
The sequence of the overall events is also called the plot. A distinction is made between
– main plot and
– subplots.
The main plot is where the main events and conflicts unfold, while the subplots serve mainly to underline and embellish them.
Some epic texts, such as Theodor Storm’s novella “The White Horse Rider” or Jeremias Gottheelf’s “The Black Spider”, have a
– frame story and
– internal plot.
Here the narrator develops his story to the point where a past event must be communicated. Usually a character then emerges, takes on the role of narrator and reports what has happened from his or her knowledge, which sometimes reads like a story in its own right over many pages.
The lyrical genre of the ballad also has a plot. It is therefore also called a hybrid form between drama, epic and lyric.
Fable
A fable is the basic structure of a story that summarises the essential plot elements and, to a certain extent, represents the content of the story. The fable is to be distinguished from the small epic form of the parable-like animal narrative.