the.com/falling action
The story exhaling after the climax, tying knots before it bows out.
means The part of a story's plot that unwinds events after the climax, resolving loose threads on the way to the ending.
from Coined as part of the dramatic structure mapped by German playwright and critic Gustav Freytag in the 19th century — his 'Freytag's Pyramid' broke plays into exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement, borrowing 'action' from the Latin actio, meaning 'a doing' or 'performance,' straight from the language of the stage.
- plot position
- Comes right after the climax, before resolution
- job
- Untangles conflict instead of creating it
- freytag origin
- Named by Gustav Freytag's 1863 dramatic pyramid
- common mistake
- Confused with the ending itself, it is not