A five-part model of dramatic structure shaped like a triangle: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement.
Freytag's pyramid is a visual model of story structure developed by German novelist and playwright Gustav Freytag in 1863. It maps a narrative as a triangle (or pyramid) with five stages: exposition (introducing the characters and world), rising action (building tension through complications), climax (the peak moment of conflict), falling action (the consequences unfolding), and denouement (the final resolution). Freytag originally designed it to analyze classical Greek and Shakespearean tragedy, but it's since become one of the most widely taught frameworks for understanding how stories build and release tension.
Freytag's pyramid gives you the simplest possible visual for how tension works in a story: it goes up, it peaks, and it comes back down. That sounds obvious, but when you're deep in a draft and can't figure out why your story feels flat, sketching this triangle and placing your scenes on it can instantly reveal whether you're spending too long on exposition, peaking too early, or skipping the falling action entirely. It's the training wheels of story structure, and even experienced writers return to it.
The play Freytag himself analyzed extensively. Its five-act structure maps almost perfectly onto the five stages of the pyramid.
One of the Greek tragedies that inspired Freytag's model. The rising action of Oedipus's investigation, the climactic revelation, and the devastating falling action form a textbook pyramid.
The novel builds tension through Gatsby's escalating pursuit of Daisy (rising action), crashes at the Plaza Hotel confrontation (climax), and spirals through tragic consequences (falling action) to Gatsby's death and Nick's disillusionment (denouement).
Freytag's 1863 book where he first published the pyramid model. Originally written to analyze five-act plays, it became one of the most influential texts in narrative theory.
In Freytag's original model, the climax sits at the midpoint, not near the finale. Modern storytelling often pushes it later, but if you're using the pyramid, give your falling action real estate.
Freytag designed it for classical tragedy and drama. It works beautifully for those forms, but modern thrillers, mysteries, and nonlinear narratives may need different structural models.
They overlap but aren't identical. The pyramid has five stages and centers the climax at the midpoint. Three-act structure has three divisions and typically places the climax near the end of Act Two or start of Act Three.
Even stories that begin in medias res still need exposition. They just deliver it in motion rather than upfront. Freytag's point is that readers need context to care about the conflict.
Draw a literal triangle on a piece of paper and label the five stages. Then pick a short story or novel you've recently read and place its key scenes along the pyramid's slopes. Does the climax actually land at the peak, or does it show up somewhere unexpected? Write a paragraph reflecting on whether the story follows Freytag's model or departs from it, and what effect that choice has on the reading experience.