.png)
One device often used in fiction is a trope. Tropes are common themes seen across a wide range of stories. There are multiple kinds of tropes that take into consideration different structural aspects of the stories in which they are used. For example, there are tropes that are heavily plot-related as well as ones that lean more into characters.
Tropes also determine the trajectory of a character’s development and the plot. These tropes are used by writers and are transformed to fit into the story that the writer is creating, making it their own in the process.
Despite the number of times that tropes are taken and twisted around, the foundational aspects of them remain consistent. For example, if a writer is writing a story and decides to use the tragic hero trope, no matter how different the story is from others that use this specific trope, it is already known that in the end that hero will ultimately fail.
Tropes are the kind of thing that once you start becoming aware of their existence, it will get easier and easier to spot them in stories, movies, music, and other forms of art. Tropes can be seen as the backbone of how to create a story.
An example of a character trope that is extremely popular is the evil stepmother trope. This trope dates back hundreds of years and can still be seen in stories that are consumed to today. Two stories that come to mind in relation to the evil stepmother are Cinderella and The Juniper Tree written by the Grimm brothers. In Cinderella, the stepmother is awfully cruel to Cinderella and makes her do copious amounts of chores, while in The Juniper Tree, the stepmother kills her stepson and puts him into a stew which she then feeds to the boy’s father. As you can see, the stepmothers in these two stories are vastly different from one another.
However, the foundational aspects of their characters remain; they are both out to hurt their respective stepchildren. Thanks to tropes, we also know that the children will escape their evil stepmother. In Cinderella, Cinderella goes off to live with the prince and in The Juniper Tree the stepmother catches on fire and is crushed to death by a stone while her stepson changes back to a boy.
In regard to plot tropes, an extremely popular one that is seen in many love stories is the enemies to lovers trope. It is exactly what it sounds like: two people who start off absolutely hating each other end up falling head-over-heels in love. This is seen two hundred years ago in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, where Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy dislike each other at the start and then end up getting married. Then, 203 years later in Sally Thorne’s The Hating Game, two coworkers who cannot stand each other end up falling in love. Again, because the trope is called what it is, the ending is of no surprise to the reader. When the reader starts reading these novels, if not knowledgeable of the trope already, they will be able to predict what the trope is based on what is written in the story. When something like this happens, it shows how successful and well known the trope is, enemies to lovers being one of the most popular. Though these two novels came out at completely different times, the foundation of the story has stayed the same.
These tropes, as well as others that were not mentioned, have stood the test of time. A trope provides a kind of predictability to the story that someone is about to read. Though authors may not want their story to be predictable, these tropes help out readers who know what they like to read or find new types of stories that they would want to explore.
Once educated on all of the different types of tropes, you will be able to see them in pieces of writing across all periods of time. You will be able to put these stories into different categories based off of the tropes included in them and even examine how earlier pieces of work could have inspired later ones. You will also be able to see the trickle effect that these tropes provide to stories by seeing which stories were used as inspiration for more modern stories that are released. It is like watching evolution happen right before your eyes.
About the Author:
Sara Rotondi is a rising junior at Rutgers University where she is majoring in English and minoring Psychology. When she isn’t scribbling down her stories you can find her reading a book or watching some of her favorite TV shows.