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Social ladder plot — Aetia

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Social ladder plot

Plot engineIntermediateLiterary

Plot is a sequence of social promotions and exposures. Romance and piety are instruments for gaining squares until a self-destructive climax dumps the climber.

Typical usage

Restoration and bourgeois novels where the hostile network of gatekeepers is the true dungeon.

Craft strengths

Clear want
Society as antagonist
Pace from promotion

Common pitfalls

Checklist of parties
No interior cost
Ladder without a world

Variations

Province then capital
Marriage as rung
Letter that kicks the ladder
Church as costume

Example works · 2 in catalog

Key facts

Archetype: Plot engine
Difficulty: Intermediate
Favored genres: Literary
Related patterns: 3 linked tropes

Related constellation

Social ladder plot (this trope)
Social ambition arc
cynical focalization
drawing room warfare

Connections

Books using this trope

The Red and the Black

The Red and the Black (1830)Literary

The Charterhouse of Parma (1839)Literary

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The Charterhouse of Parma

Authors who use this pattern

Stendhal

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