Peripeteia

WORD OF THE DAY

peripeteia / noun / pair-uh-puh-TEE-uh

Definition

: a sudden or unexpected reversal of circumstances or situation especially in a literary work

Examples

The novel is populated by a number of secondary characters, each of whom plays a crucial role in the protagonist's peripeteia.

"Before ever writing Chapter one, he will write synopsis after synopsis, for up to a year, ironing out all the wrinkles, developing not just plot and peripeteia (or twists) but character." 

— Andy Martin, The Independent, 25 Nov. 2016

Did You Know?

Peripeteia comes from Greek, in which the verb peripiptein means "to fall around" or "to change suddenly." 

It usually indicates a turning point in a drama after which the plot moves steadily to its denouement. In his Poetics, Aristotle describes peripeteia as the shift of the tragic protagonist's fortune from good to bad—a shift that is essential to the plot of a tragedy. 

The term is also occasionally used of a similar change in actual affairs. For example, in a 2006 article in The New York Times, Michael Cooper described William Weld's second term as Massachusetts' governor as "political peripeteia": it "began with a landslide victory and ended with frustrated hopes and his resignation."