One of the many ways to explore a narrative text is to pay close attention to crucial events within the story. ‘Unseen texts: crossing the text threshold’ by Pete Bunten shows how to use one such key moment: the opening. This article suggests another — the midpoint — which John Yorke contends is situated ‘almost exactly halfway through any successful story’ and is ‘the moment [when] something profoundly significant occurs’ (Yorke 2013, p. 37).
In comedies — or narratives with happy endings — the midpoint often marks the culmination of a sequence in which events are going badly for the protagonist. This moment is sometimes referred to as a false defeat because, ultimately, it does not lead to a negative outcome in the overall story. For instance, in Pride and Prejudice, the midpoint is when Elizabeth rejects Darcy’s first proposal.
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