k-frances:
Deus Ex Machina
What is it?
The term and it’s origin come from Greek theater. It means...
Deus Ex Machina
What is it?The term and it’s origin come from Greek theater. It means literally “a God from a machine”, which is believed to refer to the literal crane that would hold an actor (presumably playing a God) over the stage and lower him down. In Greek theater it wasn’t uncommon to solve a conflict with the intervention of a God. Gods don’t need a reason to intervene, especially in Greek mythology, and their motives are as fickle as a brooding teenager’s, so they could be introduced suddenly (the audience was assumed to understand them as characters already) and could solve a seemingly unsolvable plot. Understanding what this term meant in origin is important to understanding what it means today in reference to modern literature.
Today Deus Ex Machina in literature means something very similar. It’s a convenient resolution that usually comes about at the climax, and basically out of no where, with no build up or explanation. For example the “it was all a dream” plot twist in cinema is widely considered a Deus Ex Machina for it’s sudden and unforeseeable resolution to all the the built up conflict of the story. A better example:
The Wizard of Oz: In the film at least, we are never clued in that the Wicked Witch’s one weakness is water (that’s a tongue twister). Water will literally melt her to a puddle, and it is never hinted at prior to it’s use to kill her. Dorthy douses her with water on accident when she is trying to put out the scare crow, which leads to her destruction, and the resolution of the conflict.
What’s wrong with it?The problem with an ending like The Wizard of Oz’s ending, is that it often feels cheap to the reader. Just because this is a fictitious world and anything can happen, doesn’t mean the reader will necessarily believe it. If something feels too perfect or too easy, it breaks the reader’s extension of disbelief. In other words, it takes them out of the story.
It also tends to rob the story of any kind of thematic moral. We generally want our stories to have an ending that feels fair to our main characters. We want them to get what they deserve, whether that’s good or bad. More relevantly, we want them to get what they earned. If a character is given a convenient ending they didn’t work for, it feels like they didn’t earn their resolution, and therefore there doesn’t appear to be any character arch or growth. It turns the characters into plastic toys attached to strings that the writer tugs around, rather than motivated beings. This is arguably the biggest crime of the Deus Ex Machina, because characters feeling interesting and real is probably the most important thing in a story.
Are there exceptions?Of course their are! When is a writing rule ever without exception? The most obvious exception to this rule is a Deus Ex Machina being used purposefully in comedy. An over the top resolution that feels utterly undeserved to the bumbling characters is fine, if not good in a lighthearted comedy where the plot convenience is used almost as a form of satire making fun of stereotypes. This is probably not the only exception to the rule, but it is probably the most popular.
Now, you might be thinking, shit, I definitely ended my WIP with a Deus Ex Machina, but don’t give up yet! All is not lost. There are a few things you can easily do that should enable you to fix most Deus Ex Machinas–that won’t require you to entirely rewrite your plot.
Tune in next week and I will be posting about specific ways to edit your WIP so that your ending doesn’t come across Deus Ex Machina-y.
