A deus ex machina (Latin IPA: [ˈdeːus eks ˈmaːkʰina] (literally "god from a machine")[1] is an improbable contrivance in a story characterized by a sudden unexpected solution to a seemingly intractable problem.[1]
Linguistic considerations
The Latin phrase "deus ex machina" has its origins in the conventions of Greek tragedy. It refers to situations in which a mechane (crane) was used to lower actors playing a god or gods onto the stage. Though the phrase is accurately translated as "god from a machine,"[1] in literary criticism, it is often translated to "God on a machine."citation needed The machine referred to in the phrase is the crane employed in the task. It is a calque from the Greek "ἀπὸ μηχανῆς θεός" apó mēchanēs theós, (pronounced in Ancient Greek IPA: [aˈpo mɛːkʰaˈnɛːs tʰeˈos]).
Ancient uses
The Greek tragedian Euripides is notorious for using this plot device as a means to resolve a hopeless situation. For example, in Euripides' play Alcestis, the eponymous heroine agrees to give up her own life to Death in exchange for sparing the life of her husband, Admetus. In doing so, however, she imposes upon him a series of extreme promises. Admetus is torn between choosing death or choosing to obey these unreasonable restrictions. In the end, though, Heracles shows up and seizes Alcestis from Death, restoring her to life and freeing Admetus from the promises. In Euripides' Medea deus ex machina is used to confront the audience's judgment by removing Medea, who has just committed murder and infanticide, to the safety and civilization of Athens. The first person known to have criticized the device was Aristotle in his Poetics, where he argued that the resolution of a plot must arise internally, following from previous action of the play:[2]
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As in the structure of the plot, so too in the portraiture of character, the poet should always aim either at the necessary or the probable. Thus a person of a given character should speak or act in a given way, by the rule either of necessity or of probability; just as this event should follow that by necessary or probable sequence. It is therefore evident that the unraveling of the plot, no less than the complication, must arise out of the plot itself, it must not be brought about by the deus ex machina — as in the Medea, or in the return of the Greeks in the Iliad. The deus ex machina should be employed only for events external to the drama — for antecedent or subsequent events, which lie beyond the range of human knowledge, and which require to be reported or foretold; for to the gods we ascribe the power of seeing all things. Within the action there must be nothing irrational. If the irrational cannot be excluded, it should be outside the scope of the tragedy. Such is the irrational element the Oedipus of Sophocles. |
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Modern uses
In fiction writing, the phrase has been extended to refer to a sudden and unexpected resolution to a seemingly intractable problem in a plotline, or what might be called an "Oh, by the way..." ending.[1] A deus ex machina is generally undesirable in writing because it does not pay due regard to the story's internal logic and is often so unlikely that it challenges suspension of disbelief, allowing the author to conclude the story with an unlikely, though more palatable, ending.
An example in the 1978 Superman movie is that after Lois Lane has been killed in her car and the villain has detonated missiles to devastating effects, Superman elects to simply travel backward in time to correct the events.
Sometimes the unlikeliness of the deus ex machina plot device is employed deliberately. An example is in Brecht's "The Threepenny Opera", in which a "riding messenger of the king" appears in the last moment, stops the execution of the story's criminal anti-hero Mack the Knife, and bestows an inheritable title of nobility on him. The very absurdity of this serves to underwrite the great lack of generosity and selflessness in the capitalist reality that the story is mostly about.
References
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