Chapter 10

Some plots are simple and some complex, as indeed the actions represented by the plots are obviously such.

By a simple action I mean one that is single and continuous in the sense of our definition above, wherein the change of fortune occurs without reversal or discovery;

by a complex action I mean one wherein the change coincides with a discovery or reversal or both.

These should result from the actual structure of the plot in such a way that what has already happened makes the result inevitable or probable; for there is indeed a vast difference between what happens propter hoc and post hoc.