Rising Action

Rising action is the central and largest-in-volume component of the plot, embracing the course of events between the inciting incident and the climax, in which the conflict grows and becomes more complex, the struggle of opposing forces unfolds, and the characters are more fully revealed. In this part new collisions, peripeteias, and secondary plot lines may arise that deepen the main conflict and heighten the tension. Rising action leads the reader to the decisive point — the climax. The dynamism or slowness of the rising action depends on the genre and the authorial design: in an adventure work the action is swift, while in a psychological novel it may unfold slowly, through the hero's inner struggles. An example of masterful rising action is the growth of the conflict between the families in Ivan Nechui-Levytsky's Kaidash's Family, or the gradual deepening of the tragedy in Panas Myrny's novel Do the Oxen Low When Mangers Are Full?.