Christopher Booker is a scholar who wrote that every story falls into one of seven basic plot structures: Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, the Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy, and Rebirth. Shmoop explores which of these structures fits this story like Cinderella’s slipper.
Plot Type : Tragedy
Seize the Day could be read as both a Tragedy and a clever subversion of the classic Rags to Riches plot—the joke being, of course, that rather than moving from rags to riches, Tommy Wilhelm moves from rags to even more threadbare rags. Somebody get this guy a jacket already. We'll leave it to you to chart the ins and outs of Wilhelm's financial misfortune, though. For now, let's take a look at how Saul Bellow draws on the classic conventions of Tragedy.
Anticipation Stage
In the Anticipation Stage, the tragic hero struggles with the feeling that his life isn't what it could be. We know from the memories that Wilhelm revisits throughout his "day of reckoning" that he's made a bad habit of grasping at straws throughout his life: his failed acting career and his hopeless extra-marital affair are just two of his worst decisions in prolonged a series of bad choices. Now that he's living on his own and scrambling to support his wife and sons, money is Wilhelm's most pressing concern, and his desire to make it quickly and easily is what's going to get him into trouble.
Dream Stage
When Dr. Tamkin presents himself as a friend and guide who can help Wilhelm make a steady income by speculating in the commodities market, Wilhelm seems to have found a way out of his money troubles. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't get much opportunity to enjoy a sense of ease; instead, he's wracked by anxiety and suspicion from the first moment he signs his savings away to his charming, not-so-trustworthy companion.
Frustration Stage
Most of the present-tense action in Seize the Day occurs during Wilhelm's Frustration Stage. By giving Dr. Tamkin the power of attorney over the last of his savings (all his worldly assets, as it turns out), our tragic hero makes a misguided "deal with the devil." On top of that, he can't even enjoy his ill-gotten gains, because there aren't any yet, and there may not ever be any at all. Too bad, so sad.
All Wilhelm can do is wait anxiously to learn if his decision is going to ruin him, or make him rich, and as he waits, he has to endure the ongoing pain of his father's refusal to help him, and his wife's seemingly endless demands for money. Maybe things would be easier for Wilhelm if he wasn't such a loser, but for a man in his frame of mind, it's easy to feel that fate itself is conspiring against you.
Nightmare Stage
For Wilhelm, the Nightmare Stage begins just as he starts to feel like there's a faint glimmer of hope that all might not be lost. As he and Dr. Tamkin sit in the brokerage office and eye the prices of lard and December rye, Wilhelm can almost believe that he'll be able to recoup his losses. But when Tamkin refuses to put in a selling order, and hustles Wilhelm out of the office and into a nearby cafeteria for lunch, Wilhelm's fears make a speedy return.
Tamkin's insistence upon a long and hearty lunch, the ominous sight of the hoary old fiddler who shouts at Wilhelm in the street, the infuriating demand of Mr. Rappaport that Wilhelm escort him to the cigar store—all of these occurrences conspire to make Wilhelm feel like a nervous wreck. He doesn't seem to have any control over the situation he's gotten himself into, and his ruin seems just around the corner.
Destruction or Death Wish Stage
Sure enough, Wilhelm's Nightmare Stage soon gives way to his Destruction Stage as he realizes that all of his savings have been lost, and Dr. Tamkin has conveniently disappeared. Although Wilhelm makes last-ditch attempts to plea for his father's help and his wife's understanding and mercy, no one who can help him is willing to give him a break of their Kit Kat Bar.
That said: since Seize the Day draws on the conventions of Tragedy without being a fully-fledged tragic novel, the story doesn't end with Wilhelm's total destruction and death. Instead, our tragic hero breaks down in an uncontrollable fit of crying at a stranger's funeral, while the rest of the dead man's mourners look on in sympathy and—let's face it—puzzled curiosity too. As more than one critic has noted, Wilhelm's final descent beneath the far depths of his sorrow isn't simply destructive: it's also a moment with huge potential for transformation and rebirth. Better get that epidural ready.