The element of change is so central to stories that the best system for classifying stories is based on it. The change in a story can be a change of (a) fortune or situation, (b) character, or (c) a combination of these. The resulting taxonomy of narrative types, with three biblical examples of each, looks something like this, beginning with stories in which the change is one of external fortune. In a tragic plot an essentially good character undergoes a catastrophic change