Chekhov's gun
Setup demands resolution
Chekhov's gun is a dramatic principle: if a gun appears in Act One, it must fire by Act Three.
Named for Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, who argued that every element in a story should be necessary.
The term now describes any conspicuous detail that signals future plot significance: The early mention of her allergy was a Chekhov's gun.
- setupHow something is arranged
- payoffCulminating benefit received
- suspenseAnxious uncertainty about outcomes
- brevityShortness of expression
- causalityCause-effect connection
foreshadowing · aim · deus ex machina · premonition · hinting · smoking gun · intentionality · narrative arc · story structure · minimalism · dramatic irony · forewarning · reveal · prop · stage prop · third act · dramatic tension · metaphor
- plot devicesMacGuffin, red herring, plot twist, flashback, foreshadowing
- plot elementsplot, protagonist, antagonist, main plot, subplot
- literary devicesmetaphor, simile, hyperbole, personification, alliteration
- Tropeschosen one, hero's journey, red herring, deus ex machina, damsel in distress
- ChekhovThe Seagull, The Cherry Orchard, playwright, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters
- omensomens, omen, portent, portents, signs
Chekhov's gunred herring
Intentional misleading distraction
shaggy dog story · anticlimax · bait and switch · misdirection · broken promise
Chekhov's gunpurple prose
Overly elaborate, emotional writing
filler · padding · tangent · digression · set dressing
guns, shotgun, handgun, gunning, gunner, gunned, air gun, shotguns, machine gun