noun
- secondary or subordinate storylines in a literary work, film, or play that run alongside the main plot
Usage: literary term; plural form
Examples
- The novel’s underplots involving the servants added depth to the main story.
- Shakespeare often used underplots to provide comic relief in his tragedies.
- The film’s underplots helped develop the supporting characters.
- Critics praised how the author wove the underplots into the central narrative.
- The play’s underplots mirrored themes from the main storyline.
- Several underplots were cut from the final version of the screenplay.