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===''Deus ex machina''=== ''[[Deus ex machina]]'' is a Latin term meaning "god from the machine." It refers to an unexpected, artificial or improbable character, device or event introduced suddenly in a work of fiction to resolve a situation or untangle a plot.<ref name="Shipley1964">{{cite book|author=Joseph Twadell Shipley|title=Dictionary of World Literature: Criticism, Forms, Techniques|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AlUVAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA156|access-date=23 July 2013|year=1964|publisher=Taylor & Francis|page=156|id=GGKEY:GL0NUL09LL7}}</ref> In [[Theatre of ancient Greece|Ancient Greek theater]], the "deus ex machina" ('ἀπὸ μηχανῆς θεός') was the character of a Greek god literally brought onto the stage via a crane (μηχανῆς—''mechanes''), after which a seemingly insoluble problem is brought to a satisfactory resolution by the god's will. The term is now used pejoratively for any improbable or unexpected contrivance by which an author resolves the complications of the plot in a play or novel, and which has not been convincingly prepared for in the preceding action; the discovery of a lost will was a favorite resort of Victorian novelists.<ref>{{ citation | last1 = Baldick | first1 = Chris | title = The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms | location = Oxford | publisher = [[Oxford University Press]] | year = 2004 | isbn = 978-0-19-860883-7 }}</ref>
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