deus ex machina
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˈdeɪəs ɛks ˈmɑːkɪnə/
- Literature
:
deus ex machina
- Despite democratization, one thing hardly changed during the Cold War: Turkey remained politically unstable, and each time the Turkish General Staff thought the republic was in danger, it intervened, like a deus ex machina.
Examples
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The doctrine and its effects, in fact, have been so magnified that they have become a sort of modern deus ex machina, the mere existence of which explains everything that has gone awry in the region.
Academic text (1993) -
He had apparently been harboring a serious thing for Olivia all these years; we thought he was just serving as a convenient deus ex machina.
Blog text (15) -
Anyway, on the way home she was distraught and felt life held no hope... when-- talk about a deus ex machina--
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I think one of the problems is that Dr. Strange has been used in team books where lazy writers have been tempted to use him as a deus ex machina.
Blog text (6) -
BOONE: It's the only book with a deus ex machina that I believe was correct, because the God is such a character in it throughout all the rest of it, even though it's unspoken and it's in the hearts of a lot of the characters.
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I find it embarrassing when people praise video games for having good stories when those games feature a silent protagonist, coincidence rather than causality, and worst of all, a deus ex machina for an ending.
Blog text (17) -
It is a deus ex machina device that seems especially contrived because it is followed directly by the arrival of the cavalry, just in time to lift the bandits' siege.
Academic text (2002) -
In the final act, the sudden arrival of the wise mentor served as a deus ex machina, rescuing the hero from certain defeat.
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The plot twist near the end felt like a deus ex machina, as it solved all the main character's problems in an instant.
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When the lost treasure was found just in time to save the village, it seemed like a classic case of deus ex machina.
How Unexpected
- Literature
1
9.9
2
4.2
- Informal
1
5.6
232
4.1
Surface Forms
Morphology
deus + ex + machina
The literal parts ('deus' = god, 'ex' = from, 'machina' = machine) yield a transparent literal image of a 'god from the machine', which hints at an outside, godlike intervention. However, the specific literary sense—a conventional plot device where an unexpected power abruptly resolves the story—relies on cultural/theatrical knowledge and thus is not fully derivable by a B1 learner, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Deus ex machina comes from old plays where a machina 'machine' lowered an actor who played a deus 'god' onto the stage to fix a stuck story. So today deus ex machina means 'an unexpected help or event that suddenly solves a problem'.