Composition
Exposition
Exposition is the initial component of the plot, preceding the inciting incident and introducing the reader into the work's fictional world: it acquaints the reader with the place and time of the action, the main characters, and the circumstances that preceded the conflict, creating the necessary background for understanding the subsequent events. Exposition may be direct (at the beginning of the work), delayed (given later), or reverse (revealed at the end). Its task is to prepare the ground for the development of the action without yet revealing the conflict itself. For example, in Ivan Nechui-Levytsky's tale Kaidash's Family the exposition depicts the village, the Kaidash family, and their everyday life, preparing the ground for the future quarrels. A masterful exposition immediately immerses the reader in the atmosphere of the work, such as the descriptions of the Carpathian world at the beginning of Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky's Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, which prepare the perception of the tragic love story of Ivan and Marichka.
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Meaning, origins and distinction — side by side.
Distinction
Two elements of plot opposite in function and tension. The exposition is the INTRODUCTORY part preceding the inciting incident: it presents the place, time, circumstances and main characters, sketching the initial state of equilibrium before the conflict, its tension minimal. The climax is the PEAK of the action's development, the moment of the conflict's highest intensification, after which the denouement becomes inevitable. The exposition prepares the ground and ushers one into the world of the work; the climax brings the confrontation to its critical point.
