The reversal may be almost imperceptible at first, trickling bit by bit like grains of sand in an hourglass. For example, in the classic screwball comedy Topper, a man who has been rigid, disciplined, and meek his entire life enters into a polarized relationship with two playful ghosts, the Kirbys, who are loose, free, and rebellious. At first Cosmo Topper is driven to even greater rigidity to counteract the wild energy of the Kirbys. But this extreme position is unnatural and inherently unstable. Under continued challenge from the Kirbys, Topper experiments tentatively with the free, loose behavior of his polar opposites, then retreats to comfortable rigidity, repeating the process several times until reaching a tipping point where he can no longer resist, and gives himself over completely to their madcap strategy for living, totally reversing his polarity. In the end, he reverts to something like his old, meek behavior, but now has access to his freer side and is happier for it.
Sometimes, however, the reversal of polarity happens early in the story and all at once, in a catastrophic collapse of the effort to maintain an extreme, polarized position. In Fargo, William Macy's character topples a lifetime of following the rules by reversing polarity to become the planner of a kidnapping that goes disastrously awry. Liar, Liar shows us a man who has lied to everyone and kidded himself his entire life suddenly forced to tell the truth in all circumstances thanks to the powerful birthday wish of his sincere and honest son. In both cases we see the characters torn between their old polar positions and catastrophic new conditions that place them abruptly at the opposite end of the spectrum.
9. The Other End of the Spectrum
When a character goes through a reversal of polarity, what happens to his or her partner in the polarized relationship? Some of these partners exist only to catalyze change in a main character, and will not change much themselves. The Kirbys in Topper aren't going to suddenly turn into spineless weaklings like Cosmo Topper had been. But they may shift their point of view a little, realizing they've been too hard on him or that their meddling has caused him problems that they have to solve. When a character reverses polarity, the laws of polarity suggest that there be some reciprocal movement from the character or force at the opposite pole.
When Character A makes a seismic polarity shift, Character Z at the other end of the spectrum in the relationship may also take a little vacation from his or her comfort zone, or may be driven to a complete reversal himself. It can become uncomfortably crowded at one pole if both people in the relationship are suddenly expressing the same kind of energy.
If Character Z has been habitually lazy, and has come to depend on a habitually energetic Character A to do all the work, it can be alarming when the energetic A suddenly decides to experiment with laziness. No one is left to do the work, and Z, who is lazy by nature, may be forced into the unfamiliar role of the worker, with potentially comic results. In movies like Trading Places, characters get to walk in each other's shoes, experiencing unfamiliar worlds, undergoing temporary reversals, and experimenting with unfamiliar behavior. Analyze This is built around two characters reversing polarity in opposite directions, as Robert De Niro's gangster character discovers his softer side and the habitually soft psychiatrist played by Billy Crystal is forced to act like a tough guy to survive.
10. Going to Extremes
Experimenting with any polarized system involves going to the extremes. Comedy or tragedy may result as people who have habitually leaned to one side of a polarity not only experiment with the unaccustomed opposite quality, but take it to the limit. Those who have been shy take new-found confidence too far, becoming obnoxious instead of suave or self-assured. They overcompensate, missing the point of balance. They may then retreat to the opposite extreme of sullenness or some other exaggerated form of their original behavior. Eventually, through a series of such pendulum swings they may learn a new way to behave, somewhere in the middle ground.
Learning how to handle any quality is a process of finding the boundaries by experimentation. In many polarized relationships, one person is more experienced and has already made a fool of himself in long-ago experiments, so now he knows precisely how to handle women, cards, guns, cars, or money. To the inexperienced person it's all new, so we get to watch him or her making the beginner's hilarious mistakes.
Often there is a reciprocal area where the experienced person is weak, and is forced to make a comical effort to master the unaccustomed quality, such as politeness, sincerity, or compassion. However, the more experienced person will likely not have as far to travel in his or her path of learning as the inexperienced person.
11. Reversal of the Reversal
In effect the characters are learning from each other, shocked into it by contact with someone who is a polar opposite in one or more dimensions of behavior. They reverse polarity in order to experiment with behavior that is outside of their normal comfort zone. However, rarely is this the end of the story. There is usually at least one more reversal, as the characters recover from the temporary insanity imposed by the story and return to their true natures. It is a very strong rule in drama, and in life, that people remain true to their basic natures. They change, and their change is essential for drama, but typically they only change a little, taking a single step towards integrating a forgotten or rejected quality into their natures.
Having learned something useful by their first reversal, they may retreat to the pole that represents their true nature, but they end up in a little different place from where they started. This is realistic character change, an incremental movement rather
than a total 180-degree reversal. Complete and permanent reversals of polarity are rare in stories and in life.
If a story has done its work, the character has experimented with something unfamiliar, realized that some special quality was lacking, and incorporated some aspect of that quality into his or her life. He or she returns to their general comfort zone, but to a more nearly balanced position nearer the center, not polarized to either extreme.
In the process, the character and the audience get to experience all points along the spectrum, both the extremes and a range of positions in between. In most cases it's not desirable or realistic to end up exactly in the middle of the two positions. Most stories end with the characters back more or less on the side of the polarity where they started, but several steps closer to the center and the opposite side. The characters' range of possible behavior now avoids the extreme positions and overlaps a little into the territory of the opposite side, producing a more balanced personality that leaves room for the formerly unexpressed quality. This is a good place to end up, because from this position the character can retreat to his or her old comfort zone if threatened, but still reach across to experience something of the opposite side.
In the Chinese system known as the Book of Changes, this is considered a more stable state, more desirable than extreme polarization. In a throw of three coins, two heads and a tail or two tails and a head symbolizes a stable, more balanced and realistic situation, whereas a throw of three heads or three tails represents a situation that is too polarized, too much of one thing, and must certainly collapse or reverse polarity soon, becoming its opposite.