Type scene

In any narrative tradition there are certain "conventions" ideas, connections and the like that hearers of the story can be expected to understand. In cowboy movies the guy in the white hat is supposed to be the hero, in most movies a person with shifty eyes is supposed to be a villain.. There are also certain short scenes that get repeated and are conventional, the insult in the bar that is intended to provoke a fight... In biblical story-telling too there are such conventions, and among the type-scenes the "hero's betrothal" was the classic example:

• man in a foreign place
• at a well
• meets girll
• draws water
• girl hurries home
• invitation home
• betrothal
This pattern is found fairly complete for Isaac (Gen 24), Jacob (Gen 29), & Moses (Ex 2:15ff.) though each telling highlights it's hero's character: Moses fights off ruffians, Jacob and Laban start a cheating contest, and Isaac is not even there at the time! It is less complete in some other examples, so everything is reversed for Ruth (Ruth 2).