Conflict (narrative)
Encyclopedia
In literature, Conflict is the inherent incompatibility between the objectives of two or more characters or forces. By its nature, conflict is unstable. One side must always win out in the end. However, this instability is desirable because it helps hold a reader's interest in a story.
Classification=
Conflict is most visible between two or more characters, usually a protagonist
and an antagonist
, but can occur in many different forms.
, literary critic
and author, was first to classify plots as seven basic conflicts: Man against Man, Man against Nature, Man against Himself, Man against God, Man against Society, Man caught in the Middle, Man & Woman.
This has inspired a variety of similar lists, as follows:
in literature
that places a character
against forces of nature. Many disaster film
s focus on this theme, which is predominant within many survival stories. It is also strong in stories about struggling for survival in remote locales, such as the novel Hatchet
or Jack London
's short story "To Build a Fire
" or "Survivor man
".
and The Blair Witch Project
have elements of conflict in this form.
(or Fate) is a theme in which one attempts to break free of a predetermined path before him chosen without his knowledge. It can also be referred to as a conflict between fate and freewill. A common example is Shakespeare's Macbeth
.
History=
As with other literary terms, these have come about gradually as descriptions of common narrative structures. Conflict was first described in ancient Greek literature
as the agon, or central contest in tragedy. According to Aristotle
, in order to hold the interest, the hero must have a single conflict. The agon, or act of conflict, involves the protagonist
(the "first fighter") and the antagonist (a more recent term), corresponding to the hero and villain. The outcome of the contest cannot be known in advance, and according to later critics such as Plutarch
, the hero's struggle should be ennobling.
Even in contemporary, non-dramatic literature, critics have observed that the agon is the central unit of the plot. The easier it is for the protagonist to triumph, the less value there is in the drama. In internal and external conflict alike, the antagonist must act upon the protagonist and must seem at first to overmatch him or her. For example, in William Faulkner
's The Bear, nature might be the antagonist. Even though it is an abstraction, natural creatures and the scenery oppose and resist the protagonist. In the same story, the young boy's doubts about himself provide an internal conflict
, and they seem to overwhelm him.
Similarly, when godlike characters enter (e.g. Superman
), correspondingly great villains have to be created, or natural weaknesses have to be invented, to allow the narrative to have drama. Alternatively, scenarios could be devised in which the character's godlike powers are constrained by some sort of code, or their respective antagonist.
Related Concepts=
The concept of Conflict is closely related to the concept of Tension but they are not the same. Tension in this sense is an incompatibility between characters that is acknowledged, but not acted upon.
An example:
Note that Watson never acts on his convictions. Tension is rarely physical, though it can have a physical component. Throughout the series, Watson's objection remains a verbal complaint only and never becomes confrontational. Thus this is tension rather than conflict probably because Watson does not believe he can change Holmes' habit.
See also=
External links =
Classification=
Conflict is most visible between two or more characters, usually a protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
and an antagonist
Antagonist
An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
, but can occur in many different forms.
Three Basic Conflicts
James Dai of StoryCharts.ca describes conflict as being one of three basic types: Internal, Relational, or External.Internal
Internal conflicts occur when a character is in disagreement with him or herself. Specifically, this occurs when a character has two or more values or traits in opposition. Examples:- A police officer who discovers his partner is taking bribes and must choose between loyalty to his friend and upholding the law.
- A middle-aged woman struggling with a decision to follow the teachings of JesusJesusJesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
or remain an unbeliever.
Relational
Relational conflicts are incompatibilities in how two or more individuals relate to one another - Fathers to Sons, Bosses to Employees, Slaves to Masters, etc. Note that the incompatibilities need to grow organically out of the personalities of the individuals rather than from external circumstances. Examples:- The classic love triangle plot where a girl must choose between boy A and boy B.
- A mother who attempts to regulate the life of her wildflower daughter with diabetes who is now an adult.
External
External conflicts arise from obstacles located outside the protagonist including nature, the supernatural, or society. Examples:- A teenage father who desires to provide for his family but has a criminal record that severely limits his job opportunities.
- A brave knight who faces a fiery dragon to free a captive princess.
- The classic outdoor survival plot: man versus the wild.
Six Basic Conflicts
Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-CouchArthur Quiller-Couch
Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch was a Cornish writer, who published under the pen name of Q. He is primarily remembered for the monumental Oxford Book Of English Verse 1250–1900 , and for his literary criticism...
, literary critic
Literary criticism
Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...
and author, was first to classify plots as seven basic conflicts: Man against Man, Man against Nature, Man against Himself, Man against God, Man against Society, Man caught in the Middle, Man & Woman.
This has inspired a variety of similar lists, as follows:
Man v. Man
A Man vs. Man conflict can be described as a conflict arising between two or more characters of the same kind. An example of this might be a fist fight between two people. Such as the Protagonist (main character) vs. the Antagonist (villain or someone who's against the protagonist).Man v. Nature
Man v. Nature is the themeTheme (literature)
A theme is a broad, message, or moral of a story. The message may be about life, society, or human nature. Themes often explore timeless and universal ideas and are almost always implied rather than stated explicitly. Along with plot, character,...
in literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
that places a character
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
against forces of nature. Many disaster film
Disaster film
A disaster film is a film genre that has an impending or ongoing disaster as its subject...
s focus on this theme, which is predominant within many survival stories. It is also strong in stories about struggling for survival in remote locales, such as the novel Hatchet
Hatchet (novel)
Hatchet is a 1987 three-time Newbery Honor-winning wilderness survival novel written by Gary Paulsen. It is the first novel in the Hatchet series and is followed by four sequels....
or Jack London
Jack London
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
's short story "To Build a Fire
To Build a Fire
"To Build a Fire" is a short story by American author Jack London. The famous version of this story was published in 1908. London published an earlier and radically different version in 1902 in which the protagonist survives his ordeal, and a comparison of the two provides a dramatic illustration...
" or "Survivor man
Survivor Man
"Survivor Man" is the seventh episode of the fourth season of the American comedy television series The Office—the show's sixty-fourth episode overall. Written by Steve Carell, who also acts on the show as Regional Manager Michael Scott, and directed by Paul Feig, it originally aired on NBC on...
".
Man v. Himself
Man v. Himself is a conflict in which the protagonist is at war with himself.Man v. Supernatural
Man v. Supernatural is a type of conflict in which the character is against elements outside of the natural realm. These include encounters with ghosts, extraterrestrials, external spiritual experiences, and other unexplained occurrences. Both The ExorcistThe Exorcist (film)
The Exorcist is a 1973 American horror film directed by William Friedkin, adapted from the 1971 novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty and based on the exorcism case of Robbie Mannheim, dealing with the demonic possession of a young girl and her mother’s desperate attempts to win back her...
and The Blair Witch Project
The Blair Witch Project
The Blair Witch Project is a 1999 American horror film pieced together from amateur footage. The film was produced by the Haxan Films production company. The film relates the story of three student filmmakers The Blair Witch Project is a 1999 American horror film pieced together from amateur...
have elements of conflict in this form.
Man v. Society
Man v. Society, dubbed Man v. Machine, is a conflict between the protagonist and a mechanical antagonist or society in general. Examples would include the Terminator movies as well as the futuristic 'Minority Report' starring Tom Cruise.Man v. Destiny
Man v. DestinyDestiny
Destiny or fate refers to a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual...
(or Fate) is a theme in which one attempts to break free of a predetermined path before him chosen without his knowledge. It can also be referred to as a conflict between fate and freewill. A common example is Shakespeare's Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
.
History=
As with other literary terms, these have come about gradually as descriptions of common narrative structures. Conflict was first described in ancient Greek literature
Greek literature
Greek literature refers to writings composed in areas of Greek influence, typically though not necessarily in one of the Greek dialects, throughout the whole period in which the Greek-speaking people have existed.-Ancient Greek literature :...
as the agon, or central contest in tragedy. According to Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
, in order to hold the interest, the hero must have a single conflict. The agon, or act of conflict, involves the protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
(the "first fighter") and the antagonist (a more recent term), corresponding to the hero and villain. The outcome of the contest cannot be known in advance, and according to later critics such as Plutarch
Plutarch
Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
, the hero's struggle should be ennobling.
Even in contemporary, non-dramatic literature, critics have observed that the agon is the central unit of the plot. The easier it is for the protagonist to triumph, the less value there is in the drama. In internal and external conflict alike, the antagonist must act upon the protagonist and must seem at first to overmatch him or her. For example, in William Faulkner
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career...
's The Bear, nature might be the antagonist. Even though it is an abstraction, natural creatures and the scenery oppose and resist the protagonist. In the same story, the young boy's doubts about himself provide an internal conflict
Internal conflict
In literature, internal conflict is the struggle occurring within a character's mind. Often more literary works are focused on internal battles while more populist literature is more focused on external conflict....
, and they seem to overwhelm him.
Similarly, when godlike characters enter (e.g. Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
), correspondingly great villains have to be created, or natural weaknesses have to be invented, to allow the narrative to have drama. Alternatively, scenarios could be devised in which the character's godlike powers are constrained by some sort of code, or their respective antagonist.
Related Concepts=
The concept of Conflict is closely related to the concept of Tension but they are not the same. Tension in this sense is an incompatibility between characters that is acknowledged, but not acted upon.
An example:
- In the Sherlock HolmesSherlock HolmesSherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
novels, the famous detective was known to take opiumOpiumOpium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...
on occasion, but his sidekick Dr. Watson frowned upon such activities.
Note that Watson never acts on his convictions. Tension is rarely physical, though it can have a physical component. Throughout the series, Watson's objection remains a verbal complaint only and never becomes confrontational. Thus this is tension rather than conflict probably because Watson does not believe he can change Holmes' habit.
See also=
- Theme (literature)Theme (literature)A theme is a broad, message, or moral of a story. The message may be about life, society, or human nature. Themes often explore timeless and universal ideas and are almost always implied rather than stated explicitly. Along with plot, character,...
- Deus ex machinaDeus ex machinaA deus ex machina is a plot device whereby a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object.-Linguistic considerations:...
- Problem of evilProblem of evilIn the philosophy of religion, the problem of evil is the question of how to explain evil if there exists a deity that is omnibenevolent, omnipotent, and omniscient . Some philosophers have claimed that the existences of such a god and of evil are logically incompatible or unlikely...
- MisfortuneMisfortuneMisfortune is an Italian fairy tale, from Palermo, collected by Italo Calvino in his Italian Folktales.Another telling of the tale appears under the title Unfortunate in A Book of Enchantments and Curses, by Ruth Manning-Sanders.-Synopsis:...
- MisotheismMisotheismMisotheism is the "hatred of God" or "hatred of the gods" . In some varieties of polytheism, it was considered possible to inflict punishment on gods by ceasing to worship them...
- Mythos (Aristotle)Mythos (Aristotle)Mythos is the term used by Aristotle in his Poetics for the plot of an Athenian tragedy. It is the first of the six elements of tragedy that he gives.- Variations on plot :...
External links =
- Literary terms Dictionary Online. http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/lit_terms/conflict.html
- The "Basic" Plots In Literature. Information on the most common divisions of the basic plots from the Internet Public Library organization. http://www.ipl.org/div/farq/plotFARQ.html