The most important function of the plot is to reveal life’s contradictions, that is, conflicts (in Hegel’s terminology, collisions).
Conflict- a confrontation of contradiction either between characters, or between characters and circumstances, or within character, underlying the action. If we are dealing with a small epic form, then the action develops on the basis of one single conflict. In works of large volume, the number of conflicts increases.
Conflict- the core around which everything revolves. The plot least of all resembles a solid, unbroken line connecting the beginning and end of an event series.
Stages of conflict development- main plot elements:
Exposition – plot – development of action – climax – denouement
Exposition(Latin – presentation, explanation) – a description of the events preceding the plot.
Main functions: Introducing the reader to the action; Performance characters; Picture of the situation before the conflict.
The beginning– an event or group of events directly leading to a conflict situation. It can grow out of exposure.
Development of action- the entire system of sequential deployment of that part of the event plan from beginning to end that guides the conflict. It can be calm or unexpected turns (vicissitudes).
Climax- the moment of the highest tension of the conflict is decisive for its resolution. After which the development of the action turns to the denouement.
The number of climaxes can be large. It depends on the storylines.
Denouement– an event that resolves a conflict. Most often, the ending and the denouement coincide. In the case of an open ending, the denouement may recede. The denouement, as a rule, is juxtaposed with the beginning, echoing it with a certain parallelism, completing a certain compositional circle.
Conflict classification:
Solvable (limited by the scope of the work)
Unsolvable (eternal, universal contradictions)
Types of conflicts:
A) human and nature;
b) man and society;
V) man and culture
Ways to implement conflict V various kinds literary works:
Often the conflict is fully embodied and exhausted in the course of the events depicted. It arises against the background of a conflict-free situation, escalates and resolves as if before the eyes of the readers. This is the case in many adventure and detective novels. This is the case in most of the literary works of the Renaissance: in the short stories of Boccaccio, comedies and some tragedies of Shakespeare. For example, the emotional drama of Othello is entirely focused on the period of time when Iago weaved his devilish intrigue. The evil intent of the envious person is the main and only reason for the suffering of the protagonist. The conflict of the tragedy "Othello", for all its depth and tension, is transitory and local.
But it also happens differently. In a number of epic and dramatic works, events unfold against a constant background of conflict. The contradictions to which the writer draws attention exist here both before the events depicted begin, and during their course, and after their completion. What happened in the lives of the heroes acts as a kind of addition to the already existing contradictions. These can be both resolvable and unresolvable conflicts (Dostoevsky's "The Idiot", Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard") Stable conflict situations are inherent in almost most of the plots of realistic literature of the 19th-20th centuries.
What makes a reader look at the first page of a work of fiction? Some people picked up the book because of the author's name, others were attracted by the catchy or provocative title of the story or novel. So what is next? What can make you read page after page, impatiently “swallowing” printed lines? Of course, the plot! And the more acutely twisted it is, the more painful the characters’ experiences, the more interesting it is for the reader to follow its development.
The main component of an ideally developing plot is conflict; in literature it is struggle, confrontation of interests and characters, different perceptions of situations. All this creates a relationship between literary images, behind him, as a guide, the plot develops.
Definition of conflict and how it is applied
It is worth considering in more detail the concept of conflict. The definition in literature of a certain specific form, a peculiar technique that reflects the confrontation of the characters of the main characters, different understanding them of the same situation, an explanation of the reasons for their feelings, thoughts, desires in similar or the same circumstances is a conflict. In simpler terms, it is a struggle between good and evil, love and hate, truth and lies.
We find a clash of antagonisms in everyone work of art, either short story, epic saga, landmark novel or play for drama theater. Only the presence of a conflict can set the ideological direction of the plot, build a composition, and organize a qualitative relationship between opposing images.
The author’s ability to create a narrative in a timely manner, to endow opposing images with vivid characters, and the ability to defend one’s truth will certainly interest readers and force them to read the work to the end. From time to time it must be brought to the highest point of passion, creating insoluble situations, and then allowing the characters to successfully overcome them. They must take risks, get out, suffer emotionally and physically, causing in readers a whole heap of all kinds of emotions from tender affection to deep censure of their actions.
What should the conflict be?
True masters artistic word allow their characters to have and defend their point of view, to deeply captivate readers with different moral values. Only in this case will the army of fans of the work grow and be replenished with lovers of the artistic word of different ages, various social strata, all levels of education. If the author managed to capture the attention of readers from the first pages and keep it on one plot or ideological confrontation until the final point - praise and honor to his pen! But this happens infrequently, and if conflicts in works of literature do not grow, how snowball, do not involve new characters in their solution, with their own difficulties, neither a story, nor a novel, nor a play of even the most famous author will be able to develop the interest in themselves that was initially aroused.
The plot must dynamically twist up to a certain point, giving rise to the most incredible situations: misunderstanding, hidden and obvious threats, fear, losses - constant dynamics are necessary. What can create it? Just a sharp plot twist. Sometimes it can be caused by the unexpected discovery of a revealing letter, in other cases - by the theft of irrefutable evidence of someone's truth. In one chapter, the hero may witness some crime or a piquant situation, in another - he himself may become the culprit of something ambiguous. In the third, he may have suspicious patrons, about whom he knows nothing, but feels their presence. Then it may turn out that these are not patrons at all, but hidden enemies from those close to him, who are constantly nearby. Let them sometimes seem banal and far-fetched in literature, but they should keep the reader in constant suspense.
The influence of conflict on the severity of the plot
The individual sufferings and ordeals of the main character of a work of art can arouse interest and sympathy only for the time being, if other people are not involved in the conflict. minor characters narratives. The confrontation must be deepened and expanded in order to give the plot newness, brightness and poignancy.
Sluggish reasoning, even about high feelings and holy innocence, can make the reader want to irritably turn boring pages. Because, of course, it’s wonderful, but if it’s understandable to everyone and doesn’t give rise to a bunch of questions, then it won’t be able to captivate someone’s imagination, and when we pick up a book, we need vivid emotions. Conflict in literature is a provocation.
It can be given not so much by a pile of incomprehensible situations as by the clear and precise goal of the characters, which each of them carries through the entire work, without betraying it, even when the writer throws his characters into the thick of passions. Each of the warring parties must contribute to the development of the plot: some enrage the reader with their wild, logic-defying antics, others calm him down with prudence and originality of actions. But everyone together must solve one task - to create poignancy in the narrative.
as a reflection of conflict situations
What else, besides a book, can take us out of everyday life and saturate it with impressions? Romantic relationships, which are sometimes so lacking. Traveling to exotic countries, which not everyone can afford in reality. Revelations of criminals hiding under the guise of law-abiding and respectable citizens. The reader looks in the book for what worries him, worries him and interests him most at a certain period of time, but in real life Nothing like this happens to him or his friends. The theme of conflict in literature fills this need. We will find out how it all happens, what it feels like. Any problem, any life situation You can find it in books and transfer the whole gamut of experiences to yourself.
Types and types of conflicts
Several characteristic conflicts are clearly expressed in literature: love, ideological, philosophical, social and everyday, symbolic, psychological, religious, military. Of course, this is far from full list, we took for consideration only the main categories, and each of them has its own list of iconic works that reflect one or more of the listed types of conflict. Thus, Shakespeare’s poem “Romeo and Juliet,” without going into demagoguery, can be classified as a love story. The relationships between people, which are based on love, are shown vividly, tragically, hopelessly. This work reflects the nature of drama like no other in best traditions classics. The plot of "Dubrovsky" slightly repeats the main theme of "Romeo and Juliet" and can also serve typical example, but we still remember Pushkin’s wonderful story after we name Shakespeare’s most famous drama.
It is necessary to mention other types of conflicts in the literature. Speaking about the psychological, we recall Byron's Don Juan. The image of the main character is so contradictory and so vividly expresses the internal confrontation of the individual that it would be difficult to imagine a more typical representative of the mentioned conflict.
Several plot lines of the novel in verse “Eugene Onegin”, masterfully created characters are typical for love, social, and ideological conflicts. The clash of various ideas, claiming the primacy of one over the other and vice versa, runs through almost every literary creation, completely captivating the reader both in its own storyline and in the conflict one.
The coexistence of multiple conflicts in fiction
In order to more substantively consider how conflicts are used in works of literature, types are intertwined, it is more reasonable to take as an example works of large form: “War and Peace” by L. Tolstoy, “The Idiot”, “The Brothers Karamazov”, “Demons” by F. Dostoevsky, “Taras” Bulba" by N. Gogol, the drama "A Doll's House" by G. Ibsen. Each reader can create his own list of stories, novels, plays, in which it is easy to trace the coexistence of several confrontations. Quite often one encounters, along with others, a conflict of generations in Russian literature.
Thus, in “The Possessed” an attentive researcher will find symbolic, love, philosophical, social, everyday and even psychological conflict. In literature, this is practically all that the plot rests on. "War and Peace" is also rich in the confrontation of images and the ambiguity of events. The conflict here is inherent even in the very title of the novel. Analyzing the characters of its heroes, in each one can find a Don Juanian psychological conflict. Pierre Bezukhov despises Helen, but he is captivated by her brilliance. Natasha Rostova is happy love for Andrei Bolkonsky, but is led by a sinful attraction to Anatoly Kuragin. The social and everyday conflict is discerned in Sonya’s love for Nikolai Rostov and the involvement of the entire family in this love. And so in every chapter, in every one. a short excerpt. And all this together is an immortal, great work, which has no equal.
Vivid pictures of the confrontation between generations in the novel “Fathers and Sons”
I. Turgenev’s novel “Fathers and Sons” deserves no less admiration, like “War and Peace”. It is generally accepted that this work is a reflection of the ideological conflict, the confrontation of generations. Undoubtedly, the superiority of one’s own ideas over those of others, which are defended with equal respect by all the heroes of the story, serves as confirmation of this statement. Even the existing love conflict between Bazarov and Odintsova pales against the background of the irreconcilable struggle of the same Bazarov and Pavel Petrovich. The reader suffers along with them, understanding and justifying one, condemning and despising the other for his beliefs. But each of these heroes has both judges and adherents among fans of the work. The conflict of generations in Russian literature is nowhere more clearly expressed.
The war of ideas of representatives of two different classes is described less vividly, but this makes it even more tragic - Bazarov’s opinion in relation to his own parent. Isn't this a conflict? But which one - ideological or more social? In one case or another, it is dramatic, painful, even scary.
The image of the main nihilist created by Turgenev will always be the most controversial of all existing works of art literary character, and the novel was written in 1862 - more than a century and a half ago. Isn't this proof of the novel's genius?
Reflection of social and everyday conflict in literature
We have already mentioned this type of conflict in a few words, but it deserves a more detailed consideration. In Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin” he is revealed so in simple words, appears so clearly before us from the first lines of the work that nothing else dominates it, not even painful love Tatiana and the untimely death of Lensky.
“Whenever I wanted to limit my life to my home circle... What could happen in the world worse than family...,” says Evgeniy, and you believe him, you understand him, even if the reader has different views on the subject! So different personal values Onegin and Lensky, their dreams, aspirations, lifestyles - radically opposite - reflect nothing more than a social and everyday conflict in literature. two bright worlds: poetry and prose, ice and fire. These two polar opposites could not coexist together: the apotheosis of the conflict was the death of Lensky in a duel.
Philosophical and symbolic types of conflicts and their place in fiction
As for the philosophical conflict, from the very first minutes you cannot remember more ideal examples for studying it than the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky. “The Brothers Karamazov”, “The Idiot”, “Teenager” and further on the list of the immortal heritage of Fedorov Mikhailovich - everything is woven from the finest philosophical threads of reasoning of almost all the characters in his works without exception. Works of Dostoevsky - vivid examples conflicts in literature! Consider the depraved (but quite commonplace for the heroes) theme of adultery, which runs through the entire novel “Demons,” and is especially pronounced in the forbidden for a long time Chapter "At Fyodor's". The words by which these predilections are justified and explained are nothing more than the internal philosophical conflict of the characters.
A striking example of symbolism is the work of M. Maeterlinck “The Blue Bird”. In it, reality dissolves into imagination and vice versa. The symbolic reincarnation of faith, hope, and one’s own conviction into a mythical bird is an exemplary plot for this type of conflict.
Also symbolic are Cervantes, Shakespeare, and the nine circles of hell in Dante. Modern authors little use of symbolism as conflict, but epic works they are overflowing with it.
Types of conflicts in Gogol's works
Works greatest writer Russia and Ukraine are full of clearly defined symbolism with its devils, mermaids, brownies - the dark sides of human souls. The story “Taras Bulba” is noticeably different from most of Nikolai Vasilyevich’s works in the complete absence of otherworldly images - everything is real, historically justified and in terms of the intensity of conflicts it is in no way inferior to that part fiction, which exists in everyone literary work more-less.
Typical types of conflicts in literature: love, social, psychological, generational conflict can be easily traced in Taras Bulba. In Russian literature, the image of Andriy is so verified as an example on which they are tied that there is no need to once again go into explanations in which scenes they can be traced. It is enough to re-read the book and pay attention to some points Special attention. Conflicts in works of Russian literature are used for this purpose.
And a little more about conflicts
There are many types of conflict: comic, lyrical, satirical, dramatic, humorous. These are the so-called pathetic types; they are used to enhance the genre style of the work.
Such types of conflicts in literature as plot ones - religious, family, international - run through the works of a theme corresponding to the conflict and are superimposed on the entire narrative as a whole. In addition, the presence of one or another confrontation can reflect the sensual side of a story or novel: hatred, tenderness, love. In order to emphasize some facet of the relationship between the characters, the conflict between them is aggravated. The definition of this concept in the literature has long had a clear form. Confrontation, confrontation, struggle is used when it is necessary to more vividly express not only the character of the characters and the main storyline, but also a whole system of ideas reflected in the work. The conflict is applicable in any prose: children's, detective, women's, biographical, documentary. It’s impossible to list everything, they are like epithets - numerous. But without them, not a single creation is created. Plot and conflict are inseparable in literature.
The conflict is in literature - a clash between characters or between characters and the environment, a hero and fate, as well as a contradiction within the consciousness of a character or the subject of a lyrical statement. In a plot, the beginning is the beginning, and the denouement is the resolution or statement of the intractability of the conflict. Its character determines the originality of the aesthetic (heroic, tragic, comic) content of the work. The term “conflict” in literary criticism has supplanted and partially replaced the term “collision”, which G.E. Lessing and G.W.F. Hegel used to designate acute clashes, primarily characteristic of drama. Modern literary theory considers collisions either plot form manifestations of the conflict, or its most global, historically large-scale variety. Large works, as a rule, have many conflicts, but a certain main conflict, for example, in “War and Peace” (1863-69) by L.N. Tolstoy there is a conflict between the forces of good and the unity of people with the forces of evil and disunity, which, according to the writer, is positively resolved by life itself, its spontaneous flow. The lyrics are much less conflicting than the epic.A. G. Ibsen's experience prompted B. Shaw to reconsider the classical theory of drama. the main idea his essay "The Quintessence of Ibsenism" (1891) is that at the core modern play there should be a “discussion” (disputes between characters on issues of politics, morality, religion, art, serving as an indirect expression of the Angora’s beliefs) and a “problem”. In the 20th century, philosophy and aesthetics based on the concept of dialogue developed.
In Russia, these are primarily the works of M.M. Bakhtin. They also prove that statements about the universality of the conflict are too categorical. At the same time, totalitarian culture gave birth to the so-called “conflict-free theory” in the USSR in the 1940s, according to which in socialist reality the basis for real conflicts disappears and they are replaced by “conflicts between good and better.” This had a disastrous effect on post-war literature. But the massive criticism of the “theory of non-conflict”, inspired by J.V. Stalin in the early 1950s, was even more official. In the latest literary theory, the concept of conflict seems to be one of the discredited. The opinion is expressed that the associated concepts of exposition, plot, development of action, climax, denouement are fully applicable only to crime literature and only partially to drama, but the basis of the epic is not a conflict, but a situation (in Hegel, the situation develops into a collision) . However, there are different types conflicts. Along with those that are expressed in collisions and arise from randomly developing situations, literature reproduces the persistent conflict of existence, which often does not manifest itself in direct clashes between characters. Among the Russian classics, A.P. Chekhov constantly brought out this conflict - not only in plays, but also in stories and stories.
Conflict (in a literary work)
Conflict (in literary criticism), or artistic conflict, is one of the main categories that characterizes the content of a literary work (primarily dramas or works with clearly presented dramatic features).
The origin of the term is associated with the Latin word conflictus - collision, blow, struggle, fight (found in Cicero).
Conflict in a work of art is a contradiction that forms the plot, forms a system of images, the concept of the world, man and art, features of the genre, expressed in the composition, leaving an imprint on the speech and ways of describing the characters, which can determine the specific impact of the work on a person - catharsis.
In Lessing's theory of drama and Hegel's aesthetics, the term “collision” was used, later replaced by the term “conflict” (collision is considered either a plot form of manifestation of conflict, or, conversely, the most general type of conflict).
Usually in works (especially in large forms) there are several conflicts that form a system of conflicts. It is based on a certain typology of conflicts, which can be open and hidden, external and internal, acute and protracted, solvable and insoluble, etc.
By the nature of pathos, conflicts can be tragic, comic, dramatic, lyrical, satirical, humorous, etc., participating in the design of the corresponding genres.
According to the plot resolution, conflicts in literary works can be military, interethnic, religious (interfaith), intergenerational, family, forming the sphere social conflicts and thereby defining social (socio-psychological) genre generalization (for example, ancient epics: the Indian “Mahabharata”, Homer’s “Iliad”; new epics and historical novels: novels by W. Scott, V. Hugo, “War and Peace” by L. N. Tolstoy; social novel in the works of O. Balzac, C. Dickens, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin; novels about generations: “Fathers and Sons” by I. S. Turgenev, “Teenager” by F. M. Dostoevsky; “family chronicles”: “Buddenbrooks” by T. Mann, “The Forsyte Saga” by D. Galsworthy, “The Thibault Family” by R. Martin du Gard; the genre of “industrial novel” in Soviet literature, etc.).
The conflict can be transferred to the sphere of feelings, defining psychological genre generalization (for example, the tragedies of J. Racine, “Suffering young Werther"J.V. Goethe, psychological novels J. Sand, G. Maupassant, etc.).
The conflict can characterize not a system of characters, but a system of ideas, becoming philosophical, ideological and forming philosophical, ideological genre generalizations (for example, philosophical drama P. Calderona, philosophical novel and the short story by T. Mann, G. Hesse, M. A. Bulgakov, the ideological novel by N. G. Chernyshevsky “What is to be done”, the novel by F. M. Dostoevsky “Demons”, the sociological novel by A. A. Zinoviev “Global Mankind”, etc. .). Conflict is present in all types of literature, children's, "women's", detective, fantasy, as well as in documentary, biographical, journalistic, etc.
The points of development of the conflict (commencement, climax, denouement) determined the corresponding elements of the plot (where they are characterized from the content side, between them are the development and decline of the action) and composition (where they are characterized from the form side).
Some art systems are associated with the formulation of a cross-cutting (main) conflict. In classicism, such a conflict was the conflict between feeling and duty (first highly artistically revealed in P. Corneille’s “The Cide”, rethought in the tragedies of J. Racine, later modified in the tragedies of Voltaire, etc.). Romanticism replaced the main conflict of art, formulating the conflict between ideal and reality. In the 1940-50s, the problem of conflict-free literature, the conflict between good and best, etc. was discussed in Soviet literary criticism. modern literature(especially in “mass fiction”) the conflict is often exaggerated to enhance the external effect.
The conflict is most clearly presented in the drama. In the dramaturgy of W. Shakespeare and A. Chekhov, two poles in this regard have been identified: in Shakespeare there is an open conflict, in Chekhov there is a conflict hidden by everyday life. At the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, a special form of presentation of conflict in drama was developed - “discussion” (“A Doll’s House” by G. Ibsen, dramas by D. B. Shaw, etc.), later continued and rethought in existentialist drama (J.-P. . Sartre, A. Camus, J. Anouilh) and in " epic theater"B. Brecht and challenged, brought to the point of absurdity in modernist anti-drama (E. Ionesco, S. Beckett, etc.). The combination of Shakespearean and Chekhovian lines in one work is also widespread (for example, in the dramaturgy of M. Gorky, in our time - in the theatrical trilogy “The Coast of Utopia” by T. Stoppard). Category "conflict" in Lately is displaced by the category of “dialogue” (M. Bakhtin), but here one can discern temporary fluctuations in relation to the fundamental categories of literary criticism, because behind the category of conflict in literature there is a dialectical development of reality, and not just the artistic content itself.
Lit.: Sakhnovsky-Pankeev V. Drama: Conflict - composition - stage life. L., 1969; Kovalenko A.G. Artistic conflict in Russian literature. M., 1996; Kormilov S.I. Conflict // Literary encyclopedia terms and concepts. M., 2001.
Vl. A. Lukov
Theory of literary history: Literary terms.
