Plot and conflict. Artistic conflict and its types. Conflict as a driving force for plot development

22.04.2019

We will call the plot the system of events and actions contained in the work, its chain of events, and precisely in the sequence in which it is given to us in the work. The last remark is important, since quite often events are told not in chronological sequence, and the reader can find out what happened earlier later. If we take only the main, key episodes of the plot, which are absolutely necessary for its understanding, and arrange them in chronological order, then we get a plot - a plot diagram or, as they sometimes say, a “straightened plot.” Fables in various works can be very similar to each other, but the plot is always uniquely individual.

The plot is the dynamic side artistic form, it implies movement, development, change. At the heart of any movement, as is known, lies a contradiction, which is the engine of development. The plot also has such an engine - it is a conflict - an artistically significant contradiction. Conflict is one of those categories that seem to permeate the entire structure work of art. When we talked about themes, problems and the ideological world, we also used this term. The fact is that the conflict in the work exists on different levels. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the writer does not invent conflicts, but draws them from primary reality - this is how the conflict moves from life itself into the area of thematic, problematic, pathos. This is a conflict at the content level (sometimes another term is used to designate it - “collision”). A meaningful conflict is embodied, as a rule, in the confrontation of characters and in the movement of the plot (in any case, this happens in epic and dramatic works), although there are also extra-plot ways of realizing the conflict - for example, in Blok’s “The Stranger”, the conflict between the everyday and the romantic is expressed not by plot, but by compositional means - the opposition of images. But we are in in this case interested in the conflict embodied in the plot. This is already a conflict at the level of form, embodying a content conflict. Thus, in “Woe from Wit” by Griboyedov, the substantive conflict of two noble groups - the serf nobility and the Decembrist nobility - is embodied in the conflict between Chatsky and Famusov, Molchalin, Khlestova, Tugoukhovskaya, Zagoretsky and others. The separation of substantive and formal plans in the analysis of the conflict is important because , which allows you to reveal the writer’s skill in embodying life’s collisions, artistic originality work and the non-identity of its primary reality. Thus, Griboedov in his comedy makes the conflict of noble factions extremely tangible, pitting specific heroes against each other in a narrow space, each of whom pursues his own goals; At the same time, the conflict intensifies as the heroes clash over issues that are essential to them. All this turns a rather abstract life conflict, dramatically neutral in itself, into an exciting confrontation between living, concrete people who worry, get angry, laugh, worry, etc. The conflict becomes artistic and aesthetically significant only at the level of form.

At the formal level, several types of conflicts should be distinguished. The simplest is conflict between individual characters and groups of characters. The example discussed above with “Woe from Wit” is a good illustration of this type of conflict; a similar conflict is present in “The Miserly Knight” and “ The captain's daughter" by Pushkin, in Shchedrin's "History of a City", Ostrovsky's "Warm Heart" and "Mad Money" and in many other works.

More complex look conflict is a confrontation between the hero and the way of life, the individual and the environment (social, everyday, cultural, etc.). The difference from the first type is that the hero here is not opposed by anyone in particular; he does not have an opponent with whom he could fight, who could be defeated, thereby resolving the conflict. Thus, in Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin” main character does not enter into any significant contradictions with any character, but the very stable forms of Russian social, everyday, cultural life They oppose the hero’s needs, suppress him with everyday life, leading to disappointment, inaction, “the blues” and boredom.

So, in Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” all the characters are the sweetest people who, in fact, have nothing to share with each other, everyone is on excellent terms with each other, but nevertheless the main characters - Ranevskaya, Lopakhin, Varya - feel bad, uncomfortable in life , their aspirations are not realized, but no one is to blame for this, except, again, the stable way of Russian life late XIX v., which Lopakhin rightly calls “clumsy” and “unhappy.”

Finally, the third type of conflict is an internal, psychological conflict, when the hero is at odds with himself, when he carries certain contradictions within himself, and sometimes contains incompatible principles. Such a conflict is characteristic, for example, of Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment,” Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina,” Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Dog” and many other works.

It also happens that in a work we are faced with not one, but two or even all three types of conflicts. Thus, in Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm,” the external conflict between Katerina and Kabanikha is intensified many times over and deepened by an internal conflict: Katerina cannot live without love and freedom, but in her situation both are sins, and the consciousness of her own sinfulness puts the heroine in a truly hopeless situation. position.

To understand a particular work of art, it is very important to correctly determine the type of conflict. Above we gave an example with “A Hero of Our Time”, in which school literary criticism persistently looks for Pechorin’s conflict with the “water” society, instead of paying attention to the much more significant and universal psychological conflict in the novel, which lies in the irreconcilable ideas that exist in Pechorin’s mind : “there is predestination” and “there is no predestination.” As a result, the type of problem is incorrectly formulated, the character of the hero is terribly shallow, of the stories included in the novel, “Princess Mary” is studied almost exclusively, the character of the hero appears completely different from what he really is, Pechorin is scolded for something for which it is absurd to scold him and wrongfully (for selfishness, for example) and are praised for something for which there is no merit (departure from secular society), – in a word, the novel is read “exactly the opposite”. And at the beginning of this chain of errors lay an incorrect definition of the type of artistic conflict.

From another point of view, two types of conflicts can be distinguished.

One type - it is called local - assumes the fundamental possibility of resolution through active actions; It's usually the characters who take these actions as the story progresses. For example, Pushkin’s poem “Gypsies” is based on such a conflict, where Aleko’s conflict with the gypsies is resolved at the end by the hero’s expulsion from the camp; Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment”, where the psychological conflict also finds resolution in the moral purification and resurrection of Raskolnikov, Sholokhov’s novel “Virgin Soil Upturned”, where the socio-psychological conflict among the Cossacks ends in the victory of collectivist sentiments and the collective farm system, as well as many other works.

The second type of conflict - it is called substantial - depicts to us a persistently conflicted existence, and no real practical actions that could resolve this conflict are unthinkable. Conventionally, this type of conflict can be called insoluble in a given period of time. Such, in particular, is the conflict of “Eugene Onegin” discussed above with its confrontation between personality and social order, which cannot in principle be resolved or removed by any active actions; such is the conflict in Chekhov’s story “The Bishop,” which depicts a persistently conflicted existence among the Russian intelligentsia of the late 19th century; This is the conflict of Shakespeare’s tragedy “Hamlet”, in which the psychological contradictions of the main character are also of a constant, stable nature and are not resolved until the very end of the play. Determining the type of conflict in the analysis is important because different plots are built on different conflicts, which determines the further path of analysis.

Now let's analyze a somewhat more familiar category - the plot and its place in the composition of the work. First of all, let’s clarify the terms, because plot and practical literary criticism often mean a variety of things. We will call the plot the system of events and actions contained in the work, its chain of events, and precisely in the sequence in which it is given to us in the work. The last remark is important, since quite often events are not told in chronological order, and the reader can find out what happened earlier later. If we take only the main, key episodes of the plot, which are absolutely necessary for its understanding, and arrange them in chronological order, then we will get plot - a plot outline or, as it is sometimes called, a “straightened plot.” The plots in different works can be very similar to each other, but the plot is always uniquely individual.

Plot is the dynamic side of an artistic form; it involves movement, development, change. At the heart of any movement, as is known, lies a contradiction, which is the engine of development. The plot also has such an engine - this conflict - an artistically significant contradiction. Conflict is one of those categories that seem to permeate the entire structure of a work of art. When we talked about themes, problems and the ideological world, we also used this term. The fact is that the conflict in the work exists at different levels. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the writer does not invent conflicts, but draws them from primary reality - this is how the conflict moves from life itself into the area of thematic, problematic, pathos. This is a conflict on meaningful level (sometimes another term is used to designate it - “collision”). A meaningful conflict is embodied, as a rule, in the confrontation of characters and in the movement of the plot (at least, this happens in epic and dramatic works), although there are also extra-plot ways of realizing the conflict - for example, in Blok’s “The Stranger” the conflict between the everyday and the romantic is not expressed in terms of plot , and by compositional means - the opposition of images. But in this case we are interested in the conflict embodied in the plot. This is already a conflict at the level of form, embodying a content conflict. Thus, in “Woe from Wit” by Griboyedov, the substantive conflict of two noble groups - the serf nobility and the Decembrist nobility - is embodied in the conflict between Chatsky and Famusov, Molchalin, Khlestova, Tugoukhovskaya, Zagoretsky and others. The separation of substantive and formal plans in the analysis of the conflict is important because , which allows us to reveal the writer’s skill in embodying life’s collisions, the artistic originality of the work and the non-identity of its primary reality. Thus, Griboedov in his comedy makes the conflict of noble factions extremely tangible, pitting specific heroes against each other in a narrow space, each of whom pursues his own goals; At the same time, the conflict intensifies as the heroes clash over issues that are essential to them. All this turns a rather abstract life conflict, dramatically neutral in itself, into an exciting confrontation between living, concrete people who worry, get angry, laugh, worry, etc. The conflict becomes artistic and aesthetically significant only at the level of form.

At the formal level, several types of conflicts should be distinguished. The simplest is conflict between individual characters and groups of characters. The example discussed above with “Woe from Wit” is a good illustration of this type of conflict; a similar conflict is present in Pushkin’s “The Miserly Knight” and “The Captain’s Daughter,” in Shchedrin’s “The History of a City,” Ostrovsky’s “Warm Heart” and “Mad Money” and in many other works.

A more complex type of conflict is the confrontation between the hero and the way of life, the individual and the environment (social, everyday, cultural, etc.). The difference from the first type is that the hero here is not opposed by anyone in particular; he does not have an opponent with whom he could fight, who could be defeated, thereby resolving the conflict. Thus, in Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin,” the main character does not enter into any significant contradictions with any character, but the very stable forms of Russian social, everyday, cultural life oppose the hero’s needs, suppress him with everyday life, leading to disappointment, inaction, and “spleen.” "and boredom. So, in Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” all the characters are the sweetest people who, in fact, have nothing to share with each other, everyone is on excellent terms with each other, but nevertheless the main characters - Ranevskaya, Lopakhin, Varya - feel bad, uncomfortable in life , their aspirations are not realized, but no one is to blame for this, except, again, the stable way of Russian life of the late 19th century, which Lopakhin rightly calls “clumsy” and “unhappy.”

To understand a particular work of art, it is very important to correctly determine the type of conflict. Above we gave an example with “A Hero of Our Time”, in which school literary criticism persistently looks for Pechorin’s conflict with the “water” society, instead of paying attention to the much more significant and universal psychological conflict in the novel, which lies in the irreconcilable ideas that exist in Pechorin’s mind : “there is predestination” and “there is no predestination.” As a result, the type of problem is incorrectly formulated, the character of the hero is terribly shallow, of the stories included in the novel, “Princess Mary” is studied almost exclusively, the character of the hero appears completely different from what he really is, Pechorin is scolded for something for which it is absurd to scold him and wrongfully (for egoism, for example) and are praised for something for which there is no merit (departure from secular society) - in a word, the novel is read “exactly the opposite.” And at the beginning of this chain of errors lay an incorrect definition of the type of artistic conflict.

From another point of view, two types of conflicts can be distinguished.

We will call the plot the system of events and actions contained in the work, its chain of events, and precisely in the sequence in which it is given to us in the work. The last remark is important, since quite often events are not told in chronological order, and the reader can find out what happened earlier later. If we take only the main, key episodes of the plot, which are absolutely necessary for its understanding, and arrange them in chronological order, then we will get plot - a plot outline or, as it is sometimes called, a “straightened plot.”

Plot is the dynamic side of an artistic form; it involves movement, development, change. At the heart of any movement, as is known, lies a contradiction, which is the engine of development. The plot also has such an engine - This conflict - artistically significant contradiction. Conflict is one of those categories that seem to permeate the entire structure of a work of art. The conflict in the work exists at different levels. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the writer does not invent conflicts, but draws them from primary reality - this is how the conflict moves from life itself into the area of thematic, problematic, pathos. This conflict on meaningful level(sometimes another term is used to designate it - “collision”). A meaningful conflict is embodied, as a rule, in the confrontation of characters and in the movement of the plot (at least, this happens in epic and dramatic works), although there are also extra-plot ways of realizing the conflict - for example, in Blok’s “The Stranger” the conflict between the everyday and the romantic is not expressed in terms of plot , and by compositional means - the opposition of images. But in this case we are interested in the conflict embodied in the plot. This is already - conflict at the form level, embodying a meaningful conflict. Thus, in “Woe from Wit” by Griboedov, the meaningful conflict of two noble groups - the serf nobility and the Decembrist nobility - is embodied in the conflict between Chatsky and Famusov, Molchalin, Khlestova, Tugoukhovskaya, Zagoretsky and others. All this makes a rather abstract life conflict, dramatically neutral in itself, an exciting confrontation between living, concrete people who worry, get angry, laugh, worry, etc. The conflict becomes artistic and aesthetically significant only at the level of form.

At the formal level Several types of conflicts should be distinguished. The simplest one is it is a conflict between individual characters and groups of characters. The example discussed above with “Woe from Wit” is a good illustration of this type of conflict; a similar conflict is present in Pushkin’s “The Miserly Knight” and “The Captain’s Daughter,” in Shchedrin’s “The History of a City,” Ostrovsky’s “Warm Heart” and “Mad Money” and in many other works.

A more complex type of conflict is confrontation between the hero and the way of life, the individual and the environment(social, everyday, cultural, etc.). The difference from the first type is that the hero here is not opposed by anyone in particular; he does not have an opponent with whom he could fight, who could be defeated, thereby resolving the conflict. Thus, in Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin,” the main character does not enter into any significant contradictions with any character, but the very stable forms of Russian social, everyday, cultural life oppose the hero’s needs, suppress him with everyday life, leading to disappointment, inaction, and “spleen.” "and boredom.

Finally, the third type of conflict is internal, psychological conflict, when the hero is at odds with himself, when it carries within itself certain contradictions, sometimes it contains incompatible principles. Such a conflict is typical, for example, of Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” and Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina”.

From another point of view, two types of conflicts can be distinguished.

One type - it's called local – assumes the fundamental possibility of resolution through active actions; It's usually the characters who take these actions as the story progresses. The second type of conflict is called substantial- depicts to us a persistently conflictual existence, and no real practical actions that could resolve this conflict are conceivable. Conventionally, this type of conflict can be called insoluble in a given period of time. Such, in particular, is the conflict of “Eugene Onegin” discussed above with its confrontation between personality and social order, which cannot be fundamentally resolved or removed by any active actions.

Plot elements. The conflict develops as the plot progresses. The stages of conflict development are called plot elements. This is the exposition, the plot, action development, climax and denouement. Should be paid special attention that isolating these elements is advisable only in connection with a conflict. The fact is that in school there is often a simplified approach to defining plot elements, like: “the plot is when the action begins.” We emphasize that the decisive factor for determining the elements of the plot is the nature of the conflict in each at the moment. So, exposition – This is the part of the work, usually the initial one, which precedes the plot. It usually introduces us to the characters, circumstances, place and time of action. There is no conflict yet in the exhibition. For example, in Chekhov’s “Death of an Official”: “In one wonderful evening an equally excellent executor, Ivan Dmitrich Chervyakov, sat in the second row of seats and looked through binoculars at “The Bells of Corneville.” The exposition ends not at the moment when Chervyakov sneezed - there is nothing controversial in this yet - but when he saw that he had accidentally sprayed the general. This moment will be tie work, that is, the moment of occurrence or detection of a conflict. What follows development of action, that is, a series of episodes in which the characters actively try to resolve the conflict(Chervyakov goes to apologize to the general), but he nevertheless becomes more and more acute and tense (the general becomes more and more ferocious from Chervyakov’s apologies, and this makes Chervyakov feel worse). An important feature in the mastery of plotting is to escalate the twists and turns in such a way as to prevent the possibility of a premature resolution of the conflict. Finally, the conflict reaches a point when the contradictions can no longer exist in their previous form and require immediate resolution; the conflict reaches its maximum development. According to the author’s plan, the greatest tension of the reader’s attention and interest usually falls on this same point. This - climax : after the general shouted at him and stamped his feet, “something came off in Chervyakov’s stomach.” Following the climax in close proximity to it (sometimes already in the next phrase or episode) follows interchange - the moment when the conflict exhausts itself, and the denouement can either resolve the conflict or clearly demonstrate its intractability:“Coming home automatically, without taking off his uniform, he lay down on the sofa and... died.”

It should be noted that the definition of plot elements in the text is, as a rule, of a formal and technical nature and is necessary in order to more accurately imagine external structure plots.

In determining the elements of the plot, there may be various difficulties that need to be foreseen; This is especially true for large-scale works. Firstly, a work may have not one, but several storylines; for each of them, as a rule, there will be a different set of plot elements. Secondly, in a major work, as a rule, there is not one, but several climaxes, after each of which the conflict appears to be weakening and the action begins to decline slightly, and then again begins an upward movement towards the next climax. The climax in this case is often an apparent resolution of the conflict, after which the reader can take a breath, but then new events lead to further development plot, it turns out that the conflict is not settled, etc. until a new climax. Finally, we must also keep in mind such cases when analysis of the elements of the plot is either completely impossible, or, although formally possible, but practically and meaningfully does not make sense. And this depends on what type of plot we are dealing with.

Conflict is a clash, opposition, contradiction between characters, or characters and circumstances, or within character, underlying action. Regardless of whether the conflict is solvable or unresolvable, the conflict develops and determines further action, and its development is storyline in the work. Different stories are built on different conflicts. Completeness in the plot is also associated with the development of the conflict and its resolution. If the conflict is exhausted and completed, then the plot is complete and complete. There are two types of plots: dynamic (with local conflict) and adynamic (with substantive conflict).

INTRODUCTION

1. Definition and relationship of concepts: plot, plot, conflict

2. Analysis of the plot of the novel by A.S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin"

CONCLUSION

Initially, the term “plot” had the meaning of a fable, fable, fairy tale, i.e., a work of a certain genre. In the following, the term “plot” refers to what is preserved as the “base”, “core” of the narrative, changing according to the presentation.

Plots have been subjected to scientific study, primarily as facts of poetic tradition in world literature (mainly ancient and medieval) and especially in oral folk literature. In this plane, a certain interpretation of traditional plots, the process of their development and dissemination constituted the main content of successively changing folkloristic theories - mythological, migration, anthropological. At the same time, in Russian scientific literature to this kind traditional formations The term “plot” was usually used, not plot. Later, the question of plot and plot was considered in terms of studying the structure poetic work(mainly formalist literary scholars). Some researchers, identifying the concepts of plot and fable, completely abolish the latter term.

The conflict of the work has a close relationship with the “plot” and “fable”: it is its driving force and determines the main stages of plot development: the origin of the conflict - the beginning, the highest aggravation - the climax, the resolution of the conflict - the denouement. Usually the conflict appears in the form of a collision (sometimes these terms are interpreted as synonyms), that is, a direct collision and confrontation between those depicted in the work active forces- characters and circumstances, several characters or different sides of one character. There are four main types of conflict:

Natural or physical conflict, when the hero comes into conflict with nature;

Social conflict, when a person is challenged by another person or society;

Internal or psychological conflict, when a person’s desires conflict with his conscience;

Providential conflict, when a person opposes the laws of fate or some deity.

The purpose of this work is to give general definitions and characteristics of the concepts: plot, plot and conflict, and also show how they relate to each other. Also, for greater clarity, we carried out plot analysis a work of art, using the example of the novel by A.S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin".

1. DEFINITION AND RELATIONSHIP OF CONCEPTS: PLOT, FABULA, CONFLICT

IN literary work Plot refers to the arrangement of events in order to achieve the desired effect. A plot is a series of carefully thought-out actions that lead through the struggle of two opposing forces (conflict) to a climax and resolution. To the utmost general view The plot is a kind of basic scheme of the work, which includes the sequence of actions occurring in the work and the totality of the character relationships existing in it.

The concept of plot is closely related to the concept of the plot of the work. In modern Russian literary criticism(as well as in practice school teaching literature), the term “plot” usually refers to the very course of events in a work, and the plot is understood as the main artistic conflict that develops in the course of these events. Historically, there were other views on the relationship between plot and plot, different from the one indicated. In the 1920s, representatives of OPOYAZ proposed to distinguish between two sides of the narrative: they called the very development of events in the world of the work “plot”, and the way these events are depicted by the author - “plot”. According to their interpretation, if the plot determines the development of the events themselves in the lives of the characters, then the plot represents the order and method of reporting about them by the author.

Another interpretation comes from Russian critics mid-19th century, and was also supported by A. N. Veselovsky and M. Gorky: they called the plot the very development of the action of the work, adding to this the relationships of the characters, and by the plot they understood the compositional side of the work, that is, how exactly the author communicates the content of the plot. It is easy to see that the meanings of the terms “plot” and “fable” in this interpretation, compared to the previous one, change places.

There is also a point of view that the concept of "plot" independent meaning does not have, and to analyze the work it is quite enough to operate with the concepts of “plot”, “plot diagram”, “plot composition”.

Fable - the event basis of a work, abstracted from specific artistic details and accessible to non-artistic development, retelling (often borrowed from mythology, folklore, previous literature, history, newspaper chronicles, etc.). Now in science the following distinction is accepted: the plot serves as material for the plot, i.e., the plot as a set of events and motives in their logical cause-and-effect relationship; plot as a set of the same events and motives in the sequence and connection in which they are narrated in the work in artistic (compositional) sequence and in all the fullness of imagery.

Thus, the plot of a work of art is one of the most important means of generalizing the writer’s thoughts, expressed through a verbal image fictional characters in their individual actions and relationships. Based on the theory of the author B. Corman, along with the formal and content understanding of the plot, as a set of text elements united by a common subject (the one who perceives and depicts) or a common object (that which is perceived and depicted); “the work as a whole represents the unity of many plots of different levels and volumes, and in principle there is not a single unit of text that is not included in one of the plots.”

It should be noted that it is customary to talk about the relationship between plot and plot mainly in relation to epic work. Since in classical drama the direct word of the author in the dramatic text is insignificant, the plot of the dramatic work is as close as possible to the plot line. The plot can be understood as the material that precedes the composition of the play (for example, a myth for ancient tragedy), or as already structured events of the play - motivations, conflicts, resolution, denouement - in the dramatic (conventional) space of time. But the plot in this case does not cover the text of the play itself, since in the twentieth century. The narrative element, behind which stands the image of the author correcting the plot, increasingly invades the dialogical and monological speech of the characters.

At the core internal organization plot, such as a certain sequence of progress and the unfolding of action, lies a conflict, that is, a certain contradiction in the relationship between the characters, a problem that is outlined by the theme of the work and, needing its solution, motivates one or another development of the action. The conflict that appears in the work as driving force its plot and the link that combines the plot and plot of the work with its theme can be reflected in literary criticism by other terms synonymous with it: conflict or intrigue. A literary conflict in its specific form (in the plot) is usually called intrigue or conflict. At the same time, they are sometimes distinguished from each other in the sense that intrigue is understood as a clash personal meaning, and by collision is a collision of social significance. However, due to the fact that personal and social contradictions are intertwined, merging into one whole, in the meaning literary conflict The term “collision” is most often used, and intrigue is understood as the intricacy and eventual complexity of the plot.

In most stories classical works the course of events more or less corresponds to the life logic of the development of events. As a rule, such plots are based on conflict, so the location and relationship of events in the plot are determined by the development of the conflict.

A conflict-based plot may include the following components: exposition, beginning of the action, development of the action, climax, resolution of the action. It should be emphasized that the presence of all plot components is not necessary. Some of its components (for example, exposition or resolution of the action) may be missing. It depends on the artistic task set by the writer.

Exposition- the most static part of the plot. Its purpose is to introduce some of the characters of the work and the setting of the action. The main plot action in the exposition has not yet begun. The exposition only motivates the actions that will occur subsequently, as if sheds light on them. Note that one should not expect to get to know all the characters from the exposition. It may include minor persons. Sometimes it is the appearance of the main thing actor completes the exposition and is the beginning of the action (for example, the appearance of Chatsky in A.S. Griboedov’s comedy “Woe from Wit”).

The setting of the action presented in the exposition is not necessarily preserved during the course of the plot. “Unity of place” - the canon of a classic play - is practically not observed in romantic and realistic works. Perhaps only in "Woe from Wit" the action from beginning to end takes place on one "stage area" - in Famusov's house.

The plot is the dynamic side of the artistic form; it involves movement, development, change. At the heart of any movement, as is known, lies a contradiction, which is the engine of development. The plot also has such an engine - this conflict - an artistically significant contradiction. Conflict is one of those categories that seem to permeate the entire structure of a work of art. When we talked about themes, problems and the ideological world, we also used this term. The fact is that the conflict in the work exists at different levels. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the writer does not invent conflicts, but draws them from primary reality - this is how the conflict moves from life itself into the area of thematic, problematic, pathos. This is a conflict on meaningful level (sometimes another term is used to designate it - “collision”). A meaningful conflict is embodied, as a rule, in the confrontation of characters and in the movement of the plot (at least, this happens in epic and dramatic works), although there are also extra-plot ways of realizing the conflict - for example, in Blok’s “The Stranger” the conflict between the everyday and the romantic is not expressed in terms of plot , and by compositional means - the opposition of images. But in this case we are interested in the conflict embodied in the plot. This is already a conflict at the level of form, embodying a content conflict. Thus, in “Woe from Wit” by Griboedov, the substantive conflict of two noble groups - the serf nobility and the Decembrist nobility - is embodied in the conflict between Chatsky and Famusov, Molchalin, Khlestova, Tugoukhovskaya, Zagoretsky and others. The separation of substantive and formal plans in the analysis of the conflict is important because allows us to reveal the writer’s skill in embodying life’s collisions, the artistic originality of the work and the non-identity of its primary reality. Thus, Griboedov in his comedy makes the conflict of noble factions extremely tangible, pitting specific heroes against each other in a narrow space, each of whom pursues his own goals; At the same time, the conflict intensifies as the heroes clash over issues that are essential to them. All this turns from a rather abstract life conflict, dramatically neutral in itself, into an exciting confrontation between living, concrete people who worry, get angry, laugh, worry, etc. The conflict becomes artistic, aesthetically significant only at the level of form.

At the formal level, several types of conflicts should be distinguished. The simplest is conflict between individual characters and groups of characters. The example discussed above with “Woe from Wit” is a good illustration of this type of conflict; a similar conflict is present in Pushkin’s “The Miserly Knight” and “The Captain’s Daughter,” in Shchedrin’s “The History of a City,” Ostrovsky’s “Warm Heart” and “Mad Money” and in many other works.

To understand a particular work of art, it is very important to correctly determine the type of conflict. Above we gave an example with “A Hero of Our Time”, in which school literary criticism persistently looks for Pechorin’s conflict with the “water” society, instead of paying attention to the much more significant and universal psychological conflict in the novel, which lies in the irreconcilable ideas that exist in Pechorin’s mind : “there is predestination” and “there is no predestination.” As a result, the type of problem is incorrectly formulated, the character of the hero is terribly shallow, of the stories included in the novel, “Princess Mary” is studied almost exclusively, the character of the hero appears completely different from what he really is, Pechorin is scolded for something for which it is absurd to scold him and wrongfully (for egoism, for example) and are praised for something for which there is no merit (departure from secular society) - in a word, the novel is read “exactly the opposite.” And at the beginning of this chain of errors lay an incorrect definition of the type of artistic conflict.

From another point of view, two types of conflicts can be distinguished.

The second type of conflict - it is called substantial - portrays to us a persistently conflicted existence, and no real practical actions that could resolve this conflict are unthinkable. Conventionally, this type of conflict can be called insoluble in a given period of time. Such, in particular, is the conflict of “Eugene Onegin” discussed above with its confrontation between personality and social order, which cannot in principle be resolved or removed by any active actions; such is the conflict in Chekhov’s story “The Bishop,” which depicts a persistently conflicted existence among the Russian intelligentsia of the late 19th century; This is the conflict of Shakespeare’s tragedy “Hamlet”, in which the psychological contradictions of the main character are also of a constant, stable nature and are not resolved until the very end of the play. Determining the type of conflict in the analysis is important because different plots are built on different conflicts, which determines the further path of analysis.