Aggravation of conflicts in literature of the 19th century. Literary conflict

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 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 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) person and society;

V) man and culture

Ways to implement conflict in various kinds literary works:

Often the conflict is fully embodied and exhausted in the course of the events depicted. It arises against the backdrop 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.

Briefly:

Conflict (from lat. conflictus - clash) - disagreement, contradiction, clash embodied in the plot of a literary work.

Distinguish life and artistic conflicts. The first include contradictions that reflect social phenomena(for example, in I. Turgenev’s novel “Fathers and Sons” the confrontation between two generations is depicted, personifying two social forces - the nobility and the common democrats), and the artistic conflict is a clash of characters that reveals their character traits; in this sense, the conflict determines the development of action in plot (for example, the relationship between Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov and Evgeny Bazarov in the indicated essay).

Both types of conflict in a work are interconnected: artistic conflict is convincing only if it reflects the relationships that exist in reality itself. And life is rich if it is embodied highly artistically.

There are also temporary conflicts(emerging and exhausting themselves as the plot develops, they are often built on twists and turns) and sustainable(unsolvable within the limits of the depicted life situations or unsolvable in principle). Examples of the former can be found in the tragedies of W. Shakespeare, detective literature, and the latter - in the “new drama”, the works of modernist authors.

Source: Student's Handbook: grades 5-11. - M.: AST-PRESS, 2000

More details:

An artistic conflict—a clash of human wills, worldviews, and vital interests—serves as a source of plot dynamics in a work, provoking, at the will of the author, the spiritual self-identification of the characters. Resonating throughout the compositional space of the work and in the system of characters, it draws both the main and minor participants in the action into its spiritual field.

All this, however, is quite obvious. But something else is much less obvious and infinitely more important: the transformation of a private life conflict, firmly outlined in the form of external intrigue, its sublimation into the highest spiritual spheres, which is the more obvious, the more significant the artistic creation. The usual concept of “generalization” here does not so much clarify as confuse the essence of the matter. After all, the essence lies precisely in this: in great works of literature, the conflict often retains its private, sometimes accidental, sometimes exclusively individual life shell, rooted in the prosaic thickness of existence. From there it is no longer possible to smoothly ascend to the heights where higher power life and where, for example, Hamlet's revenge the very specific and spiritually insignificant culprits behind the death of his father are transformed into a battle with the whole world, drowning in dirt and vice. What is possible here is only an instantaneous leap, as it were, into another dimension of existence, namely the reincarnation of a collision, which leaves no trace of the presence of its bearer in “ the old world", at the prosaic foothills of life.

It is obvious that in the sphere of a very private and very specific confrontation that obliges Hamlet to take revenge, it proceeds quite successfully, in essence, without hesitation and any signs of reflective relaxation. At spiritual heights, his revenge is overgrown with many doubts precisely because Hamlet initially feels like a warrior, called upon to fight the “sea of ​​evil,” knowing full well that the act of his private revenge is blatantly incommensurate with this the highest goal, tragically eluding him. The concept of “generalization” is not suitable for such conflicts precisely because it leaves a feeling of a spiritual “gap” and incommensurability between the external and internal action the hero, between his specific and narrow goal, immersed in the empirics of everyday, social, concrete historical relations, and his highest purpose, the spiritual “task”, which does not fit within the boundaries of external conflict.

In Shakespearean tragedies the “gap” between the external conflict and its spiritual transformation is, of course, more tangible than anywhere else; tragic heroes Shakespeare: Lear, Hamlet, Othello, and Timon of Athens are placed in the face of a world that has lost its way (“the connection of times has fallen apart”). In many classical works this feeling of heroic combat with the whole world is absent or muted. But even in them, the conflict, which locks in the will and thoughts of the hero, is addressed, as it were, to two spheres at once: to the environment, to society, to modernity and at the same time to the world of unshakable values, which are always encroached upon by everyday life, society, and history. Sometimes only a glimpse of the eternal shines through in the everyday vicissitudes of the confrontation and struggle of the characters. However, even in these cases, a classic is a classic because its collisions break through to the timeless foundations of existence, to the essence of human nature.

Only in adventurous or detective genres or in "comedies of intrigue" this contact of conflicts with highest values and the life of the spirit. But that is why the characters here turn into a simple function of the plot and their originality is indicated only by an external set of actions that do not refer to the originality of the soul.

The world of a literary work is almost always (perhaps only with the exception of idyllic genres) an emphatically conflicting world. But infinitely stronger than in reality, the harmonious beginning of existence reminds itself here: whether in the sphere of the author’s ideal, or in the plot-embodied forms of cathartic purification of horror, suffering and pain. The artist’s mission is, of course, not to smooth out the conflicts of reality, neutralizing them with pacifying endings, but only to, without weakening their drama and energy, see the eternal behind the temporary and awaken the memory of harmony and beauty. After all, it is in them that the highest truths of the world remind themselves of themselves.

External conflict, expressed in the plot-imprinted clashes of characters, is sometimes only a projection internal conflict, played out in the soul of the hero. The beginning of an external conflict in this case carries only a provoking moment, falling on spiritual soil that is already quite ready for a strong dramatic crisis. The loss of a bracelet in Lermontov's drama "Masquerade", of course, instantly pushes the action forward, tying up all the knots of external conflicts, feeding the dramatic intrigue with ever-increasing energy, prompting the hero to search for ways to take revenge. But this situation in itself could be perceived as the collapse of the world only by a soul in which there was no longer peace, a soul in latent anxiety, pressed by the ghosts of past years, having experienced the temptations and treachery of life, knowing the extent of this treachery and therefore eternally ready for defense Happiness is perceived by Arbenin as a random whim of fate, which must certainly be followed by retribution. But the most important thing is that Arbenin is already beginning to be burdened by the stormless harmony of peace, which he is not yet ready to admit to himself and which comes through dully and almost unconsciously in his monologue preceding Nina’s return from the masquerade.

That is why Arbenin’s spirit so quickly breaks away from this unstable point of peace, from this position of precarious balance. In a single moment, previous storms awaken in him, and Arbenin, who has long cherished revenge on the world, is ready to bring this revenge down on those around him, without even trying to doubt the validity of his suspicions, because the whole world in his eyes has long been under suspicion.

As soon as conflict comes into play, the characters' system immediately experiences polarization of forces: The characters are grouped around the main antagonists. Even the side branches of the plot find themselves in one way or another drawn into this “infecting” environment of the main conflict (such, for example, is the line of Prince Shakhovsky in A. K. Tolstoy’s drama “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich”). In general, a clearly and boldly outlined conflict in the composition of a work has a special binding force. In dramatic forms, subject to the law of a steady increase in tension, this binding energy of conflict is expressed in its most distinct manifestations. The dramatic intrigue with its entire “mass” rushes “forward”, and a single collision here cuts off everything that could slow down this movement or weaken its pace.

The all-pervasive conflict (the motor “nerve” of the work) not only does not exclude, but also presupposes the existence of small collisions, the scope of which is an episode, situation, scene. Sometimes it seems that they are far away from the confrontation of central forces, just as far, for example, at first glance, are those “little comedies” that are played out in the compositional space "Woe from Mind" at the moment when a string of guests appears, invited to Famusov’s ball. It seems that all this is just a personalized paraphernalia of the social background, carrying within itself a self-sufficient comedy that is in no way included in the context of a single intrigue. Meanwhile, this whole panopticon of monsters, each of which is nothing more than funny, in its entirety gives rise to an ominous impression: the crack between Chatsky and the world around him grows here to the size of an abyss. From this moment on, Chatsky’s loneliness is absolute and thick tragic shadows begin to fall on the comedic fabric of the conflict.

Outside of social and everyday clashes, where the artist breaks through to the spiritual and moral foundations of existence, conflicts sometimes become particularly problematic. Special because their insolubility is fueled by duality, the hidden antinomy of opposing forces. Each of them turns out to be ethically heterogeneous, so that the death of one of these forces does not excite only the thought of the unconditional triumph of justice and goodness, but rather instills a feeling of heavy sadness caused by the fall of that which carried within itself the fullness of the strengths and possibilities of being, even if broken fatal damage. This is the final defeat of Lermontov’s Demon, surrounded, as it were, by a cloud of tragic sadness, generated by the death of a powerful and renewing aspiration for harmony and goodness, but fatally broken by the inescapability of demonism and, therefore, carrying tragedy in itself. Such is the defeat and death of Pushkin's Evgeniya in " Bronze Horseman» , despite all the glaring incommensurability of him with Lermontov’s symbolic character.

Chained by strong bonds to everyday life and, it would seem, forever separated from great history by the ordinariness of his consciousness, pursuing only small everyday goals, Eugene, in a moment of “high madness”, when his “thoughts became terribly clear” (the scene of rebellion), soars to such a tragic height at which he finds himself, at least for a moment, as an antagonist equal to Peter, a herald of the living pain of the Personality, pressed by the bulk of the State. And at that moment his truth is no longer the subjective truth of a private person, but a Truth equal to the truth of Peter. And these are equal Truths on the scales of history, tragically irreconcilable, for, equally dual, they contain both sources of good and sources of evil.

That is why the contrasting coupling of the everyday and the heroic in the composition and style of Pushkin’s poem is not just a sign of the confrontation between two non-contacting spheres of life, assigned to opposing forces (Peter I, Eugene). No, these are spheres, like waves, interfering both in the space of Eugene and in the space of Peter. Only for a moment (however, a dazzlingly bright, equal-sized whole life) Eugene joins the world where the highest historical elements rule, as if breaking through into the space of Peter 1. But the space of the latter, heroically ascended to the supernatural heights of great History, like an ugly shadow, is accompanied by the pitiful living space of Eugene: after all, this is the second face of the royal city, Petrov's brainchild. And in symbolic sense this is a rebellion that disturbs the elements and awakens it, the result of his statesmanship is the trampling of the individual thrown on the altar of the state idea.

The concern of the artist of the word, forming a conflict, is not limited to cutting its Gordian knot, crowning his creation with an act of triumph of some opposing force. Sometimes vigilance and depth artistic thinking This is to refrain from the temptation to resolve the conflict in such a way that reality does not provide grounds for it. The courage of artistic thought is especially irresistible where it refuses to follow the lead of the prevailing this moment spiritual trends of the time. Great art always goes “against the grain.”

Russian mission literature of the 19th century centuries at the most critical moments of historical existence was to shift the interest of society from the historical surface into the depths, and in the understanding of man to shift the direction of a caring view from a social person to a spiritual person. To bring back, for example, the idea of ​​personal guilt, as Herzen did in the novel “Who is to Blame?”, at a time when the theory of comprehensive environmental guilt was clearly claiming dominance. To return this idea, without, of course, losing sight of the guilt of the environment, but trying to understand the dialectic of both - this was the corrective effort of art in the era of the tragic, in essence, captivity of Russian thought by superficial social doctrinaire. The wisdom of Herzen the artist is all the more obvious here since he himself, as a political thinker, participated in this captivity.

With the phenomenon called conflict (from the Latin conflictus - collision), i.e. an acute contradiction that finds its way out and resolution in action, struggle, we are in Everyday life We meet all the time. Political, industrial, family and other types social conflicts of different scales and levels, sometimes taking away from people great amount physical, moral and emotional forces overwhelm our spiritual and practical world - whether we want it or not.

It often happens like this: we strive to avoid certain conflicts, remove them, “defuse” them, or at least soften their effect - but in vain! The emergence, development and resolution of conflicts depend not only on us: in every clash of opposites, at least two parties participate and fight, expressing different, and even mutually exclusive interests, pursuing goals that contradict each other, committing multidirectional and sometimes hostile actions. The conflict finds expression in the struggle between new and old, progressive and reactionary, social and antisocial; contradictions life principles and positions of people, social and individual consciousness, morality, etc.

A similar thing happens in literature. The development of the plot, the clash and interaction of characters taking place in constantly changing circumstances, the actions performed by the characters, i.e., in other words, the entire dynamics of the content of a literary work is based on artistic conflicts, which are ultimately a reflection and generalization of the social conflicts of reality. Without the artist’s understanding of current, burning, socially significant conflicts true art the word doesn't exist.

Artistic conflict, or artistic collision (from the Latin collisio - collision), is the confrontation of multidirectional forces operating in a literary work - social, natural, political, moral, philosophical - which receives ideological and aesthetic embodiment in artistic structure works as a contrast (opposition) of characters to circumstances, individual characters- or various sides of the same character - each other, themselves artistic ideas works (if they contain ideologically polar principles).

The artistic fabric of a literary work at all its levels is permeated with conflict: speech characteristics, the actions of the characters, the relationship of their characters, artistic time and space, the plot-compositional structure of the narrative contain conflicting pairs of images, connected to each other and constituting a kind of “network” of attractions and repulsions - the structural backbone of the work.

In the epic novel “War and Peace,” the Kuragin family (together with Scherer, Drubetsky, etc.) is the embodiment of high society - a world organically alien to Bezukhov, Bolkonsky, and Rostov. Despite all the differences between the representatives of these three noble families beloved by the author, they are equally hostile to the pompous formality, court intrigue, hypocrisy, falsehood, self-interest, spiritual emptiness, etc., flourishing at the imperial court. That is why the relationships between Pierre and Helen, Natasha and Anatole, Prince Andrei and Ippolit Kuragin, etc. are so dramatic and fraught with insoluble conflicts.

In a different semantic plane, the hidden conflict unfolds in the novel between the wise people's commander Kutuzov and the vain Alexander I, who mistook the war for a parade of a special kind. However, it is not at all by chance that Kutuzov loves and singles out Andrei Bolkonsky among the officers subordinate to him, and Emperor Alexander does not hide his antipathy towards him. At the same time, it is no coincidence that Alexander (like Napoleon in his time) “notices” Helen Bezukhova, honoring her with a dance at a ball on the day of the invasion of Napoleonic troops into Russia. Thus, tracing the chains of connections, “links” between the characters of Tolstoy’s work, we observe how all of them - with varying degrees of obviousness - are grouped around two semantic “poles” of the epic, forming the main conflict of the work - the people, the engine of history, and the king, "slave of history." In the author's philosophical and journalistic digressions, this highest conflict of the work is formulated with purely Tolstoyan categoricalness and directness. It is obvious that in terms of the degree of ideological significance and universality, in terms of its place in the artistic and aesthetic whole of the epic novel, this conflict is comparable only to the military conflict depicted in the work, which was the core of all events Patriotic War 1812. All the rest, private conflicts that reveal the plot and plot of the novel (Pierre - Dolokhov, Prince Andrei - Natasha, Kutuzov - Napoleon, Russian speech - French, etc.), are subordinated to the main conflict of the work and constitute a certain hierarchy artistic conflicts.

Each literary work develops its own special multi-level system of artistic conflicts, which ultimately expresses the author’s ideological and aesthetic concept. In this sense, the artistic interpretation of social conflicts is more capacious and meaningful than their scientific or journalistic reflection.

IN " The captain's daughter Pushkin’s conflict between Grinev and Shvabrin over their love for Masha Mironova, which forms the visible basis of the romantic plot itself, fades into the background before the socio-historical conflict - Pugachev’s uprising. The main problem of Pushkin’s novel, in which both conflicts are refracted in a unique way, is the dilemma of two ideas about honor (the epigraph of the work is “Take care of honor from a young age”): on the one hand, the narrow framework of class-class honor (for example, the noble, officer oath of allegiance) ; on the other hand, the universal human values ​​of decency, kindness, humanism (fidelity to one’s word, trust in a person, gratitude for good done, the desire to help in trouble, etc.). Shvabrin is dishonest even from the point of view of the noble code; Grinev rushes between two concepts of honor, one of which is imputed to his duty, the other is dictated by natural feeling; Pugachev turns out to be above the feeling of class hatred towards a nobleman, which would seem completely natural, and meets the highest requirements of human honesty and nobility, surpassing in this respect the narrator himself, Pyotr Andreevich Grinev.

The writer is not obliged to present the reader in a ready-made form with the future historical resolution of the things he depicts. social conflicts. Often such a resolution of socio-historical conflicts reflected in a literary work is seen by the reader in a semantic context unexpected for the writer. If the reader acts as literary critic, he can determine both the conflict and the method of resolving it much more accurately and far-sightedly than the artist himself. Thus, N. A. Dobrolyubov, analyzing the drama of A. N. Ostrovsky “The Thunderstorm”, was able to consider the most acute social contradiction throughout Russia - the “dark kingdom”, where, amid general humility, hypocrisy and silence, “tyranny” reigns supreme, the ominous apotheosis of which is autocracy, and where even the slightest protest is a “ray of light”.

You already know that you need to start writing your story by creating characters. But even when you have already completely described the image of your hero and tell the reader part of his biography, he will still remain lifeless. Only action - that is, conflict - can revive it.

You can even try to bring the character to life for yourself without affecting the plot of the book. For example, imagine that each of your characters found a wallet with money. How will he deal with them? Will he look for the owner, or will he take it for himself? Maybe he'll demand a reward for his return? In general, a character's reaction in a given situation can say quite a lot about him. This is how you need to bring your characters to life for your readers.

The best plot in the world is meaningless if it lacks the tension and excitement that conflict brings.

1. Conflict is a clash between a character’s desires and opposition.

In order for conflict to arise in your story, you need to create not only a character, but also some kind of opposition that will interfere with the implementation of his plans. It could be like supernatural powers, weather conditions, and the actions of other heroes. Only through the struggle that arises between the character and the opposition will the reader be able to find out who the hero really is.

Conflict in history is carried out according to the “action-reaction” scheme. That is, before you stumble upon any obstacles, your character must take some actions. For example, let's imagine that the hero wants to go to his parents for Christmas, but his girlfriend is against it, since she promised her family that they would come to her home together. Your character faces opposition and conflict arises. He can't go home so as not to offend the girl, but he also doesn't want to break his promise to his parents. Thanks to this situation, the reader will be able to learn more about both the character of the hero and the character of his girlfriend.

That is, To conflict develops when the heroes different goals and when each of them feels the need to achieve his goal. How more reasons If each side does not give in, the better for your work.

2. How to regulate counterforces

In every work, it is very important that the antagonist is no weaker than the protagonist. Agree, no one wants to watch a fight between a world champion and an amateur. Why? Because the outcome will be known to everyone.

Raymond Hull, in his work How to Write a Play, shared an interesting formula for countering: « Main character+ his Goal + Counteraction = Conflict” (GP+C+P=K).

Your hero must face difficulties and obstacles that he can overcome only with maximum effort. And the reader should always doubt whether the character will be able to emerge victorious from the next battle.

3. Coupling principle

The “crucible” plays the role of a pot or firebox where a work of art is boiled, baked or stewed. Moses Malevinsky “The Science of Drama”

The crucible is the most important element organic structure work of art. It's like a container in which the characters are kept as the situation heats up. The crucible will not allow the conflict to fade away, and will prevent the characters from escaping.

Characters remain in the crucible if the desire to engage in conflict is stronger than the desire to avoid it.

For example, you are writing a story about a boy who hates his school and has to find various reasons not to go there. The reader may think - why doesn’t he then simply move to another school? This is a logical question and you need to come up with an answer. Maybe his parents don’t want to deal with transferring to another school? Or perhaps he lives in a small town, and this is the only school, but there is no opportunity to study at home?

In general, the character must have a reason to stay and continue to participate in the conflict.

Without the crucible, the characters will scatter. There will be no characters - there will be no conflict, there will be no conflict - there will be no drama.

4. Internal conflict

Except external conflict Internal conflict is also of great importance. In life, people usually often encounter situations in which they do not know what to do correctly. They doubt, delay making a decision, etc. Your characters should do the same. Trust me, this will help you make them more realistic.

For example, your hero does not want to join the army, although he understands that he must do so. Why doesn't he want to go there? Perhaps he is afraid, or does not want to leave his girlfriend for this long time. The reasons must be realistic and truly significant.

The hero, for a very serious reason, must or is forced to commit a certain act and at the same time, for an equally serious reason, cannot do it.

External and internal conflicts separately will not make your work high quality. However, if you use both of them, the result will definitely justify itself.

5. Types of conflict

The tragedy tells of emotional experiences hero ( internal conflict), waging a desperate struggle against the forces opposing him. Gustav Freytag "The Art of Tragedy".

The basis of tragedy is struggle. The pace of events is reaching highest point drama (climax) and then slows down sharply. This very struggle is conflict.

Exists three types of conflicts:

1. static. This conflict does not develop throughout history. The interests of the heroes collide, but the intensity remains at the same level. Characters do not develop or change during such a conflict. This type is suitable for describing a dispute or quarrel;

2. rapidly developing (spasmodic). During such a conflict, the characters' reactions are unpredictable. For example, the reader may expect the hero to simply smile, but he suddenly begins to laugh full force. Usually this type of conflict is used in cheap melodramas;

3. slowly developing conflict. In quality literary works it is best to use this type conflict. Not only will it help you make the story more interesting, but it will also bring out the character. During such a conflict, the hero’s state will change depending on the situation, he will have to accept complex solutions, and choose how to react in a given situation.

A striking example of such a conflict can be considered the conclusion of the Count of Monte Cristo in the book of the same name. When the hero is put in a cell, at first he is shocked by what is happening and asks for the situation to be explained to him. Then he starts getting angry and making threats. Then he gives up and falls into apathy. Agree, if the hero gave up immediately, it would be completely uninteresting to read.

The character of your character should be developed not abruptly, but gradually, so that the reader is always interested in learning something new.