Conflict

Conflict is the clash of opposing interests, views, characters, social forces, or inner aspirations, which constitutes the driving force of the plot and the basis of the dramatism of a literary work. Conflict determines the tension of the action, the development of events, and the revelation of characters; without it there is no full-fledged plot. One distinguishes external conflicts (between characters, between the hero and the milieu or social forces) and internal ones (the struggle of contradictory feelings and aspirations in the hero's soul), as well as social, psychological, philosophical, and moral-ethical conflicts. A sharp social conflict lies at the basis of Panas Myrny's novel Do the Oxen Low When Mangers Are Full? (the opposition of a wronged person and an unjust order); a deep inner conflict marks the heroes of Lesia Ukrainka's dramas, and the tragic clash of the natural and the everyday is the basis of The Forest Song. The nature and character of the conflict determine the ideational content of the work.