Today we will talk about the plot. The plot of the series has some features and is arranged a little differently than the plot of the full-length film.
So, the first plot model, which is used in the series, can be called "The Hero's Journey". The hero is at point "A", he has a goal, he moves towards it from series to series, and in the end ends up at point "B". Such series are called "horizontal" or "linear". As a rule, these are mini-series - from 4 to 8 episodes. Less often - 16 episodes. The limitation in volume arises from the fact that it is quite difficult to tell one long history about one character who is moving towards one goal.
On the hero's way to the goal, more and more obstacles have to be piled up, and the progression of complications cannot be endless. Sooner or later the obstacles become implausibly difficult.
For example, with the TV series "Motherland" it worked perfectly. In fact, after the third season, it's a completely different series with a new hero, who has a new goal.
In most horizontal series, the hero's goal is expressed very clearly - for example, in Breaking Bad, Mr. White needs to provide for his family before cancer kills him.
The second option for building a plot is when the hero does not go through the path. In this case, its goal is not the result, but the process. For example, in most police procedurals, the hero's goal is to "be a good cop," to do his job well. Sometimes this goal is reinforced by some personal motive - "to be a good cop because the hero's partner was killed by bandits." Or "be a good cop to find your parents' killers." What kind of personal motive is not so important. More importantly, the hero's goal is unattainable. It is a state which he must constantly maintain by continuous efforts.
For example, the series about James Bond, which, although it is not a television series, but a screen one, is built on the principle of a television one in terms of structure. What is its purpose? It's good to do your job. Does something change in his life because he coped with another supervillain? No. In each new film, the cycle of fighting evil is restarted. The hero defeats the villain, but in the next episode, evil is right there again - in the face of the next villain.
These are the so-called "vertical" series. One episode, one complete story. Each story is hermetically sealed, events from one series are never mentioned in another.
The third option for plot construction is mixed, vertical-horizontal. The hero has some kind of global or personal goal and at the same time he tries to the best of his ability to perform some everyday tasks. Sometimes these tasks are related to the global goal, sometimes they are not. For example, in the TV series Urgent Notice, an FBI agent is fired and in order to find out the reason for the dismissal, he must solve a series of riddles. One episode, one puzzle.
Fox Mulder is on The X-Files looking for his missing sister. And in each series, one mysterious incident is investigated.
In the series Bones, the heroine investigates one crime in each episode, but throughout the series she tries to find out the secret of her parents' death.
Finally, the fourth version of the plot in the series does not yet have a common name, but it has quite a lot of prominent representatives. Mr. Robert McKee calls it a "mini-plot," which I don't think is entirely accurate. It may be more correct to call it a "prose structure". Or "weakened structure". One way or another, we can find something in common in shows like Mad Men, Olivia Kitteridge, Orange Is the New Black, Girls, and other masterpieces of cable channels.
Let's try to understand what these series have in common. First of all, passive main character. His goal is unclear, it is not clear what he must do in order to achieve it, and he is in no hurry to take any action in order to achieve this goal. Very often this is a reflexive hero, painfully trying to understand himself. The hero performs actions not in order to advance towards some goal, but in order to understand his attitude to these actions.
Due to the passivity of the hero, often come to the fore minor characters. This also needs to be taken into account. The second plan in such a series should be worked out in detail.
In such a story, there is often no pronounced external conflict, but an internal conflict can become the plot engine. The hero needs to understand himself, in his goals, values, to understand what kind of forces are tearing him apart from the inside.
When choosing any of the four story models, it is very important to think carefully about the character system. It should allow for maximum number conflicts and temporary alliances between characters. If you have characters, the plot will appear. But if you have a plot but no characters, you can't tell a story.
Do you have an opinion? Write it in the comments.
Your
Molchanov
PS. The script for the series will be written in the winter. Do not miss! And we start, as usual, with the "Basic Scenario Online Course". The set is coming.
Features of the plot and composition of the comedy
A. S. Griboedova "Woe from Wit"
A. S. Griboyedov worked a lot as a playwright - both alone and in collaboration with many well-known writers of that time, but for readers he remained for life the author of one comedy, the brightest and most cheerful - “Woe from Wit”. This work is unusual for its time: it combines the features of classicism that is fading into the past and realism that is gaining its rights. From classicism in the play there remained a strict observance of the "three unities": place, time and action. Events take place in Famusov's house during one day, there are no heroes and episodes that are not related to the main conflict of the comedy. The characters of some heroes can be considered classic: the good-natured “father of the family” Famusov, the brisk-tongued maid Lisa, a faithful friend of her mistress.
But in the plot of the comedy, features are already appearing that distinguish it from the usual classical canons. First of all, it has two storylines that are closely interconnected: public conflict Chatsky and Famusovsky society and personal relationships between Chatsky and Sophia. Both lines are connected so closely that all the compositional moments: the plot, the climax, the denouement - exactly coincide in them.
Exposition - events that take place before the development of the action - can be called in a comedy the situation in Famusov's house before the arrival of Chatsky. From the words of Lisa, from her conversations with Famusov and Sophia, we learn about the dates of Molchalin and Sophia, about Famusov’s desire to marry Skalozub’s daughter, that Chatsky was formerly Sophia’s friend, was brought up in this house, but then left to travel and for three I didn't write a single line for a year. It is clear that Sophia is offended by his departure: “Oh, if someone loves whom, why look for the mind and travel so far!” And probably, in retaliation for the departed Chatsky, she chose Molchalin - modest, agreeing with her in everything, the complete opposite of the obstinate Chatsky. At the same time, Sophia does not at all share the opinion of her father, who considers Skalozub the best groom for his daughter: “He didn’t utter a smart word from his family - I don’t care what for him, what’s in the water.”
But the plot of the comedy is in the arrival of the protagonist. Only with his appearance both storylines begin to develop. Chatsky is hot, impulsive, all in motion, from his first remark: “A little light - already on his feet! And I am at your feet "- and to the last:" Carriage to me, carriage! He immediately draws attention to Sophia's coldness and tries to understand the reason for such inattention: who is the hero of the novel now? Listing all the old acquaintances and asking about them, he gives each a well-aimed caustic characterization, and it is amusing for Sophia to listen to him, until he also sarcastically ridicules Molchalin. Sophia feels insulted and begins to avoid Chatsky, trying not to betray her feelings for Molchalin. Thus begins the personal drama of the hero. In parallel with it, a social conflict develops: after all, Chatsky boldly and passionately expresses his views on the structure of society, on serfdom, on the need to serve the state. This frightens Famusov, Molchalin cannot accept this, Skalozub does not understand this, and, finally, with this Chatsky turns all the guests in Famusov's house against him. The ball scene is the culmination of both storylines. The offended Sophia, using a random clause, convinces Mr. N that Chatsky is "out of his mind", he passes the news to Mr. D, and there the gossip grows like a snowball, enriched with more and more new details. The guests, whom Chatsky inadvertently set against himself, joyfully slander, looking for the reason for his madness: either it is hereditary, or he drank a lot, or from “scholarship”. And when, during one monologue, Chatsky looks around him, he sees that no one is listening to him - "everyone is spinning in a waltz with the greatest zeal." The ostentatious zeal of the dancers and the loneliness of the hero - this is the climax of the play, highest point action development for both storylines.
Decoupling also arrives at the same time. At the departure of the guests, Chatsky's carriage is not present for a long time, and he accidentally witnesses the conversation of the guests about his madness, and then the meeting of Sophia and Molchalin, hears the conversation of Molchalin and Lisa. Sophia also hears this conversation, learning the truth about Molchalin's true attitude towards her. For her, this is a cruel blow, but at that moment Chatsky does not think about the feelings of the girl. He does not think about the need to be careful either, for him the main thing is that he learned: “Here, finally, is the solution to the riddle! Here I am donated to whom! Therefore, it is not surprising that Molchalin managed to quietly disappear, and Famusov and the servants, attracted by the noise, find Chatsky with Sophia and consider him the hero of the scandal. And here the conflict is finally resolved: Famusov lets slip that it was Sophia who called him crazy. The hero is accustomed to being judged in Famus society, but the fact that Sophia treats him the same way is too hard for him: “So I still owe you this fiction?” Having suffered a crushing defeat both in the secular circle and in love, he is in a hurry to leave. Such is the denouement of comedy. However, it should be noted that Griboedov leaves the final open, open. After all, Chatsky left without changing his convictions, without doubting them for a minute. Society will also not change its views on life and the main values of life, which means that the conflict is not resolved, it will continue in the future.
A feature of comedy is also bright and imaginative speech characteristics heroes. For each of the characters, speech serves as a means of creating an individual character: for the modest, unattractive Molchalin, for the limited Skalozub, for the not very educated, but confident in her power, old woman Khlestova or the French-speaking fashionista Countess Hryumina-granddaughter.
In the speech of the heroes, well-aimed witty phrases are frequent, which have become winged: “ Gossips worse than a pistol”, “Happy hours are not observed”, “Who are the judges?”, “The legend is fresh, but hard to believe”.
Griboyedov also uses for his characters traditional for Russian comedy "talking" surnames: Molchalin, Skalozub, Famusov (from the Latin fama - fame, rumor), Repetilov (from the Latin repeto - repeat).
And finally, a significant role in the comedy is played by the so-called out-of-stage characters - heroes not participating in the action, but mentioned along the way. Some of them are Chatsky's like-minded people, but the majority still cannot be called his supporters, they are his opponents, the "tormentor crowd" that prevails in secular society.
These are the main features of the plot and composition of the comedy "Woe from Wit", these are the artistic and linguistic means that helped the author achieve main goal- make your work memorable for readers.
CHAPTER TWO - GOGOL'S PLOT
FEATURE OF GOGOL'S PLOT
The peculiarity of Gogol's plot: it does not fit within the limits usually set apart for him; it develops "outside of itself"; he is stingy, simple, primitive in plot; for it is drawn and deepened in the details of representation, in its colors, in its composition, in syllabic moves, in rhythm; there is not much "meaningfulness" in the content as it is usually understood; where they see only a detail of design, repainting, - there Gogol's plot reveals its special power; composition, colors, words, like keys unlocking the real in false content; the storyline, expanding in paint, becomes "cunning" and pretentious; burdening the lines of the plot with the luxury of images and the power of sound give the impression of a secondary growth of the plot plot, after which the primary plot looks like a faded one; what she seemed to be was different.
The impression that you get when you study the plot closely: as if you are sitting by a mirror of water; and - you see: with indescribable clarity, clouds, heaven, and the shore are reflected in the water; everything is exaggerated; unnatural clarity of outlines; suddenly - some kind of muddy spots and shadows, not related to reflection, furrow its contour; in the place of the cloud you see: a cloud crossing a flock of underwater fish (fish - in the sky?); the sketch of nature looks fantasy; or vice versa: a fantastic plot is overturned in everyday explanation; and fantasy is just a background turned inside out. The redrawing of plot contours is now a blot: where are the forests, clouds, skies? Beaded mud! What happened? One of " small fish”, emerging, splashed her tail; what he considered to be a plot was erased by the raised swell.
Any number of them.
Two men are talking about the wheel of the Chichikov carriage: will it arrive or not? No visible touch to the plot: a trifle of design that the reader cannot remember; after six or seven chapters: popped up the same the same wheel, and in a decisive moment: Chichikov runs from the city, but it, the wheel, refuses to carry: will not arrive! Chichikov is in fear: they will seize him red-handed; a wheel is not a trifle, but a wheel Fortune: fate; the trifle of the design is emphasized by this; the plot of others is soldered into it; it is not soldered into the detail of the exposition; and there it is a form that does not cling to the plot; here is the content. Another example: a mahogany chest is shown, which Chichikov drags everywhere with him; you dwell on it involuntarily; it is filed with photographic accuracy; nothing has yet been said about Chichikov's face; you still know nothing about the properties of his spiritual life; a little chest, a trifle, is substituted for a face with an annoying bulge, like apples on blue paper by the artist Petrov-Vodkin. And this is because the casket is not a casket; in it, the true face of the hero, not yet shown, is concealed; he is both a chest and a symbol of Chichikov's soul; she is a chest that conceals both passions and her criminal past; in the scene with the Box, a chest is opened; you see that there is a false bottom in it; under it is money and paper on which judicial acts are written; but that money is not money at all, but a worm gnawing at Chichikov; and those papers are not papers, but a criminal past; Chichikov is caught red-handed by Korobochka; Chichikov's criminal background was revealed to her; she begs for paper: but, speaking symbolically, in a few chapters, isn’t she going to scribble her denunciation on this paper: after all, her absurd appearance in the city and the rumors spread by her are a denunciation against Chichikov.
The “little chest”, like the wheel, are revealing details soldered into the plot.
The plot "minus" the unread scene over the chest at Korobochka's is one thing; plot "plus" understanding the meaning of the scene is quite another; a scene without understanding the whole situation is a device for presenting a simple and clear, like day, plot stroke; with an understanding of the symptoms of the situation, the scene is a plot node; with the opening of the chest, the elucidation of the true background of the Chichikov soul begins, which, like a snake, crawls out for the first time: from the chest; Isn't that why Box's watch? hissed like the room was filled with snakes? From now on through the impersonality quite decent"People from Chichikov a robber rapist looks out: remember the whole conversation between Chichikov and Korobochka; he becomes suddenly rude; he intimidates Korobochka into selling. And here the plot is soldered into detail; she dug it out.
All the details of "MD" are as follows: the scarf is not casually shown " all colors»; not without reason, in front of Korobochka's estate, a thunderstorm is gathering over Chichikov, as a harbinger of Korobochka's threat; not casually; Chichikov was thrown into the mud: under Korobochka's estate; not without reason his carriage grappled with the crew of the governor's daughter; there is nothing " casually»; and meanwhile: everything is presented with an amiable simplicity, like an unfortunate trifle, detracting from the real plot; meanwhile: the plot is given in the sum of all distractions; something from which trifles distract, a pure plot - the elementary plane of a borrowed anecdote.
But the content buried in the details is not seen at first; what you see is a reflection of the Pushkin story, like a reflection on the water of the banks; the shores are fiction; suddenly: life emerges (a flock of fish on a cloud): on the faceless face of the “road traveller” appears a robber robbing on the roads: Korobochka’s imagination imprints its myth in the empty circle of the face: about a robber; the myth played out in Captain Kopeikin; a Napoleonic nose is suddenly stretched through everything (the similarity of the nose with Napoleon); symbolically (we will prove below) it is - so it is: Chichikov - the embryo of a new "Napoleon": the coming billionaire; in it is the worm of profit, the very energy of capitalism; The "myth" of Napoleon is, in a certain sense, real; he is the background of the truly understood plot of "MD".
Outside of the details of depiction, usually referred to as "form", one cannot understand the core of Gogol's plot; Gogol-" storyteller» smarter than it looks; he purposely brings the reader to the foreground not at all what his attention is focused on; and therefore in the expression of simplicity " at, how thin" something; he diverts attention from the catch of "fish" filed under a borrowed plot, pointing to the reflections in the river mirror, and repeating: "Forests, mountains"; those forests are not forests, those mountains are not mountains; under them - fish»; repeats with conviction in "SM": "Sorcerer, sorcerer: scary!" The point is not that " witch”, but in the fact that he is a renegade from the clan; " scary"not because" scary", but because life is terrible, in which a stranger from afar looks without fail" antichrist»; “forests” are not forests: “ grandfather's beard»; the grandfather is the “great dead man”, who controls tribal life; mountains - the bowels of patriarchal life, pushed out and already dead; terrible are the dead living inside the dead; they are the ones who see sorcerer» in every foreigner; decorative corpses crawling out of the graves in "SM" - grandfather's legend; the essence is not in them.
The gift of the only natural fusion with symbolism was inherent in Gogol, like no one else; " symbolism"Romantics in comparison with Gogol's natural symbolism is an empty allegory; Gogol's stories, like " centaurs»; they are of two natures: one nature in the commonly understood sense; the other is the nature of consciousness; you don’t know where the action actually takes place: whether in the space shown, whether in Gogol’s head; you don’t even know the time of the action: in historical stories you discover the events of Gogol’s life; not without reason noted: the situation with history is bad for him; in showing the details of the story, he sometimes miscalculates ... century.
What is more real than Akaky Akakievich? Meanwhile: he lives inside his own, inherent universe: not solar, but ... "overcoat"; " overcoat" to him - world soul hugging and warming; he calls her friend of life»; in the middle of the Nevsky he experiences himself as walking in the middle on a sheet of paper of the output line; this is the character of Hoffmann; the essence of his consciousness is "fantastic." On the contrary: the wild fiction of "SM" is a completely real mold that has grown on the backward life of the patriarchal collective; it is the perception by a dull head of the higher economic forms surrounding and crowding it; to them and was probably attached " witch” during his twenty-year absence: “abroad”.
Without taking into account the features of the Gogol plot, you will look double, you will look at the book, but see a fig.
Gogol's plot, understood in a narrow sense, is devoid of originality, substituted, exhausted, just as the life of its parent class has been exhausted; its content is a dim day, set on fire by a flash, as if from a chubuk, an everyday pun, illuminated, like a lamp, by the legend of the “wonderful old days”: from a shady corner; but the pun - commonly; stencil plot of the legend. Let me remind you: the plots of "MD" and "Roar", the everyday life of the literature of the Gogol era (up to ... Bulgarin); in "OT" is reflected in its own way " A Tale of Two Ivans"(Narezhny); plot "Sh" - a former incident (with the loss of a gun, not an overcoat); "ZS" - inspired by a conversation about the facts of the life of the mentally ill; plot "N" - nosological puns that filled the magazines of the Gogol era in connection with the technique of augmenting artificial noses ... 19 ; "VNIK" takes the stencil of a legend as its basis, digested in a plot borrowed from Tick.
Do not look for originality in the details of the plot; in comparison with the drama of Dostoevsky, with the cunning plot intrigue of the novels of Dickens or even the novels of Walter Scott, in comparison with the exoticism of the plot of Hoffmann, the plot of Gogol is general, and from the second phase it is boringly simple. And where he tries to "disinterest" the plot, he, as in "P", there kills " interestingness» languid story « About", how the portrait influenced the rebirth of Chartkov, bypassing" that's exactly»: the process of rebirth; both Dickens and Dostoevsky made him the core of an amusing plot.
The plot has grown into coloring; his " what» by three quarters - into « how»; out" how"- some kind of armless-legless plot; it will be necessary to show how the plot is presented in a syllable, pictorial way, redrawing its general outline into an outline with a non-general expression: in this one; having said something about the tendency of the Gogol plot, one will have to immediately move on to showing trends in this work; I am unable to characterize the plots of all Gogol's works; I will have to confine myself to analyzing only two demonstrative works, in which the features of the techniques are equally clearly revealed. narrator"- Gogol; I take "SM" and "MD". The purpose of this chapter is to show how the social significance of Gogol's plot becomes apparent only when all the colors, words, and trifles that are usually overlooked by the reader are taken into account; we read Gogol's plot only when taking into account: all of them; little things deepen it; in each - " buried dog»; without digging these buried " dogs The plot is not the plot.
He is unaccountable.
This feature of the plot is significant especially in the works of the first creative phase.
Much has been written about poetry», « fantastic» story by Gogol; you might think, apart from moonlit nights, good-natured gopaks and fairy tales "with a scare", they have no content; fantasy is the fashion of all plots of Gogol's time; hopak - general form attitudes towards Ukraine: the reader-“ Great Russian»; link to " poetry- indefinite, general; and one can think (and thought): the plot of the first phase is devoid of any social content; laughed kindly at funny situations"NPR", "ZM", "SYA"; those works where the nerve of the plot is not laughter, but, for example, horror, and where not hopak dominates, but tragedy, those works were seen as unsuccessful; and such were seen by "B", "SM".
Passed by the enormous social content of "Terrible Revenge"; one of the most amazing works of the beginning of the last century was simply declared unnecessary; and Belinsky saw nothing in him; Gogol, who later devotes many author's explanations to the pages of "Rev" and "MD", did not drop a word to us about what he thought when he organized the images of "SM"; an excerpt from "SM", "Wonderful Dnieper", filled the anthologies of the recent past; outside of it one might think: Gogol did not write SM. Gogol's contemporaries (and Pushkin among them) had nothing to do with "SM"; they were looking for a plot where it was supposed to be from time immemorial: in the outer flow of the plot; they did not see at all that the center of the plot is in the composition of small details.
If the plots "SM" and "B" were carried through the device of writing with attention to detail, then in the "empty place" treasures of social content would be opened, the only one in strength and indescribable originality, in the light of which the view of the plot of the first creative phase would change; would understand: gopak, "poetic", "fantastic" - means to reveal the only interpretation of the power of the relationship between the individual and the patriarchal way of life; the collective is shown by Gogol as no one else, ever; and the horrors arising from the fact that a dead and untrue form of life asserts itself as the only acceptable one are shown in a way that no one else has ever seen.
The discrepancy between self-assertion and reality is the nerve of all plots in the works of Gogol's first creative phase.
Notes
19 V. Vinogradov. "Gogol's Nosology".
Exposition - time, place of action, composition and relationships of characters. If the exposition is placed at the beginning of the work, it is called direct, if in the middle - delayed.
Omen- hints that portend further development plot.
The tie is an event that provokes the development of a conflict.
Conflict - opposition of heroes to something or someone. This is the basis of the work: there is no conflict - there is nothing to talk about. Types of conflicts:
- human (humanized character) versus human (humanized character);
- man against nature (circumstances);
- man against society;
- man against technology;
- man against the supernatural;
- man against himself.
Growing action- a series of events that originates from the conflict. The action builds up and culminates at the climax.
Crisis - the conflict reaches its peak. The opposing sides meet face to face. The crisis takes place either immediately before the climax, or simultaneously with it.
The climax is the result of a crisis. Often this is the most interesting and significant moment in the work. The hero either breaks down or grits his teeth and prepares to go all the way.
Downward action- a series of events or actions of heroes leading to a denouement.
The denouement - the conflict is resolved: the hero either achieves his goal, or is left with nothing, or dies.
Why is it important to know the basics of storytelling?
Because over the centuries of the existence of literature, mankind has developed a certain scheme for the impact of a story on the psyche. If the story does not fit into it, it seems sluggish and illogical.
AT complex works with many storylines all of the above elements can appear more than once; moreover, the key scenes of the novel are subject to the same laws of plot construction: let us recall the description of the Battle of Borodino in War and Peace.
Plausibility
Transitions from the plot to the conflict and to its resolution must be believable. You can’t, for example, send a lazy hero on a journey just because you want to. Any character should have a good reason to do one way or another.
If Ivanushka the Fool mounts a horse, let him be driven by a strong emotion: love, fear, a thirst for revenge, etc.
Logic and common sense are needed in every scene: if the hero of the novel is an idiot, he can, of course, go to a forest infested with poisonous dragons. But if he is a reasonable person, he will not go there without a serious reason.
god from the machine
The denouement is the result of the actions of the characters and nothing else. In ancient plays, all problems could be solved by a deity lowered onto the stage on strings. Since then, the ridiculous ending, when all conflicts are eliminated by the waving of the wand of a sorcerer, angel or boss, has been called "God from the machine." What suited the ancients only irritates the contemporaries.
The reader feels deceived if the characters are just lucky: for example, a lady finds a suitcase with money just when she needs to pay interest on a loan. The reader respects only those heroes who deserve it - that is, they did something worthy.
Depending on the nature of the connections between events, two types of plots are distinguished. Plots with a predominance of purely temporal connections between events are chronicles. They are used in epic works of large form ("Don Quixote"). They can show the adventures of heroes ("Odyssey"), depict the formation of a person's personality ("Childhood of Bagrov-grandson" by S. Aksakov). Chronicle story consists of episodes. Plots with a predominance of causal relationships between events are called plots of a single action, or concentric. Concentric plots are often built on such a classic principle as the unity of action. Recall that in Griboedov's Woe from Wit, the unity of action will be the events associated with Chatsky's arrival at Famusov's house. With the help of a concentric plot, one conflict situation is carefully examined. In drama, plot construction of this type dominated until the 19th century, and in epic works of a small form it is still used today. A single knot of events is untied most often in short stories, short stories by Pushkin, Chekhov, Poe, Maupassant. Chronicle and concentric beginnings interact in the plots of multi-linear novels, where several event nodes appear simultaneously (L. Tolstoy's War and Peace, F. Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov). Naturally, chronicle plots often include concentric microplots.
There are plots that differ in the intensity of the action. Plots full of events are called dynamic. These events contain an important meaning, and the denouement, as a rule, carries a huge content load. This type of plot is typical for Pushkin's Tales of Belkin and Dostoevsky's The Gambler. And vice versa, plots weakened by descriptions, inserted constructions, are adynamic. The development of action in them does not tend to a denouement, and the events themselves do not contain any particular interest. Adynamic plots in " Dead souls Gogol, Chekhov's My Life.
3. The composition of the plot.
The plot is the dynamic side of the art form, it involves movement, development. The engine of the plot is most often a conflict, an artistically significant contradiction. The term comes from lat. conflictus - clash. A conflict is called an acute clash of characters and circumstances, views and life principles, which is the basis of action; confrontation, contradiction, clash between heroes, groups of heroes, the hero and society, or the internal struggle of the hero with himself. The nature of the collision can be different: it is a contradiction of duty and inclination, estimates and forces. Conflict is one of those categories that permeate the structure of the entire work of art.
If we consider A. S. Griboedov’s play “Woe is Wit”, then it is easy to see that the development of the action here clearly depends on the conflict that lurks in Famusov’s house and lies in the fact that Sophia is in love with Molchalin and hides it from daddy. Chatsky, in love with Sophia, having arrived in Moscow, notices her dislike for himself and, trying to understand the reason, keeps an eye on everyone present in the house. Sofya is unhappy with this and, defending herself, throws a remark about his madness at the ball. Guests who do not sympathize with him gladly pick up this version, because they see in Chatsky a person with different views and principles than theirs, and then not just a family conflict is very clearly exposed (Sophia's secret love for Molchalin, Molchalin's real indifference to Sophia, ignorance Famusov about what is happening in the house), but also the conflict between Chatsky and society. The outcome of the action (denouement) is determined not so much by Chatsky's relations with society, but by the relations of Sophia, Molchalin and Lisa, having learned about which Famusov controls their fate, and Chatsky leaves their home.
The writer in the vast majority of cases does not invent conflicts. He draws them from primary reality and translates from life itself into the field of themes, problems, pathos.
You can specify several types of conflicts that are at the heart of dramatic and epic works. Frequent conflicts are moral and philosophical: confrontation of characters, man and fate (“Odyssey”), life and death (“The Death of Ivan Ilyich”), pride and humility (“Crime and Punishment”), genius and villainy (“Mozart and Salieri "). Social conflicts consist in confronting the aspirations, passions, ideas of the character against the way of life around him ("The Miserly Knight", "Thunderstorm"). The third group of conflicts are internal, or psychological, those that are associated with contradictions in the character of one character and do not become the property of the outside world; this is the mental anguish of the heroes of The Lady with the Dog, this is the duality of Eugene Onegin. When all these conflicts are combined into one whole, then they talk about their contamination. To a greater extent, this is achieved in novels ("A Hero of Our Time"), epics ("War and Peace"). The conflict can be local or insoluble (tragic), explicit or hidden, external (direct clashes of positions and characters) or internal (in the soul of the hero). B. Esin also singles out a group of three types of conflicts, but calls them differently: conflict between individual characters and groups of characters; confrontation between the hero and the way of life, personality and environment; internal conflict, psychological, when we are talking about the contradiction in the hero himself. V. Kozhinov almost also wrote about this: “To . (from lat. collisio - clash) - confrontation, contradiction between characters, either between characters and circumstances, or within the character, which underlies the action of lit. works 5 . K. does not always speak clearly and openly; for some genres, especially for idyllic ones, K. is not characteristic: they are characterized only by what Hegel called the “situation”<...>In the epic, drama, novel, short story, K. usually forms the core of the theme, and K.'s resolution appears as the defining moment of the artist. ideas...” “Artist. K. is a clash and a contradiction between integral human individuals.” "TO. is a kind of energy source lit. product, because it determines its action. “During the course of action, it can become aggravated or, conversely, weaken; in the finale, the conflict is resolved one way or another.”
The development of K. sets the plot action in motion.
The plot indicates the stages of action, the stages of the existence of the conflict.
An ideal, that is, complete, model of the plot of a literary work may include the following fragments, episodes, links: prologue, exposition, plot, development of the action, ups and downs, climax, denouement, epilogue. Three are mandatory in this list: the plot, the development of the action and the climax. Optional - the rest, that is, not all of the existing elements must take place in the work. The components of the plot can appear in different sequences.
Prologue(gr. prolog - preface) - this is an introduction to the main plot actions. It can be given the root cause of events: the dispute about the happiness of the peasants in "Who in Russia should live well." It clarifies the intentions of the author, depicts the events preceding the main action. These events can affect the organization of the artistic space - the scene of action.
exposition- this is an explanation, an image of the life of the characters in the period before the designation of the conflict. For example, the life of young Onegin. It can be given the facts of the biography, motivated subsequent actions. The exposition can set the conditionality of time and space, depict the events that precede the plot.
tie is conflict detection.
Development of action is a group of events necessary for the realization of the conflict. It presents twists and turns that escalate the conflict.
Unexpected circumstances that complicate the conflict are called vicissitudes.
climax - (from lat. culmen - peak ) - the moment of the highest tension of action, the maximum aggravation of contradictions; pinnacle of conflict; TO. reveals the main problem of the work and the characters of the characters most fully; after it, the effect weakens. Often precedes a denouement. In works with many storylines, there may be not one, but several TO.
denouement- this is the resolution of the conflict in the work, it completes the course of events in action-packed works, for example, short stories. But often the ending of the works does not contain a resolution of the conflict. Moreover, in the finals of many works, sharp contradictions between the characters remain. This is what happens in "Woe from Wit" and in "Eugene Onegin": Pushkin leaves Eugene at "a moment that is bad for him." There are no denouements in Boris Godunov and The Lady with the Dog. The finals of these works are open. In Pushkin's tragedy and Chekhov's story, for all the plot's incompleteness, the last scenes contain emotional endings, climaxes.
Epilogue(gr. epilogos - afterword) - this is the final episode, usually following the denouement. In this part of the work, the fate of the heroes is briefly reported. The epilogue depicts the final consequences arising from the events shown. This is the conclusion in which the author can formally complete the story, determine the fate of the characters, and sum up his philosophical, historical concept (“War and Peace”). The epilogue appears when one denouement is not enough. Or in the case when, at the end of the main plot events, it is required to express a different point of view (“The Queen of Spades”), to evoke in the reader a feeling about the final outcome of the depicted life of the characters.
Events related to the solution of one conflict of one group of characters make up the storyline. Accordingly, in the presence of different storylines, there may be several climaxes. In Crime and Punishment, this is the murder of a pawnbroker, but this is also a conversation between Raskolnikov and Sonya Marmeladova.