Picture this: you are sitting at your writing table, fumbling with your fingers, resisting the urge to check your mobile phone that is constantly...
Picture this: you are sitting at your writing table, fumbling with your fingers, resisting the urge to check your mobile phone that is constantly beeping, and focusing on your essay writing.
You are freaking out, not because you want to, but for the A+ grade in your essay. You sacrifice your sleep, work hard, and pour your heart into this essay. The result? B+! You don’t know the reason behind this B+ grade. But we know. Your essay probably lacked literary conflict.
The conflict in literature has the power to make your writing thrilling and hook your readers. Are you curious to know more about this conflict that can help you achieve higher grades in your essay?
This blog is for you. In this blog, the experts of The Academic Papers UK will share every detail about the literary conflicts, from their types to identification techniques to common mistakes while adding these conflicts. Let’s get started.
Before diving deep, let’s understand what the literary conflict is and explore its types.
The expert writers of Oregon State University state the definition of literary conflict as “ a conflict in the literature is a problem, struggle, or hurdle that usually takes place between the main character and the outside forces.” These conflicts help the writer to move the story plot forward and grab the readers’ attention.
In addition, the primary aim of this conflict is to give a deeper meaning to the narrative and highlight the main character’s goals, weaknesses, motivations, and strengths. Without the conflict, the story will be like a series of events with no real stakes.
By adding conflicts in your essay, you can give a touch of drama to your story and make your readers curious to get to know what is going to happen next. If you are in doubt about your writing skills, you can buy an essay online from our professionals to ensure that your essay is compelling and engaging with the literary conflict.
There are two forms of literary conflict that we are going to mention below:
Get expert help analysing conflict, characters, themes, and narrative development.
Internal literary conflict is like a psychological battle in which the character has to fight with his thoughts, desires, and emotions. During internal conflicts, the protagonist has a definitive set of morals or way of thinking that a plot twist challenges in a later stage. Throughout the story, the reader will witness how the internal challenges outline the external plot points.
External conflicts happen when the protagonist has to fight from an outside force. This force can be a person, society, or even nature itself, and forces the character to react. The stories have external conflicts that focus on outlining the character’s mission to overcome this external force.
Generally, this type of story starts with highlighting the protagonist’s character, the climax occurs when the two opposite forces face each other, and ends with the defeat or victory of the protagonist.
As you have explored the two general forms of conflicts that occur in literature, it’s time to get to know the common types of literary analysis.
Seven common types of conflict in literature are important to structure every type of story, from thrilling adventure to ultimate drama. Each of these conflicts brings a unique set of challenges that makes the character’s journey more relatable and exciting.
Keep reading to get to know these conflict types.
Character vs self is an internal conflict that usually occurs when the character has to fight with their own thoughts, emotions, or fears. This type of conflict is super relatable because each of us has to struggle with our internal fears, emotions, and sometimes make tough choices at some point in our lives.
One of the most common examples of this type of literary conflict is Shakespeare’s play ‘Hamlet’. Hamlet’s internal battle with grief, revenge, and moral dilemma weaves the story plot. Throughout the story, he is in confusion about whether to avenge his father’s murder or not, which leads him to self-doubt and indecision.
This type is also known as the protagonist vs the antagonist conflict, which happens when two of the main characters face each other during the story. The primary reason for this conflict is that both characters have opposite goals, personalities, and opinions. Their conflict of opinions creates a major friction on which the entire story plot depends.
A good example of character vs character conflict in literature is the novel ‘The Hunger Games’ by Suzanne Collins. In this novel, the two main characters, Katniss Everdeen and President Snow, are engaged in a great conflict.
The main reason behind their conflict is Katniss’s defiant nature and Snow’s oppressive rule. Snow considers Katniss the biggest threat to his power, and Katniss is not happy with the wrong use of power by Snow.
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Consult with an Expert, It's freeThis is an external conflict that occurs when the protagonist fights against the social norms or traditions. During this conflict, the main character usually speaks out against what is normal or acceptable in society. As a consequence of this opposition, there are chances of being pushed out of society or even being judged by the local folks.
The example of the character vs society conflict can be an infamous novel, ‘Lord of the Flies’ by Wliiliam Golding. This novel starts with a plane crash emergency landing on a deserted island. A group of schoolboys who survived the crash was initially led by Ralph.
His aim was organsied the group to create shelters. However, his rival, Jack, provoked the group of choirboys to consolidate his power. Jack used the power of the threat of an unseen beast in the forest, which empowered him to violently challenge the leadership of Ralph.
It is also an external conflict in which the protagonist has to fight against the natural elements or a non-human antagonist. These non-human antagonists may include anything, such as a wild animal, a natural disaster, or even a dangerous landscape. In simple words, this conflict involves the human reactions when he faces something natural or out of his control.
A good example of this type of conflict is ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ by Ernest Hemingway. This story is based on Santiago, an old fisherman, who fights against a giant Marlin. To put this marlin back in the sea, he faces various physical and mental challenges. These challenges not only highlight his strengths but also empower him to overcome his weaknesses.
Another common literary conflict is the character vs technology, which is also an external conflict. This type of conflict occurs when the character finds himself against a machine or tech device that goes out of control. This may include fighting against AI, dealing with a robot, or even struggling with the technology that is out of his control.
Typically, the stories that are based on these conflict types show what happens when the machine outpowers its manufacturers. In other words, this type of literature reminds us that every technology comes with a risk, and often this risk haunts us.
‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley is a good example of the character vs technology conflict. In this novel, Frankenstein, a scientist, creates a monster from non-living things. The driving force behind creating this creature is the desire to conquer death.
After creating this monster, Frankenstein realised that it led an isolation and suffering in his life, so he destroyed it. But the creature turns to its creators to seek revenge for its destruction.
Character vs fate is another common type of conflict that occurs when the character tries to fight against the predetermined destiny. This conflict is about fighting against feelings of being trapped in forces that are not in our control. These forces may be fate, bad luck, or even prophecy.
Want to know an example of this type of literary conflict? 'Oedipus Rex’ by Sophocles is the perfect example of this conflict. A character, Odius, predicts his fate of prophecy that he will get after killing his father. Oedipus avoids his fate in every possible way, but eventually ends up killing his father and marrying his mother, and gets the prophecy.
Any conflict that involves a character fighting against some supernatural force, such as ghosts, magic, vampires, or anything like that, falls under this type of conflict. This type of conflict puts the protagonist in a fight against something hard to control or understand.
A good example of this type of conflict is ‘The Witches’, a short story by Roald Dahl. In that story, a young boy uncovers a secret society of witches who hate children and want to turn children into mice. In this journey, the boy takes help from his grandmother, and they end up turning the witches into mice themselves. After that, they decided to discover and eliminate these evil creatures from the world.
Literary conflicts are the driving force in literature. These conflicts raise the stakes, create tension, and keep the readers hooked throughout the story. Without conflict, a story can lack momentum, and ultimately, readers may find the story uninspired or purposeless.
Below are more details that help you understand the importance of the literary conflict.
If you want to make sure your essay fully addresses these conflicts and keeps your readers hooked, you can connect with our experts to fulfil your "write my essay" request. They will structure your analysis effectively and make your essay engaging from start to finish.
Analysing a conflict in the literature is important to write an engaging and compelling essay for the readers. We know that this conflict analysis is not an easy task. Therefore, we have come up with some actionable strategies that you can follow for analysis a conflict in your essay.
Check out what these strategies are:
The first thing that you must do for literary conflict analysis is to identify the type of conflict mentioned in your story. Generally, the genre of the writing piece decides the conflict type, as thriller stories need character vs character conflict while speculative stories require character vs supernatural conflicts.
Furthermore, your essay may comprise more than one type of conflict. For instance, in the novel ‘The Old Man and the Sea’, the main character, Santiago, first faces the character vs. nature conflict. But with the plot development, he feels self-doubt and fear, which creates a character vs self conflict too.
After identifying what type of conflict in your essay, the next step is to explore the main character of your story. For this, the first thing that you must consider is identifying what he wants. After this identification, you have to point out the obstacles in the way of getting what he wants.
Are you confused about what we have just stated? Don’t panic. We’ll explain. Every story consists of some obstacles and challenges that every character has to face. Because if the character finds what he wants, then there will be no tension in the story, which eventually makes the story boring. So, explore the conflict that is the driving force behind your story plot..
No story is complete without a powerful antagonist. This evil character makes the story more dramatic and creates a strong conflict. Typically, this character is quite the opposite of your main character, having opposite values, goals, or traits.
Another thing that you will find is that your antagonist is strong or even stronger than the protagonist. Your main character worked hard to fight against the antagonist or to overcome his weaknesses.
A good story is one that encompasses various plot twists and surprising turns. Therefore, you will observe that the journey of your character is challenging throughout the story. Also, you will notice that the writer didn’t give a clue about the victory for your main character.
He raised the stakes throughout the story by outlining various challenges in the way of the protagonist that intensified the story. However, you have to keep a firm eye on the conclusion of your story, which is definitely the triumph of the main character.
We can help you develop insightful interpretations and stronger arguments.
As you have explored the type of conflict, identified the traits of your main characters, and observed the character development, now it’s time to use your analysis in structuring the arguments of your essay. This is the most technical task for you, as connecting the conflict with your essay arguments is not easy.
To do this effectively, you have to keep in mind the goal of your writing and structure the conflict analysis in such a way that it eventually strengthens your arguments.
As you have observed, how to analyse the literary conflict in an essay. We hope that by following these strategies, you will end up with an outstanding analysis. However, some students have weak analysis skills and find it challenging to analyse any kind of work.
Are you one of them? You can avail of our essay writing services from our professionals who not only analyse the literary conflict but also assist you in writing a powerful essay, resulting in higher academic grades.
Analysing the literary conflict is an important skill for students that helps them to excel in their academic career. However, most students make some common mistakes that make their analysis a failure for them. Are you curious to know about these mistakes? We are here for you.
Below, we have outlined some common mistakes that every student must avoid while analysing the literary conflict.
One of the most common mistakes that students make during their analysis is failing to recognise the right type of conflict that is mentioned in the piece of work. For instance, in the document, the author penned down his story based on the character vs nature. But the students identify it as a character vs supernatural conflict.
To avoid this mistake, they have to get a clear understanding of each type of conflict, and they can explore various examples of each conflict type so they don’t get confused when identifying them in writing.
Ignoring the internal conflict is another common mistake that occurs during the conflict analysis. The main reason for this mistake is that students generally only look for the external factors against which the main character fights.
As a result, they make the easy thing hard for themselves. The best way to avoid this mistake is to look for the internal issues that the main character faces during his journey, then move on to identifying the external issues.
Sometimes, students fail to understand the context of the text. For instance, they fail to understand the historical, cultural, or social perspective under which the content is written.
This lack of understanding directly impacts the analysis of their conflict. The best way to avoid this mistake is to understand the historical context or purpose behind this writing. This understanding will give a deeper analysis of the social and cultural perspective of the conflict.
Literary conflict is the driving force behind every type of writing, even for essay writing. If you want to write your essay while using the analysis of literary conflict, you have to get a better understanding of this tool. To help you, we are here.
In this blog, we have shared all the details about this conflict. The primary aim of this conflict is to gain insights into the narrative and understand the main character. There are seven common types of this conflict that we have mentioned with good examples. We hope that with these examples, you will get a better understanding of these conflict types.
In addition, we have outlined some effective strategies that you can follow while analysing any type of conflict for structuring the arguments for your essay. We also shared some mistakes that you must avoid during this analysis.
If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the Cite this article button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.
Mirna Richards (July 28, 2025). Stop Writing Boring Essays: Unlock the Hidden Power of Literary Conflict for A+ Analysis Retrieved September 7, 2026, from https://www.theacademicpapers.co.uk/blog/2025/07/28/hidden-power-of-literary-conflict/
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