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Literary Conflict in Hamlet

Identifying major themes of literature and analyzing their development throughout a piece of text is part of ELA Common Core State Standards for grades 9-12 (Literacy.RL.9-10.2, Literacy.RL11-12.2). A common approach for this standard is to teach about types of literary conflict in conjunction with the literature being studied: Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Society, Man vs. Self, and Man vs. Technology.

Creating storyboards and posters is the perfect way to engage high school ELA students, and teach them to identify types of literary conflict. Visual cues in storyboards bring heady concepts, such as Man vs. Society and Man vs. Self, down to earth through “comic-strip” style illustrations and captions. Posters let students distill the concept into one single image, and can be hung in the classroom when finished.

Teachers can create fun and easy-to-assess classwork that tasks high-school students with creating storyboards focusing on the types of conflict in literature. The linear nature of a storyboard mirrors the progression of conflict and reinforces learning. Students create storyboards using details and characters pulled from text, allowing teachers to determine almost immediately whether students comprehend the objectives.

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Types of Conflict in Literature

Man vs Man
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Man vs Man or Character vs Character


  • Characters are pitted against one another.

  • The antagonist (or other character) tries to keep the protagonist from reaching his goal.

  • The protagonist must overcome the efforts of the antagonist to reach his goal.


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Man vs Nature
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Man vs Nature or Character vs Nature


  • The hero must overcome a force of nature to meet his goal.

  • Nature can be a force of nature (like a storm, earthquake, or difficult climate) OR an animal from nature.

  • In literature, the hero sometimes meets his goal, but sometimes is defeated.

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Man vs Society
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Man vs Society or Character vs Society


  • A protagonist sees something in a unique way.

  • People in his town or culture don't like his way of thinking. His bold ideas diverge from tradition or the rules. They ridicule and threaten him. He is compelled to act.

  • Our hero may convince the others he is right, but he might be forced to flee town. He may even lose his life.

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Man vs Self
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Man vs Self or Character vs Self


  • The protagonist must overcome her own nature to reach her goal.

  • The protagonist struggles within her own mind.

  • The protagonist needs to overcome her struggle to reach the goal. She may, or may not, succeed.

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Man vs. Technology
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Man vs Technology or Character vs Technology


  • The protagonist must overcome a machine or technology.

  • Most often the encounter with the machine or technology is through the character's own doing. For example, it may be technology or a machine that they created, purchased, or owned with the assumption that it would make their life easier.

  • Over time the protagonist must overcome the technology, in some instances, even destroying it before it destroys them.

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Character vs. Technology Poster
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Example Exercises

  1. Identify the major conflict(s) of the class book via a storyboard.
  2. Create storyboards that show and explain, in their own words, the different types of conflict.
  3. Create storyboards that show the major type of conflict in their own creative writing or lives.
  4. (Using empty storyboard templates on a test) Fill in text boxes with dialogue that gives a clear example of each type of conflict and label them.

Teachers can customize the level of detail and number of cells required for projects based on available class time and resources.

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Examples of Literary Conflict From Famous Books

Man vs. Self Hamlet
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Man vs. Man in The Cask of Amontillado
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Man vs. Nature in Odyssey
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The Giver Literary Conflict
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Conflict Assessment

Another advantage to storyboarding is the ease with which storyboard assignments can be graded and assessed via a rubric. Below is a sample rubric you can use to assess your students, or as a reference for planning your own literary conflict lesson.



Example Rubric

Types of Literary Conflict Rubric
Proficient
17 Points 		Emerging
14 Points 		Beginning
11 Points 		Try Again
8 Points
Conflict Identification
  • Student identifies correct major conflict and uses strong, clear textual evidence to support choice.
  • Student includes at least two clear examples of plot points that are a direct cause of the major conflict category.
    		•
  • Student identifies correct major conflict and uses few or unclear details to support their choice.
  • Student includes one clear example of plot points that are a direct cause of the major conflict category.
    		•
  • Student identifies incorrect major conflict, and uses some details from the text to support their choice.
  • Student includes only vague or poorly explained examples of plot points that are a direct cause of conflict.
    		•
  • Student does not attempt to identify major conflict or identifies incorrect major conflict with no explanation.
  • Student does not include any examples of plot points that are a direct cause of conflict.
    		•
    Understanding Outcome
    Student clearly shows the outcome of the conflict and its effects on the protagonist with evidence from the text.
    Student shows the outcome of the conflict and its effect on the protagonist, but some evidence is unclear.
    Student shows the outcome of the conflict, but does not examine its effect on the protagonist and uses some vague textual evidence.
    Student does not clearly show the outcome of the conflict or use textual evidence.
    Quote
    Student includes at least one quote, with proper punctuation and page #, from the text that deals directly with the events presented in the storyboard.
    Student includes at least one quote, but it is not directly relevant to the events presented in the storyboard, or has an error in punctuation, page #, etc.
    Student includes quote, but it contains errors or is not at all related to events presented in the storyboard.
    Student does not include a quote.
    Character
    Storyboard includes all required characters and clearly names them. Goes above and beyond by adding details or names of additional characters.
    Storyboard includes all required characters, clearly named.
    Storyboard includes protagonist and antagonist but leaves out other required characters.
    Storyboard does not include the names of required characters.
    Storyboard
    Student clearly shows effort to convey the setting the scene of the book
    Student attempts to convey setting and scene of the book, but lacks some clarity.
    Student does not clearly convey the setting and scene.
    Student makes little or no attempt to convey the setting or scene.
    Spelling and Grammar
    Student uses exemplary spelling and grammar. There are no errors.
    Student makes a minor error in spelling and grammar.
    Student makes several minor errors in spelling and grammar.
    Student makes many errors in spelling and grammar; little attempt at spellchecking.

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