Chapter 82 On the Conflict of Drama

The plot of a drama should be conflictual in structure. This is one of the undeniable elements, and it is also a mantra of drama practitioners.Everyone can generally have this understanding, which can certainly help the progress of drama art, but because of being too paranoid about seeking the effect of its conflicts, it has produced various abuses. The most notable thing is that there are too many violent scenes. I always think that only the action, direct and image conflict performance is the only force, so that the requirements of other elements are ignored, especially the creation of atmosphere (atmosphere). For any plot, fast-paced deduction and straight-line conflicts are enough.As a result, as much as possible, there are quarrels, fights, crying, life and death or other violent scenes, but they have no emotion and resonance for the audience at all, and they get nothing after watching them.This bias sometimes occurs in TV dramas, especially in movies.But for the scenes that can be added to the atmosphere to create their sensibility, they all think that the progress is too slow and it is not advisable.Some people say that this is because there is no in-depth understanding and interpretation of the plot.Some people also say that this is due to hiding clumsiness and avoiding important things, because creating and controlling the atmosphere requires real skills.Then there are the necessary cutscenes, which are used to create the atmosphere and push to the climax, and sometimes it is not appropriate to erase them all.

Seriously speaking, the suspense of a drama (suspension) should be more important than the conflict, just like the readability of a novel can make people have the interest and willingness to continue reading.It is of course best to have both, otherwise, it is still a good drama to have only watchability (read), and it is better than only bare conflict.That is to say, there is a difference between connotation and no connotation, and the creative values ​​of the two can be judged immediately. Dr. Brockett, a professor of drama at Indiana University, an American dramatist, said in his famous book "A History of World Drama": Although obvious conflicts play an important role in most dramas, there are also some scripts. Didn't mean it.For example, Thornton.In Wilder's Our Town, there is no conflict involved.But the form and effect of the performance are still touching.

In fact, the conflict of the drama is not only directly expressed in strong actions, but also not only the conflict between characters, but also the conflict and struggle of the character's inner self, the conflict between the character and the environment and the conflict of will. Conflict, and then there is the conflict between characters and fate (God). There are not even any conflict scenes, and the dignified atmosphere is more touching.For example, a dramatic performance based on the French novelist Daudet's masterpiece "The Last Lesson" (English translation: The Last Lesson), coupled with visual appeal, is more deeply moving than reading his novels. And the interpretation of the actors.Another example is a poor couple in the play "Christmas Gift". The husband secretly sells his wife's hair to buy hair clips because he regards his wife's beautiful hair as a beauty; Come to the watch chain, and smile bitterly at each other when giving each other gifts on Christmas Eve, how touching!For another example, in "A Fallen Leaf", a dying patient looks out the window and sees only one fallen leaf on the branch, and groans that life will fall with the last leaf. How touching it is to save the vitality of the patient!

According to Aristotle, the six contents of drama are plot, character, thought, language, music and scene.Especially thought and language are more important. The dramatic dialogue written by Shakespeare can be a motto for life, almost as immortal as the Bible. If you can’t write dramatic language with depth and connotation, it will be covered by meaningless conflicts and actions. It belongs to the next class.What's more, besides conflict, dramatic art has many elements that can be used for creation.If the performance of drama is led astray in order to deliberately only seek the play of conflict, it is the tragedy of drama art itself.