Play Analysis: Major Conflicts

Video Transcript

"Alright, we're ready to move on to Roman Numeral II, dramatic action. And we're going to look at A first. And A is major conflict over question mark. Now sometimes you may have to come back to this. The major conflict is what is the biggest conflict in the play? What drives the whole play? Every play, every movie, every character, has major conflict, which is the big one and a lot of little minor conflicts along the way. But, when you're analyzing a play, you have to answer "what is the major conflict?" I'm going to jump back to "Equus." In "Equus," the major conflict is not that Alan blinded the horses and is in trouble. The major conflict is the inner struggle between his psychiatrist to make him normal or let him be free. That is the major conflict. And that is what everything in the play, all the decisions in the play, are about this one major issue that has to resolved within the play. And sometimes it takes a little while to find that major conflict. So, you may know, it may be obvious, you may have it right now, or you may want to come back to it."