AP English Literature and Composition

## Learning Outcomes

- Understand conflict as tension between competing values in longer fiction and drama
- Identify the difference between internal conflict and external conflict
- Explain how a protagonist’s choices reveal motivation, values, and complexity
- Distinguish value conflict from a simple argument or plot obstacle
- Connect conflict to the meaning of the work as a whole in a literary argument essay
- Use specific evidence and commentary to build a strong AP Literature Question 3 response

## AP English Literature and Composition Syllabus

For the AP English Literature and Composition, you are expected to understand conflict and competing values in longer fiction or drama, with a focus on the following syllabus points:

- Know that **conflict** is the tension between competing values, whether within a character or between a character and outside forces
- Identify the difference between **internal conflict** and **external conflict**, and explain how they often work together
- Explain how competing values can include duty vs desire, law vs morality, individual freedom vs social expectation, and appearance vs reality
- Understand that the **protagonist** is not always opposed by a villain; the antagonist may be society, fate, a system, or the protagonist’s own divided mind
- Analyse how conflict develops characterization, shapes plot, and reveals theme
- Use a defensible interpretation, specific textual evidence, and commentary in a Question 3 literary argument
- Connect a character’s struggle to the meaning of the work as a whole rather than merely summarising events

## Test Your Knowledge

_Attempt these questions before reading this article. If you find some difficult or cannot remember the answers, look more closely at that area during your revision._

1. What is the difference between internal conflict and external conflict?
2. Why is a disagreement between characters not always a true conflict of values?
3. How can an antagonist be something other than a villain?
4. In an AP Literature essay, how do you connect a character’s conflict to the meaning of the work as a whole?
5. What kinds of competing values commonly appear in novels and plays?

## Introduction

In AP Literature, conflict is not just “the problem in the plot.” It is often the pressure point where two important values collide. A character may want love but also duty, freedom but also belonging, truth but also safety. In longer fiction and drama, that tension usually grows over time. It shapes decisions, relationships, and endings.

This matters especially in Question 3, the literary argument essay. Prompts often ask about a character’s loyalties, obligations, rebellion, indecision, secrecy, or competing forces. Strong essays do not simply retell what happened. They show how the conflict exposes what the character values and what the work suggests about human life.

> **Key Term: conflict**
> The tension between competing values within a character or between a character and outside forces.

### What conflict really means in AP Literature

Students often treat conflict too narrowly. They say a character is “in conflict” because two people argue, or because something bad happens. That is only the surface. AP Literature usually rewards the deeper reading: **why** does the clash matter?

A real value conflict involves competing principles or priorities. For example:

- **Duty vs desire**: a character wants personal happiness but feels bound by obligation
- **Law vs morality**: the legal choice and the ethical choice do not match
- **Individual freedom vs social expectation**: a character wants self-definition but faces pressure from family, class, religion, or community
- **Appearance vs reality**: a character depends on illusion, self-deception, or social performance
  > **Key Term: competing values**
  > Opposing beliefs, duties, desires, or ideals that create meaningful tension in a literary work.

This distinction is crucial. If two brothers fight over money, that may be a plot dispute. If the argument shows one values family loyalty while the other values ambition or survival, it becomes a conflict of values. That is the level your essay needs.

A useful question to ask is: _What principle would each side claim to defend?_ If you can answer that, you are moving from summary to analysis.

For instance, in a play like _Antigone_, the clash is not only between two stubborn people. It is between family duty and state authority, divine obligation and civic law. That is why the play remains significant. The conflict carries an idea, not just an event.

> **Key Term: theme**
> A central idea or insight a work develops through its characters, conflicts, and form.

Conflict also reveals theme because choices force characters to show what matters most. Literature becomes powerful when no option is cost-free. If a choice were easy, it would not expose much. But when each option sacrifices something important, the work shows the difficulty of moral and emotional life.

> **Test Tip:** When you identify a conflict, do not stop at “X wants Y.” Add the second pressure: “but X also values...” That structure pushes your analysis toward competing values instead of plot summary.

### Internal conflict and external conflict

The College Board’s framework treats conflict as either internal or external, but in strong works these usually overlap.

> **Key Term: internal conflict**
> A struggle within a character’s mind, often involving desire, guilt, fear, loyalty, or uncertainty.
>
> **Key Term: external conflict**
> A struggle between a character and an outside force such as another character, society, law, nature, or fate.

An internal conflict happens inside the character. A person may feel torn between love and pride, conscience and self-interest, or action and hesitation. This kind of conflict matters because it reveals psychology. It shows motive, fear, and self-knowledge.

An external conflict appears in action: arguments, punishments, obstacles, social pressure, war, law, or family demands. Students often find external conflict easier because it is visible. But on the AP exam, high-scoring essays usually explain how the outer struggle reflects an inner one.

Take a familiar example such as _Hamlet_. Externally, Hamlet faces the duty to avenge his father. Internally, he struggles with doubt, disgust, fear, and moral hesitation. If you discuss only the revenge plot, you miss the depth of the work. The play matters because Hamlet’s mind becomes part of the conflict.

The same pattern appears in many works:

- A character pressured by society may also be divided inside
- A character at war with another person may also be at war with the self
- A legal problem may create a moral problem
- A romantic conflict may expose class, identity, or loyalty pressures

In longer fiction, this layering lets the author build complexity. A character may think an external obstacle is the problem, then gradually realise the more difficult barrier is internal. That shift can itself be a major part of the meaning.

Students also miss that internal conflict can change form. At first, a character may feel uncertainty. Later, the same conflict may harden into guilt, denial, obsession, or paralysis. If you track that development, your essay gains a stronger line of reasoning.

> **Test Tip:** For Question 3, one strong paragraph pattern is: external pressure -> internal response -> resulting choice -> larger meaning. That keeps your commentary analytical.

### Protagonists, antagonists, and pressure from society

In exam essays, students sometimes assume the antagonist must be an evil person standing in the hero’s way. That is too simple for many literary works.

> **Key Term: protagonist**
> The main character whose struggle is central to the work.
>
> **Key Term: antagonist**
> Whatever opposes the protagonist, including another character, society, fate, or the protagonist’s own divided self.

A broad view of the antagonist helps you analyse conflict more accurately. In some works, the antagonist is clearly another character, as Stanley opposes Blanche in _A Streetcar Named Desire_. But even there, the clash is bigger than two personalities. Their struggle also stages competing values: illusion against exposure, fragile civility against brute force, old codes against modern aggression.

In other works, the antagonistic force is social expectation. In _Pride and Prejudice_, Elizabeth Bennet’s conflicts are shaped by marriage markets, class judgements, and first impressions. No single villain controls the novel. The pressure comes from a whole social system, which makes the conflict more subtle.

In still others, the antagonist may be institutional or ideological. In _Invisible Man_, conflict comes from racism, manipulation, and social structures that deny identity. The protagonist is not just battling one opponent. He is confronting systems that define him before he can define himself.

This matters because AP prompts often ask about loyalty, rebellion, secrecy, prejudice, cruelty, or a character “at odds with society.” Those questions usually require you to see society itself as part of the antagonistic force.

A good literary argument therefore avoids reducing the work to hero versus villain. Instead, it asks:

- What force blocks the protagonist?
- What value does that force defend?
- How does the protagonist respond?
- What does that response reveal?

Sometimes the most interesting works refuse to make either side completely right. In _Antigone_, readers can defend Antigone or Creon. In such cases, the work gains power from unresolved tension. The author is not handing you a neat moral lesson; the author is making you think through the costs of each value.

That kind of complexity can earn the sophistication point if you develop it rather than merely mention it.

### From conflict to literary argument

Question 3 essays are scored with the **6-point rubric**: Thesis **(0–1)**, Evidence and Commentary **(0–4)**, and Sophistication **(0–1)**. Conflict is not a rubric category by itself. It is an analytical lens.

> **Key Term: literary argument**
> An essay that presents a defensible interpretation of a work and supports it with evidence and commentary.
>
> **Key Term: evidence and commentary**
> Specific references to the text plus explanation of how those details support the argument.

That means naming a conflict is never enough. You earn points by building an argument about what the conflict means.

A weak approach sounds like this: “The character faces conflict because she wants one thing and society wants another.” That is general, and it stays close to summary.

A stronger approach sounds like this: “The character’s conflict between personal desire and social duty shows that the work treats freedom as emotionally necessary but socially costly.” Now the essay is making a claim about meaning.

To do that well, use this sequence:

1. Identify the competing values clearly
2. Explain how the conflict develops across key moments
3. Analyse the character’s response, not just the situation
4. Connect the outcome to the work’s larger meaning

For example, if you wrote about _Oleanna_, you would not just say John and Carol have communication problems. You would explain how power, status, interpretation, and institutional language turn ordinary classroom exchange into a struggle over authority and truth. Then you would show how that conflict reflects the work’s anxiety about its historical moment.

Or if you wrote about _Crime and Punishment_, you would move beyond “Raskolnikov feels guilty after murder.” The conflict is between prideful theory and moral reality, between intellectual self-exemption and human conscience. The novel’s larger meaning comes from the collapse of the idea that a person can stand outside moral law.

Here is a useful thesis model:

A character’s conflict between **value A** and **value B** reveals **a claim about the character**, and through the consequences of that struggle, the work suggests **a larger theme**.

Example pattern:
A character’s conflict between duty and personal desire reveals that loyalty shapes identity more deeply than freedom alone, and the work suggests that refusing one’s obligations carries moral and emotional costs.

This structure keeps you from drifting into plot summary.

### How to write with depth, not summary

The difference between a mid-range essay and a strong one is usually commentary. Many students know the story. Fewer explain how the conflict works.

A summary-based paragraph often does this:

- retells events in order
- names a conflict
- ends with a broad statement like “this shows the theme”

An analytical paragraph does more:

- selects a strategic moment
- explains what values are colliding there
- interprets the character’s response
- links that response to the work’s overall meaning

Suppose a character refuses to expose a loved one’s crime. A summary says the character hides the secret because of loyalty. Analysis asks what that loyalty costs, whether it protects love or corrupts it, and whether the work presents the choice as admirable, tragic, selfish, or mixed.

That last word matters: **mixed**. The best literary works often resist clean judgement. A character may act nobly for flawed reasons, or badly under understandable pressure. If your essay can show that tension, you are moving toward sophistication.

Ways to deepen commentary:

- Discuss what the character does **not** choose, and why that matters
- Notice whether the work punishes, rewards, or complicates the choice
- Consider whether the character gains self-knowledge or remains blind
- Ask whether the conflict is resolved or merely silenced
- Compare the character’s self-understanding with what the reader sees

For drama, remember that conflict is often visible in dialogue, interruption, silence, and stage pressure. For longer fiction, conflict may appear through narration, memory, recurring images, or a slow change in self-awareness.

A final caution: do not confuse **topic** with **theme**. “Loyalty,” “power,” or “freedom” are topics. A theme is what the work says about loyalty, power, or freedom.

## Key Point Checklist

_This article has covered the following key knowledge points:_

- Conflict in AP Literature is the tension between competing values
- A true value conflict is deeper than a simple disagreement or obstacle
- Common clashes include duty vs desire, law vs morality, and individual freedom vs social expectation
- Internal conflict happens within a character’s mind; external conflict involves outside forces
- Strong literary analysis often shows how internal and external conflict interact
- The antagonist may be another character, society, fate, or the protagonist’s divided self
- Conflict helps reveal character motivation, complexity, and change
- Question 3 rewards defensible interpretation plus specific evidence and commentary
- Naming a conflict is not enough; you must explain how it contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole
- High-level essays move from plot summary to analysis of values, choices, and consequences
- Theme is not just a topic word; it is the work’s larger insight developed through conflict
- Sophistication often comes from discussing tensions, ambiguity, and competing interpretations

## Key Terms and Concepts

- conflict
- competing values
- theme
- internal conflict
- external conflict
- protagonist
- antagonist
- literary argument
- evidence and commentary


Longer Fiction or Drama III - Conflict and competing values