Descriptive Writing 2
GCSE English: Understanding Conflict in Extracts
Objective:
To identify and analyse the different types of conflict presented in a literary extract and explain how they develop characters or themes.
Task 1: Types of Conflict – Definitions
Match the type of conflict with its correct definition. Draw a line or write the letter of the correct definition next to each term.
| Conflict Type | Definition |
| a) Character vs Character | A. A character struggles with a powerful external force, such as fate or the supernatural. |
| b) Character vs Self | B. A character has a disagreement or battle with another character. |
| c) Character vs Society | C. A character is in conflict with norms, rules, or expectations of a community or system. |
| d) Character vs Nature | D. A character battles a natural force like a storm, animal, or disease. |
| e) Character vs Fate/Supernatural | E. A character struggles with their own thoughts, emotions, or decisions. |
Task 2: Extract Analysis
Read the extract below:
This is an extract from Act One of An Inspector Calls. Once you have read this scene, answer the questions that follow.
Birling: Well, inspector, I don’t see that it’s any concern of yours how I choose to run my business. Is it now? Inspector: It might be, you know.
Birling: I don’t like that tone.
Inspector: I’m sorry. But you asked me a question. Birling: And you asked me a question before that, a quite unnecessary question too.
Inspector: It’s my duty to ask questions.
Birling: Well, it’s my duty to keep labour costs down. And if I’d agreed to this demand for a new rate we’d have added about twelve per cent to our labour costs. Does that satisfy you? So, I refused. Said I couldn’t consider it. We were paying the usual rates and if they didn’t like those rates, they could go and work somewhere else. It’s a free country, I told them.
Eric: It isn’t if you can’t go and work somewhere else.
Inspector: Quite so.
Birling: (to Eric) Look – just you keep out of this. You hadn’t even started in the works when this happened. So, they went on strike. That didn’t last long, of course.
Gerald: Not if it was just after the holidays. They’d be all broke – if I know them.
Birling: Right, Gerald. They mostly were. And so was the strike, after a week or two. Pitiful affair. Well, we let them all come back – at the old rates – except the four or five ring-leaders, who’d started the trouble. I went down myself and told them to clear-out. And this girl. Eva Smith was one of them, she’d had a lot to say – far too much – so she had to go.
Gerald: You couldn’t have done anything else.
Eric: He could. He could have kept her on instead of throwing her out. I call it tough luck.
Birling: Rubbish! If you don’t come down sharply on some of these people, they’d soon be asking for the earth.
Gerald: I should say so! Inspector: They might. But after all it’s better to ask for the earth than to take it.
Birling: (staring at the inspector) What did you say your name was, inspector?
Inspector: google. G. double O-L-E.
Birling: How do you get on with our chief constable, Colonel Roberts?
Inspector: I don’t see much of him.
- What type(s) of conflict can you identify in the extract?
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- Which characters are involved in the conflict?
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- How is the conflict shown through language, dialogue, or action? Give at least one quotation and explain its effect.
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- How does this conflict help the reader understand more about the characters or the themes of the text?
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Task 3: Deepen Your Thinking
Pick one type of conflict and answer the following in a short paragraph:
– How is this type of conflict relevant to real-life experiences or modern society?
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Extension Challenge:
Write a short paragraph imagining a new scene in the text where a different type of conflict occurs. Be creative but keep characters and themes consistent.