The Inner Evil Conflict
Alternatively called the heart of darkness, due to its prominence in the novel of the same name.
While certainly not as widely seen as the direct good vs. evil conflict, the concept of "individual vs. self" is often much more compelling to a reader/watcher, especially if it is the protagonist. In both literature and film, it requires well-written character development in order to truly succeed.
Conrad's version of the inner evil conflict, known as the Heart of Darkness, is a human's struggle with their own morals, and their own battle with their hidden evil. Although first chiefly used in the novel, this improved device was commonly used, as opposed to the old devices used in literature before the turn of the century. It is a conflict that exists outside of literature as well, making it a universal truth of the human condition.
Read more about this topic: Conflict Between Good And Evil
Famous quotes containing the words evil and/or conflict:
“One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)
“It is a life-and-death conflict between all those grand, universal, man-respecting principles which we call by the comprehensive term democracy, and all those partial, person-respecting, class-favoring elements which we group together under that silver-slippered word aristocracy. If this war does not mean that, it means nothing.”
—Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825–1921)