Action, Motivation, Sub-text, and Conflict

Blog Post Option: Create a cohesive two-three character scene which demonstrates clear motivation on the part of one or more characters.

I like to think about action, motivation, and subtext on similar terms to Freud’s theory of the conscious and subconscious. In Freud’s context, there are three components to our waking mind: our superego, our ego and our id. The ego is the “face” of the mind that is shown to the external world, moderated by social codes. The superego is the underlying reasons for these actions, often more emotionally honest and less socially moderated. Finally, the id is where all of our most essential reactions and desires comes from, but it is reaction and desire that are socially uncontrolled and therefore must be restrained in everyday action and life. Now think about the mind as an iceberg. The superego is the 20% floating on top of the water, what can be seen (the action.) The superego is floating mostly below the water, but every once in a while it bobs up and is visible (the motivation.) Finally, the id is always below the water, never shown or exposed (the sub-context.)

For example: A man runs to get coffee every time his boss calls, even though that is not part of his job and he feels humiliated by the treatment.

Action (what is shown to the audience): A man going to fetch a cup of coffee

Motivation (what the audience knows about the character’s thoughts): A man is going to fetch a cup of coffee and mildly demean himself because he is afraid of losing his job

Sub-text (what the audience does not know or only suspects about the character’s more private thoughts or motivations): A man is going to fetch a cup of coffee and demean himself so that he does not have to feel emasculated by his wife when he returns home without a job.

The important thing to remember is this: The action cannot change, it is what you see on the stage. The motivation is also relatively immobile, it can only shift in slight degrees around the context of the action; what will really add dimension to your scene is to play with the subtext. Often, in finding creative solutions to your sub-text you might go ahead and change your motivation and action to “fit” if the concept drives you enough.

Conflict is a very easy concept to get a handle on, especially once you get the hang of identifying action, as conflict is another simply “action driven” device: conflict is whatever prevents the character from getting what they want. It can play off the motivation and subtext, but it doesn’t have to. Like Spencer notes, conflict can even come from an inanimate object that prevents the character from gaining their goal (this is often the case in slapstick and silent forms of comedy.) At the same time conflict CAN actively engage with motivation or subtext (eg: A man is compelled to go and fetch a cup of coffee and demean himself so that he doesn’t lose his job, however he is compelled to stay where he is because he knows a co-worker is a good friend of his wife’s, and is afraid he will suffer the same humiliation at home for denigrating himself at work.) From a rope to a desire to not be emasculated, conflict can come from almost anything.