A conflict can shortly be defined as a struggle between two forces. These forces can also be internal or external. An internal conflict is when a character in a story is struggles with himself either psychologically or emotionally, meaning that the conflict is within the character alone, while an external conflict is when a character is struggling with an outside force which is possibly another character. “The Shroud”, a short story written by the Grim Brothers is a story that depicts both an internal and external struggle. The characters in the story, the mother and the child experience a conflict that is later on resolved.
The shroud is about a mother who has a child that is seven years old. She loved her child very well and so did everyone else. At a time the child becomes ill and then dies. The mother, because of the loss of her child weeps day and night. Every day and night the mother weeps. The child appears at night and also cries whenever the mother cries. One day, it appears to its mother and tells her to stop crying because whenever she cries, its shroud becomes wet and it cannot sleep in its grave. After that, the mother stops crying and then later on, the child appears again and tells her that now its shroud is dry and it could sleep in its grave soundly. Since then, the child came no more and the mother wept no more.
The central conflict in the story begins with the death of the child whom the mother loves very much. The child’s death makes her cry day and night. The conflict the mother faces is an internal conflict because she struggles emotionally to battle the pain of losing her beloved child. The pain of losing it makes her cry both day and night. Again, the child faces an external conflict because he is in struggle with another character which is the mother. After the child is buried, it is supposed to sleep peacefully in its grave but whenever