【正文】 ions. How do we understand hi s mediati on on “nada,” nothi ngness, whi ch bears so m uch em phasis? No good statement of the t heme of t he story can l eave i t out . Then we have sti l another tr y: “Soli tar y people need a pl ace of r ef uge fr om t hei r ter ri ble awarenes t hat t hei r li fe ( or per haps, hum an li fe) is essent ial y meaningles. ” Neit her t hi s nor any ot her stat em ent of the stor y’s t heme is unarguabl y appr opri at e, but the st at ement at least t ouches one pri mary i dea that Hem ingway sems to be dr iving at . Af t er we read “A Cl ean, Wel l Lighted Pl ace,” we feel that there i s such a t heme, a uni fyi ng vi sion, even t hough we cannot r educe i t to a t ag and we may sti l vary in our opinion about, and st atement of , the t hem e. Moral i nferences drawn f rom most st ories: Mor al infer ences may be drawn fr om m ost stori es, no doubt, even when an author does not i nt end his /her st ory t o be r ead t his way. In “A Clean, Wel Li ght ed Place”, we f eel t hat Hem i ngway i s i ndi rectl y giving us advice f or pr oper ly regarding and sympathizi ng the l onely, the uncert ai n, and t he old. But obvi ously the story does not set f or th a lesson t hat we ar e supposed to put int o practi ce. We can say f or sur e t hat “A Cl ean, Wel l Li ght ed Pl ace” cont ai ns sever al t hem es and ot her st at em ent s coul d be m ade t o t ake i n Hem i ngway’ s vi ew of l ove, of m uni cat i on bet ween peopl e, of di gni t y. Gr eat st or i es, l i ke gr eat sym phoni es, f r equent l y have m or e t han one t hem e. When we say t hat t he t i t l e of Pr i de and Pr ej udi ce conveys t he t hem e of t he novel or t hat Uncl e Tom ’ s Cabi n and The Gr apes of Wr at h t r eat t he t hem es of sl aver y and m i gr at or y l abor r espect i vel y, t hi s i s t o use t hem e i n a l ar ge r and m or e abst r act sense t han i t i s i n our di scussi on of case t he noveli st i ntends to point out the profound cause of Gatsby’s tragedy. Dr. Wat son i n t he st ori es of Sherl ock Holmes s erves as a foi l t o t he her o, r ender ing t he det ect ive smart er t han he would ot her wise appear t o the r eader. By t he degr ee of their devel opm ent , charact ers can be grouped as round charact ers and f lat characters. Thi s division is proposed by Forster . Round charact ers ar e f ul ly developed whil e f lat characters ar e not. Or we can say that round charact ers gr ow whi le fl at charact ers do not. Usual y the r eader is al lowed access to the inner li fe of t he round char act er and per mit ted t o learn about many sides of t he round character. The flat character i s a “cl osed” charact er to whose inner thought s the reader is denied access. Usual y one si de of the f lat char act er i s shown in t he novel. Most heroes are round charact ers who grow em otional y or spi ri tual y. Chapt er Three Them e Ar istotl e i n Poet ics l ists six basic el em ent s of tr agedy. M el ody (song) and dict ion ( language) fal l i n t he general cat egor y of st yle, and spectacle i s rel evant to set ing i n our di scussi on of fi ction. The other thr e aspect s are m yt hos or pl ot , ethos or character , and dianoia, which we general ly t ranslate i nto “t hought” i n Engli sh. According t o Ar istot le, plot is t he “soul” or shapi ng pri nci ple or fi cti on, and char act er s exist pri mari ly as f unct ions of the plot . I n most of the stor ies, pl ot pl ays t he rol e of pr incipal st ruct ur e of the stor y. But , as Nor thr op Frye poi nt s out, besi des t he inter nal f icti on of the char acter and hi s/ her society, ther e is an exter nal f icti on consisti ng of a rel at ion between t he wr iter and the wr i ter’ s soci et y. We indeed have l it erary works by t he li kes of Shakespear e and Homer in whi ch art istr y is pl et ely absor bed in t heir int er nal character s and we can har dly perceive t he exi st ence of t he aut hor . However , as soon as the author’ s personal it y appears on t he hor izon, a rel at ion wi t h the r eader is establi shed, and someti mes ther e seems no stor y at al l apar t f r om what the author is conveyi ng to hi s/ her r eader. I n t hi s case, the pri mar y int er est i n dianoia, the idea or thought that r eader gets f rom the wr it er, which i n modern cr it ici sm we gener al l y cal l “t hem e”. I. What Is Them e? One of t he saf est ments t o make about novels i s on the t heme. Everyone is enti tl ed to ext ract a theme based upon his understanding of the novel. Theme may be t he most democrat ic element s in l it er atur e, because it s def ini ti on is t he least r est ri ct ive. The theme of a novel i s it s cont roll ing i dea or i ts c entr al i nsi ght . Being an i dea or an i nsi ght , t he theme should be abst r act and it shoul d gener al ize about l if e. Labeled as cont rol li ng or centr al, the t hem e should be capabl e of unif yi ng the whol e novel . So t he theme of a stor y, t hen, i s what ever gener al i dea or i nsi ght t he ent ir e stor y reveal s. I I. Cl ar if icati on about Theme Comm on as it is, theme suff ers some mi sunderstandings. One misconcepti on about theme i s that each novel has a t heme or t hem es, or theme i s impor tant to al l novels. In f act , som e novels, int er est ing ones though, do not provide any i nsi ght i nt o l if e. For exam pl e, many novels of r at iocinati on and novels of hor ror. These novels ar e aimed at ent ert ai ning t he reader , not at impr oving his understanding of l if e. They may som et i m es touch upon t he human nat ure or soci al pr oblems, but t hese issues ar e onl y used to push the pl ot f orwar d and they are not menti oned for their own val ue. Theme exists only in t he novel that ser iously at tempts t o r ef lect li fe f ait