【正文】 can dr i nk wit h dignit y. ” That i s a l it tl e bet ter. We have indicated t hat Hemi ngway’ s st or y i s m or e t han mer el y about an ol d m an and t wo wai t er s. We r em em ber t hat at the end t he st or y i s ent ir el y confi ned t o t he ol der wai t er’s t hought s and per cepti ons. How do we under st and hi s m edi ati on on “nada, ” not hingness, whi ch bear s so much em phasi s? No good st at em ent of t he t hem e of t he st or y can leave it out. Then we have st il l anot her t r y: “Sol it ary people need a place of ref uge f r om t hei r t er i bl e awar eness t hat t heir l if e ( or per haps, hum an l if e) is essenti al l y m eani ngl es.” Nei t her t hi s nor any ot her statem ent of the stor y’ s t hem e i s unar guabl y appr opri at e, but t he st at em ent at least t ouches one pr im ary i dea t hat Hem ingway seem s t o be dr ivi ng at . Aft er we r ead “A Cl ean, Wel l Li ght ed Pl ace, ” we f eel t hat t her e is such a t heme, a unif yi ng visi on, even t hough we cannot r educe it t o a t ag and we m ay st il l var y i n our opi ni on about , and st at em ent of, t he t heme. Moral i nf erences drawn from m ost st ori es: Mor al i nfer ences m ay be drawn f r om m ost st ori es, no doubt , even when an aut hor does not i nt end hi s/ her st or y t o be r ead t hi s way. In “A Cl ean, Wel Li ght ed Pl ace”, we feel t hat Hem ingway is i ndir ect ly gi vi ng us advi ce for properl y r egardi ng and sympathi zi ng the l onel y, t he uncer tain, and the ol d. But obviousl y the st or y does not set f ort h a l es on that we are supposed t o put i nto pr act ice. We can say for sure t hat “A Clean, Wel Li ght ed Place” contains sever al t hemes and ot her stat em ent s coul d be made to take in Hem ingway’s vi ew of love, of muni cati on between peopl e, of dignit y. Great st ori es, li ke great symphonies, f requent ly have mor e than one t heme. When we say t hat t he ti tle of Pr ide and Pr ej udice conveys the t hem e of t he novel or that Uncle Tom’ s Cabin and The Gr apes of Wrath tr eat t he themes of sl avery and migr at ory l abor r especti vel y, t his i s to use theme i n a l ar ger and m ore abst ract sense than i t i s in 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 centr 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