【正文】 ( for example, novel s of ideas). Another mi sconcept ion about them e i s that the theme is largel y what the novel is. Some peopl e di scar d the novel when t hey think that t hey have got the theme. It shoul d be made clear t hat the novel is not wr it en t o convey an i dea but to convey an i dea ar ti sti cal y. The novel is awor k of art wher eas the theme i s only an abstract i dea. An analogy fr om dail y lif e may help clarif y this question. People al need vi tamins and get them fr om var ious kinds of veget ables and fr uits. Only t hose with deficiency of one kind or anot her have t o take vit ami n pi ls t o get he r equir ed amount. The dif ference bet wen the theme and the novel is much l ike that bet wen the vi tamins and the veget ables. The reader someti mes f inds t hat the theme of a novel is simil ar t o or even the same as what he has already known about l if e and that he is st il l f asci nated by the novel . Theme appeal s solely t o the i ntel lect ual level of r eadi ng whil e the novel as a whole mainly appeals t o the emoti onal evel. Another pit fal concerning the theme is to conf use a theme wi th moral or leson. Usualy, a mor al or a l esson is t he advice st at ed or impli ed i n a parabl e or f able. It is something of a r ul e by which one can r egulate his behavior. For example , “Be kind to your neighbors,” or “Honesty is t he best poli cy.” But a t heme is more pl icat ed t han this as a novel is to enhance one’s awar enes of l if e rather than simpl y to tel him how to behave. A novel i s a pl icat ed mat er and dif ferent r eader s may have dif er ent interpretati ons of t he same novel, so i t i s incorr ect to presume that one novel has only one t heme. I n some cases, t here are several subt hemes t o the mai n theme. In r ealit y, some novels are appreciated for t heir t hemat ic ambi guit y. For example, Moby Dick can be interpreted in more ways t han one. Fi nal y, the theme i s not to be confused with t he subj ect. The t heme is an idea whil e the subj ect is a mat ter or an af fair. “Love is invinci bl e” may be a t heme, but “l(fā)ove” is only a subject . A subj ect may be uni versal . The subject s of The Scarlet Let er, The Great Gatsby, and Women in Love are al “l(fā) ove. ” But these novels have di f er ent themes. A t heme is par ticular t o it s novel, though there are many simi lar t hemes to be f ound in other novels. I . Fi ve Requir ements for Stating a Theme The statement of a theme may be brief or l ong. And ther e ar e di f er ent ways to express one and the same theme. But i t should meet the fol lowing requir ements. A t heme must be expressed in t he f orm of a statement wit h a subject and a predi cate. For exampl e, “Love of one’s countr y of ten inspir es heroic self sacri fi ce.” I f a t heme is expresed in the form of a phrase, t hen the phr ase must be conver ti bl e to sentence form. One can say that he t heme of a novel is “f ut il ity of envy. ” The phr ase can be changed t o “envy i s f util e. ” When one chooses to state a theme i n the phr ase form, he m ust be ver y careful about it s convert ibili ty t o sent ence f orm. For inst ance ,the phr ase “sel fl ess mat er nal love” does not al ways mean that “mat er nal love i s self les.” The t heme i s general izat ion about l if e based on the novel, and t he statement of them e should be t rue also of other people or li fe situati ons. Ther ef or e, names of char acters and places shoul d not be mentioned, for they suggest specif ic things and invite l imit at ions. So i n themati c di scussion of Wutheri ng Heights , one may ment ion “people’s psychology of r evenge, ” but not “Heat hcli f ’s.” Though a them e i s a generalization, overgeneral izat ion shoul d be avoided. Si nce a them e i s extr acted fr om a part icul ar novel ( a par ticular event) , i t may not be applicabl e t o al l sit uati ons. So words like “al ways, ” “never,” “al l, ” and “ever y” should be avoided. Inst ead, one should use words li ke “some,” “somet imes, ” and “may.” When making a gener al izati on, one should stri ct ly keep to what i s actual ly in t he novel and not smuggl e into i t asumpt ions supplied fr om his past experi ence. Si nce t heme is t he cent ral and unifying i dea of t he novel, i t must account f or all the major det ai ls and must not be cont radicted by an detail s i n the novel. Si nce a t heme is dif ferent f rom a moral or a leson, one should avoi d reducing a t heme to a cli ch233。case t he novelist intends to point out t he profound cause of Gatsby’s t ragedy. Dr. Watson i n the st ories of Sherl ock Holmes serves as a foil t o t he hero, r ender ing the det ecti ve sm ar ter t han he woul d ot her wi se appear to t he r eader. By t he degr e of t heir developm ent, characters can be grouped as round charact ers and f lat charact ers. This di vi si on i s pr oposed by E. M Forster. Round characters ar e f ul ly developed whil e f lat charact ers are not . Or we can say t hat round charact ers grow whil e f lat charact ers do not. Usual y t he reader i s al owed acess to t he i nner l if e of the r ound char acter and perm it ed t o lear n about many sides of the r ound char acter. The f lat character is a “cl osed” charact er t o whose i nner t houghts t he reader is deni ed acess. Usual y one si de of the fl at charact er i s shown i n the novel . Most heroes are round charact ers who gr ow emoti onal l y or spir it ual y. Chapter Three Them e Ari st otl e in Poet ics l ists si x basic elements of tr agedy. Mel ody (song) and di ct ion (l anguage) fal in t he general categor y of st yl e, and spectacl e is r el vant t o set ing in our di scussi on of fi cti on. The ot her t hree aspect s ar e m yt hos or pl ot, ethos or charact er , and di anoia, which we gener al ly tr anslate i nt o “t hought” i n Engl ish. Accor di ng t o Aristotl e, plot