【正文】 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 i s the “soul ” or shapi ng pri nci pl e or fi ct ion, and char acters exi st prim ari ly as functi ons of t he pl ot. I n m ost of t he stori es, pl ot pl ays t he r ol e of pr i nci pal st ruct ure of t he stor y. But, as Nor thr op Frye poi nt s out, besi des t he i nt er nal f icti on of the charact er and his/her soci et y, ther e is an external f icti on consi st ing of a r el at ion bet ween t he wr it er and t he wr it er’ s soci et y. We i ndeed have li terary works by t he l ikes of Shakespear e and Hom er i n whi ch art ist r y i s pl et el y absor bed i n t heir i nt er nal charact er s and we can har dl y pe rcei ve t he existence of t he aut hor. However, as soon as t he author’s personal it y appears on the hori zon, a r el at ion wit h t he reader i s est abli shed, and som etimes t her e seems no st or y at al apart fr om what the aut hor i s conveyi ng to his/ her r eader. I n t hi s case, the pr imary i nt er est in dianoi a, the idea or thought t hat r eader get s fr om t he wr it er, which in moder n cr it ci sm we gener al y cal “theme”. I. What Is Them e? One of t he saf est m ent s t o m ake about novels i s on t he t hem e. Ever yone i s entit led t o ext r act a t hem e based upon his understanding of t he novel. Theme may be t he most dem ocrati c el ement s i n li terature, because it s defi ni ti on is t he l east r est ri ct ive. The t heme of a novel is it s cont roll ing idea or it s cent ral i nsight . Bei ng an idea or an i nsight , the t heme should be abst ract and i t shoul d generali ze about l if e. Labeled as contr ol li ng or cent ral, t he t hem e shoul d be capabl e of uni fying the whole novel. So t he t heme of a story, t hen, i s whatever gener al i dea or i nsight t he ent ir e st or y r eveal s. I. Cl ari fi cati on about Them e Common as i t i s, t hem e suff er s som e m isunder st andi ngs. One m isconcepti on about t hem e i s that each novel has a t hem e or t hemes, or t hem e is im port ant t o al l novel s. In f act, some novels, i nt er esti ng ones t hough, do not provi de any insi ght into li fe. For exam pl e, many novels of rati ocinat ion and novels of horr or . These novel s ar e aim ed at entert ai ni ng t he r eader , not at improvi ng hi s under st andi ng of li fe. They m ay sometim es t ouch upon t he hum an nature or soci al probl em s, but these issues ar e only used to push t he plot for ward and t hey are not ment ioned f or t heir own value. Theme exi st s only i n the novel that ser iousl y at em pts t o refl ect l if e fait hf ul y or i nt ends t o r eveal t r ut h about lif e, or in t he novels that are based on i deas or theor ies of li fe. ( for exam pl e, novel s of i deas). Anot her m isconcept ion about t hem e is t hat he t heme is l ar gely what t he novel i s. Som e people discard t he novel when they t hi nk t hat they have got t he t heme. I t shoul d be made clear t hat the novel is not wr it en t o convey an i dea but t o convey an i dea arti st ical y. The novel is a work of ar t whereas t he t hem e is onl y an abstr act idea. An anal ogy f rom dai ly l if e may hel p cl ar if y t hi s quest ion. People al l need vit ami ns and get them fr om vari ous kinds of veget ables and fr ui ts. Onl y t hose wit h defi ci ency of one kind or anot her have to t ake vi tam in pil s to get t he requi red am ount . The di f er ence bet ween t he t hem e and t he novel i s m uch li ke t hat bet ween t he vit ami ns and t he vegetabl es. The r eader sometim es fi nds that t he t hem e of a novel i s simi lar to or even t he sam e as what he has alr eady known about li fe and t hat he i s sti l fasci nated by t he novel. Them e appeals sol el y to t he i nt el ect ual evel of readi ng whil e t he novel as awhol e m ai nl y appeals to t he em ot ional level. Anot her pi tf al l concer ni ng t he t heme i s t o confuse a t hem e wit h m or al or l esson. Usual y, a moral or a leson i s the advi ce stated or im pl ied in a par abl e or fabl e. It i s som et hi ng of a rule by whi ch one can regul at e hi s behavi or. For exam pl e, “Be ki nd t o your nei ghbors, ” or “Honest y is the best policy. ” But a t hem e i s m or e pli cated than t hi s as a novel i s t o enhance one’ s awareness of li fe r at her t han simply t o t el l him how to behave. A novel is a pli cated m at ter and di f er ent readers may have dif ferent i nt er pr et at ions of the sam e novel , so it i s i ncorr ec t o pr esume that one novel has onl y one them e. In som e case