【正文】 i ct ion (language) fal in t he general cat egor y of style, and spect acle is r el evant to set ti ng i n our di scussion of fi ct ion. The ot her three aspects ar e mythos or pl ot , ethos or charact er , and di anoia, which we gener al ly tr anslate into “thought” in Engl ish. Acording to Ar ist ot le, pl ot is the “soul” or shaping pr inci ple or f iction, and charact er s exist pri mar il y as funct ions of the pl ot . I n most of t he stori es, plot pl ays the role of pr inci pal st ruct ur e of t he story. But, as Nor throp Fr ye points out , be si des the internal f iction of t he char acter and hi s/ her society, t here i s an ext er nal ficti on consisting of a relation bet wen the writ er and t he wr it er ’s society. We i ndeed have li terary works by t he l ikes of Shakespear e and Homer in which arti st ry is pl et el y absorbed in their internal char acters and we can hardly per ceive the exi stence of the author. However, as soon as the author’ s personalit y appears on the hor izon, a r elat ion wit h the reader i s establ ished, and som eti mes t here sems no stor y at al l apar t from what he author is conveyi ng t o hi s/ her reader . I n this case, t he pri mar y i nt er est i n di anoia, t he i dea or t hought that reader gets f rom the wri ter, whi ch i n modern cri ticism we generaly cal “t heme”. I. What Is Theme? One of the safest ments to make about novel s is on t he t heme. Ever yone is ent itl ed t o extr act a theme based upon hi s understandi ng of the novel . Theme may be the most democrati c el ements in l iterature, because i ts def initi on i s the least r estr ictive. The theme of a novel is i ts control ling idea or it s cent ral i nsight. Bei ng an idea or an i nsight, the theme should be abstract and it shoul d gener ali ze about lif e. Labeled as contr olli ng or central, the theme shoul d be capabl e of uni fying the whole novel. So t he t heme of a story, then, is whatever general i dea or i nsight t he ent ir e stor y reveal s. I . Cl ar if cati on about Theme Common as i t i s, theme suff er s so me misunder st andi ngs. One misconception about theme is that each novel has a t heme or t hemes, or t heme is import ant to al l novel s. In f act, some novels, int er esting ones though, do not provi de any insi ght into li fe. For exampl e, many novel s of r at ioci nati on and novel s of hor ror. These novels are aimed at ent er taining the reader, not at improving hi s under st anding of li fe. They may someti mes t ouch upon t he human nature or soci al probl ems, but these issues are only used to push the plot f or war d and they ar e not menti oned for thei r own val ue. Theme exists onl y in the novel t hat seri ousl y at tempt s to refl ect lif e fait hf ul ly or intends to r eveal tr ut h about li fe, or in the novels that are based on i deas or theori es of lif e. ( 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