【導(dǎo)讀】casethenovelistintendstopointouttheprofoundcauseofGatsby’stragedy.Dr.WatsoninthestoriesofSherlockHolmesservesasafoiltothehero,renderingthedetectivesmarterthanhewouldotherwiseappeartothereader.Bythedegreeoftheirdevelopment,characterscanbegroupedasroundcharactersandflatcharacters.ThisdivisionisproposedbyE.MForster.Roundcharactersarefullydevelopedwhileflatcharactersarenot.Orwecansaythatroundcharacter

　　

【正文】 gs and invi te l i mi t ati ons. So in t hematic discussi on of Wuthering Height s, one may ment ion “people’s psychology of revenge, ” but not “Heat hcli f ’s. ” Though a theme i s a general izat ion, overgenerali zat ion shoul d be avoi ded. Si nce atheme i s extr acted fr om a part icul ar novel ( a part icul ar event) , i t may not be appl icable t o al l sit uati ons. So words like “always, ” “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 izat ion, 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. Since 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 mus t not be cont radicted by an detail s in the novel. Since a t heme is dif ferent from a moral or a leson, one should avoid reduci ng a t heme t o a cl ich233。 or platit ude l ike “Beauty i s only ski n deep. ” If one crams ever y new experi ence into an ol d formula, he los es the opport unit y of new percept ion pr ovided by r eading novel s. IV. Wher e to Look f or t he Theme The novel ist may st at e or imply t he t heme. He uses ever y possible method t o convey t he t hem e. Though t he t heme is based upon t he whole novel, pr acti cal y, we c an speci fy som e im por tant areas i n whi ch t o l ook f or t he them e. H ow t he novel i s enti tl ed. The ti tl e i s t he nam e of t he novel and in many cases (al most al cases) the novel ist i nt ends i t to tel something im port ant about the novel . Som et imes t he cent ral t heme of t he novel is present i n the t it le. For exam pl e, Pri de and Prej udi ce is about Dar cy’s pri de and Eli zabet h Ben ’s pr ej udi ce. Mai n St ret i s about the li fe of mi ddl e cl ass peopl e i n a Midwester n t own. Thi nk what he t itl e of For Whom the Bel Toll s t el ls about it s them e, and As I l ay Dyi ng. H ow the novel ist shows his i nt erest. If t he noveli st is i nt er est ed i n something, he woul d al ow m or e space t o i t, descr ibing or nar rati ng i n gr eat detail . Yet, sometim es he emphasizes it by leavi ng it out , as i n t he case of Er nest Hem ingway. The poi nt concer ned here i s t hat why t he noveli st gives more at enti on t o t hi s part icul ar char acter, si nce or event but not ot hers. H ow the novel ist deal s wi t h a mon subject . Of ten the novel ist has t o incl ude i n hi s wor k som e mon subj ects, but i f he tr eats the mon subject s in an unmon way, it shows that he i s tryi ng t o convey something new or impor tant i n the novel. Maybe i t i s t he t heme that demands him to do so. Import ant symbols. Symbols are l oaded wit h important meani ngs. So if a symbol appear s repeat edly or at i mport ant moments, i t may poi nt to t he t heme of t he novel. A good example i s t he l et ter “A” in The Scarl et Let ter. Important speeches. Character s talk and i n thei r tal k ar e revealed thei r j udgments of the ot her charact er s or event. The charact er s’ j udgments may gi ve i mport ant cl ues to t he t heme. V. Obvious and unobvi ous theme Obvious t heme: The theme of a story, since we know, is what ever general idea or insi ght the enti re story reveals. I n some stories, t he t heme is rather obvi ous. For example, in Aesop’s fable about t he counci l of the mice that cannot decide who wi l bel the cat , t he t heme is stated in the moral at the end: “It is easier to propose a t hi ng than t o car y it out. ” In some novels, t he t itl e may of fer a suggesti on about the mai n theme. For exampl e, Jane Austen’ s Pride and Prej udice is named after it s t heme, and the whole story unf olds i t sel f around that heme. I n some novel s, the ti tle i s not so named but the plot exists primari ly t o il ustr at e the t heme and i t i s not very dif fi cult for us t o infer what it is. For example, Uncle Tom’s Cabi n by H. and The Grapes of Wrat h by John Steinbeck voi ce the themes of sl aver y and migr at or y labor respect ivel y. The t itl e of The Grapes of Wrath es fr om a line in an ext remel y famous Civil War song, “The Bat tle Hymn of t he Republi c.” The li ne is, “He i s t rampl ing out the vintage wher e the Grapes of wr at h ar e stor ed,” which means “an unjust or oppresive si tuat ion, act ion or pol icy that may inflame des ir e for vengeance: an expl osive condi ti on.” The song was wri ten by a famous and inf luenti al social act ivist, Juli a Ward Howe. Unobvious t heme: But in most l iter ar y wor ks of ficti on, the theme i s seldom so obvi ous. That is, general y a theme i s not a mor al nor a mesage, nei ther i s i t clearly conveyed in t he t itl e. When we f inish reading a fi nely wr ought story, it is easier t o sum up the plot—t o say what happens—t han to descri be t he main idea. To say of James Joyce’s “Araby” t hat i t is about a boy who goes to a bazaar to buy a gif t for a young woman but ar ives t oo l at e is to summ ar ize plot , not t heme. I n many fi ne shor t stori es, t heme is t he center, t he movi ng force, the principle of unit y. Clear ly, such a t heme is something more than the char acters and events of the st or y. Most of the shor t stori es chal lenge an easye t heme. I n Hemi ngway’ s “A Cl ean, Wel Lighted Pl ace,” as observed by Kennedy and Gioia, t he events ar e rather simple—a young wai ter manages t o get ri d of the old man fr om the caf233。 and t he older wait er stops at a coff e bar on hi s way home—but whi le the event s themsel ves seem relati vely sli ght, the st or y as a whole is ful l of meaning. For a deep under st anding of t he meaning, we have t o look t o ot her el ements of t he story besides what happens in i t: nar rative, sym bols, t one, t he dialogue betwen the two wait er s, the monologue of the o