【正文】 and t he ol der wai ter stops at a cof fee bar on his way home—but whi le t he events themsel ves seem r el ati vel y slight , t he story as a whol e i s full of meaning. For a deep under standi ng of the m eaning, we have to l ook to ot her el em ent s of the story besides what happens in i t: nar ative, symbol s, t one, the di al ogue bet ween the two wait er s, the monologue of the older wait er, etc. Evident ly t he aut hor i nt ends us t o pay m or e at t ent i on t o t he t hought s and f eel i ngs of t he ol der wai t er , t he char act er whose wor ds e cho t he aut hor ’ s voi ce. One t r y on t he t hem e m ay be: “The ol der wai t er under st ands t he ol d m an and sym pat hi zes wi t h hi s need f or a cl ean, wel l l i ght ed pl ace. ” But her e we ar e st i l l t al ki ng about what happens i n t he st or y, t hough we ar e not t r oubl e wi th the hero Jordan, yet he i s a main character as his wi fe Pi lar i s. Minor char acter s are t hose i n remot e and st ati c relat ion wi th the hero. It i s wr ong t o t hi nk that mi nor characters ar e al unimpor tant. I n som e novels, one or some of t he minor char act ers m ay ser ve a cr it ical rol e, str uct ural y or int er pret at ional y. Foil charact ers are ones that hel p enhance the i ntensi ty of t he hero by strengt heni ng or cont rast ing. They may be m ain charact ers or m inor characters. I n a wor d, they ser ve as foil s to the hero or heroi ne. Cohn i n The Sun Also Ri ses i s a good exampl e. He is one of the mai n char act er s. Like Jake, he is al so “l(fā) ost ,” t rying vai nl y t o escape the past by court ing wom en and drinking. But during t heir stay i n Spai n, Cohn di spl ays quali ti es i n cont rast to t hose cheri shed by Jake, whi ch makes Jake reali ze hi s own pr obl ems and fi nal ly f ind a sol ut ion, though tempor ar il y. Cohn wor ks mainl y by cont rast. Wilson i n The Gr eat Gatsby wor ks by present ing. Gat sby lost hi s lover to Tom and Wi lson lost hi s wi fe t o Tom. By present i ng Wi lson’s 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 Hol mes ser ves as a foil t o t he her o, r ender ing t he det ect ive smart er t han he would ot her wise appear to 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 i s proposed by Forster . Round charact ers ar e f ul ly developed whil e fl at 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 perm it ted t o learn about many si des of t he round charact er. The flat character i s a “cl osed” charact er t o whose inner thought s the r eader 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 ot ional y or spi ri tual y. Chapt er Three Them e Ar istotl e in Poet ics l ists six basic el ement s of t r agedy. Mel ody (song) and dict ion ( language) fal i n t he gener al category of st yl e, and spect acl e is r elevant t o set ti ng in our discussion of f icti on. The ot her t hree aspects ar e mythos or plot, ethos or char act er, and di anoi a, whi ch we gener al y tr ansl at e int o “thought ” in Engl ish. Accor di ng to Ari st otl e, plot i s the “soul ” or shaping pr inciple or f ict ion, and characters exi st pr imar ily as funct ions of the pl ot. In most of t he st or i es, plot plays the r ole of pri nci pal str ucture of t he st ory. But, as Nort hrop Fr ye points out, besides the i nt ernal fi ct ion of t he character and his/her soci et y, t her e i s an ext er nal f ict ion consi st ing of a r elati on bet ween the wr it er and t he wr it er ’s society. We i ndeed have li ter ar y wor ks by the l ikes of Shakespeare and Homer i n which ar ti st ry i s pletel y absorbed i n their i nternal char act er s and we can hardly per cei ve the existence of the author. However, as soon as t he aut hor ’s per sonalit y appear s on the hori zon, a r elati on wit h t he reader i s est abl ished, and som et imes t her e sems no st ory at al apar t fr om what t he aut hor i s conveying t o his/her reader . In this case, t he pr i m ar y inter est in dianoi a, t he idea or thought t hat r eader get s f rom the wr it er, which i n modern cr it icism we gener al y cal l “t hem e”. I. What Is Them e? One of the safest ment s to m ake about novels i s on the t hem e. Everyone is ent itl ed to ext ract a theme based upon his understanding of t he novel. Theme may be t he most democr at ic el em ent s in l it eratur e, because it s defi ni ti on is t he least r est ri ct ive. The theme of a novel i s it s cont rol li ng idea or it s centr al insi ght. Being an i dea or an i nsi ght , the t heme should be abstr 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 shoul d be capable of unif ying t he whol e novel . So the t heme of a st or y, then, i s whatever gener al idea or insight the enti re stor y r eveals. I I. Cl ari fi cat ion about Theme Com mon as it i s, theme suff ers some m isunder st andi ngs. One mi sconcepti on about theme i s that each novel has a t hem e or themes, or theme i s im por tant to al l novels. In fact, som e novel s, int erest ing ones though, do not provi de any i nsi ght i nto l if e. For exam pl e, m any novels of r at iocinati on and novel s of hor ror. These novels ar e aimed at entert aining t he reader , not at im pr oving hi s underst anding of l if e. They may someti mes touch upon the human natur e or social problems, but these i sues ar e only used t o push t he plot for ward and t hey ar e not ment ioned f or t hei r own value. Th