【正文】 and the ol der wait er st ops at a coff ee bar on hi s way home—but whi le t he events t hem sel ves seem r el ati vel y sl i ght, t he st or y as a whol e i s f ul of m eani ng. For a deep underst anding of t he m eani ng, we have t o l ook t o ot her elements of t he st ory besi des what happens i n it : nar rati ve, symbols, tone, t he dialogue bet ween the t wo wai ters, the m onol ogue of the ol der wai ter, etc. Evidentl y the author int ends us t o pay more at tenti on to t he thoughts and feeli ngs of t he older wait er , the char act er whose wor ds echo t he aut hor ’ s voi ce. One t ry on the theme may be: “The older wait er understands the ol d man and sym pat hizes wit h his need for a cl ean, wel l ighted place.” But here we ar e sti l t al king about what happens in the story, though 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 charact ers. 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 dr inking. But dur ing 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 pr esenting Wil son’s case t he noveli st i ntends t o point out the profound cause of Gatsby’s t ragedy. Dr. Watson in t he stori es of Sherlock Holm es serves as a foi l to t he hero, rendering t he det ect ive smar ter than he would ot her wi se appear t o t he r eader . By the degree of their devel opment , characters can be grouped as round charact ers and f lat charact ers. Thi s divi si on is pr oposed by For st er . Round characters are f ull y developed whi le f lat characters are not . Or we can say t hat round characters grow whil e fl at charact ers do not . Usual y t he reader i s al lowed access t o the i nner l if e of the r ound character and per mi ted t o l ear n about many sides of the round character. The flat charact er i s a “closed” character to whose i nner thoughts t he reader i s deni ed acces. Usual ly one side of the f lat char act er is shown in the novel . Most heroes are round characters who grow emoti onal ly or spir it ual ly. Chapt er Thre Theme Ar istot le i n Poeti cs l ists si x basi c el ement s of tr agedy. Melody (song) and di ct ion ( language) f al l in t he gener al categor y of style, and spectacle is r el evant to set ing i n our discussion of fi cti on. The other thr e aspect s are m yt hos or pl ot, ethos or char act er , and dianoi 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, pl ot i s the “soul ” or shaping pr inciple or f ict ion, and character s exi st pr imar il y as functions of the pl ot. In most of t he st ori es, plot plays the r ole of pri nci pal str ucture of t he st ory. But, as Nor throp Fr ye points out , besides the i nt ernal fi ct ion of t he char acter 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 indeed 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 nter nal char act ers and we can hardly per cei ve the existence of the author. However, as soon as t he aut hor ’s per sonali ty appear s on the hor izon, a r elati on wi th t he reader i s est abl ished, and som et im es t her e seem s 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 im ar y i nterest in di anoia, t he i dea or t hought that reader get s fr om t he wri te r , whi ch in moder n cri ti cism we general ly cal “theme”. I. What Is Theme? One of t he saf est ments t o make about novel s is on t he theme. Ever yone i s enti tl ed to extr act a theme based upon his understanding of the novel. Theme may be t he most democrat ic elements in l it er atur e, because it s def ini ti on is t he least r est ri ct ive. The theme of a novel i s it s cont roll ing i dea or i ts centr al i nsi ght . Being an i dea or an i nsi ght , t he theme should be abst ract and it shoul d gener al ize about l if e. Labeled as cont rol li ng or centr al , the t hem e should be capabl e of unif yi ng the whol e novel . So t he theme of a stor y, t hen, i s what ever gener al i dea or i nsi ght t he ent ir e stor y reveal s. I I. Cl ar if icati on about Theme Comm on as it is, theme suff ers some mi sunderstandings. One misconcepti on about theme i s that each novel has a t heme or t hem es, or theme i s impor tant to al l novels. In f act , som e novels, int er est ing ones though, do not provide any i nsi ght i nt o l if e. For exam pl e, m any novels of r at iocinati on and novels of hor ror. These novels ar e aimed at ent ert ai ning t he reader , not at im pr oving his understanding of l if e. They may someti mes touch upon the human natur e or social problems, but t hese i sues ar e only used to push t he plot for ward and t hey ar e not m ent i oned f or their own val ue. Theme exists only in t he novel that ser iously a