【正文】 orks mainl y by contr ast. Wi lson i n The Great Gatsby works by pr esenti ng. Gat sby lost his lover t o Tom and Wilson lost his wif e to Tom. By present ing Wil son’s case t he noveli st intends to point out the profound cause of Gatsby’s t ragedy. Dr. Watson i n the st ories of Sherl ock Holmes serves as a foil to t he her o, renderi ng t he detect ive smart er than he woul d ot her wi se appear t o the reader . By t he degr e of thei r development, characters can be grouped as round characters and f lat charact ers. This di vi si on i s pr oposed by E. M Forster. Round characters are f ul ly devel oped whi le fl at charact ers ar e not. Or we can say that round characters grow whil e fl at characters do not . Usual y the reader i s al lowed aces to t he i nner l if e of the round char acter and per mit ed t o lear n about many sides of the round character. The fl at character i s a “closed” character to whose inner thought s the reader i s deni ed acces. Usual ly one side of t he f lat char acter i s shown in the novel . Most heroes are round charact ers who gr ow emoti onaly or spir itualy. Chapter Three Theme Aristotl e in Poet ics l ists si x basic el ements of t ragedy. Melody ( song) and dicti on ( language) f al l i n the gener al cat egor y of style, and spect acle is r el evant to set ti ng i n our di scussion of f ict 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 f uncti ons of t he plot. I n m ost of the st or ies, pl ot plays t he r ol e of pri nci pal str ucture of the st or y. But , as Nort hr op Fr ye poi nt s out, besides t he i nt er nal fi cti on of the charact er and his/her soci ety, ther e is an external fi ct ion consi sti ng of a r el ati on bet ween t he wri ter and the wri ter’s oci et y. We inded have l it er ar y wor ks by t he li kes of Shakespeare and Homer i n whi ch art istr y is pletely absorbed i n thei r i nt er nal charact er s and we can har dl y percei ve t he exist ence of t he aut hor. However , as soon as t he aut hor ’s per sonali ty appear s on t he hori zon, a r el ati on wi th t he r eader is est ablished, and sometim es ther e seem s no story at al apart fr om what the aut hor is conveying to his/her r eader. I n t hi s case, the pr imary i nt er est i n di anoia, t he i dea or t hought that r eader gets f rom t he wri ter, whi ch i n m oder n cri ti cism we general y cal “t heme”. I. What Is Theme? One of the saf est m ents t o m ake about novel s is on the theme. Everyone is ent itl ed t o ext ract a them e based upon hi s under st andi ng of t he novel . Them e m ay be the m ost democr at ic el em ents i n l it er at ur e, because i ts def initi on i s the least restr icti ve. The t hem e of anovel i s i ts contr ol li ng i dea or it s centr al insi ght. Bei ng an i dea or an insi ght, t he t heme should be abstr act and it shoul d gener al ize about li fe. Labeled as cont roll ing or centr al , t he t heme shoul d be capabl e of unifying the whol e novel . So the theme of a stor y, then, is what ever general i dea or i nsight t he entir e st or y reveals. I . Cl ar if icati on about Theme Common as it is, t heme suff er s some misunder st andings. One mi sconcepti on about t heme is that each novel has a t heme or themes, or t heme is i mport ant to al novel s. In f act, some novels, i nt er esti ng ones though, do not provide any insi ght into l ife. For exampl e, many novels of ratiocinat ion and novel s of hor ror. These novel s are aimed at enter taining the reader, not at i mpr oving his understanding of l ife. They may somet imes t ouch upon the human nature or social problems, but these issues ar e only used to push t he plot forward and t hey are not ment ioned for thei r own value. Theme exists only in t he novel that seri ously atempts to r ef lect li fe f ai thfully or intends to r eveal tr ut h about l ife, or in t he novels t hat ar e based on ideas or theor ies of li fe. ( for exa mpl e, novels of i deas). Anot her misconcept ion about t heme is that he t heme is largely what the novel i s. Some peopl e di scard the novel when t hey think t hat hey have got the theme. It shoul d be made cl ear that the novel i s not wr it ten to convey an idea but t o convey an i dea arti st ical ly. The novel is a work of ar t wher eas the theme is only an abstr act idea. An anal ogy fr om dail y li fe may help clari fy this question. People al need vitamins and get them f rom var ious kinds of veget ables and f ruits. Onl y those with defi ci ency of one kind or anot her have t o take vit ami n pi l s t o get the requir ed amount. The di ference bet wen the theme and the novel is much like that betwen the vitamins and t he vegetabl es. The reader somet imes finds that the theme of anovel is simi lar t o or even the same as what he has alr eady known about lif e and that he is stil l fascinat ed by the novel . Theme appeals solely t o the intelectual level of r eading whi le the novel as a whole mainly appeal s to the emot ional level. Another pi tfal concer ni ng t he t heme is to conf use atheme wi th moral or leson. Usualy, a mor al or a l esson i s t he advi ce stated or impli ed i n a parable or f abl e. It is something of a r ule by which one can regulate his behavi or . For example , “Be kind to your nei ghbor s, ” or “Honesty i s t he best pol icy. ” But a theme i s mor e pl icat ed t han this as a novel is t o enhance one’s awar enes of l if e rather than sim pl 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 ec t to presume that one novel has onl y one theme. In s